Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Improving Personal Account Security

NSF Award Search · 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $200,000 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

This project focuses on the design of secure account management tools and frameworks, advancing the science of digital account security and fostering safer digital ecosystems for people who face targeted attacks. Online accounts increasingly play a central role in people’s wellbeing, acting as the gateway to email, finances, social networks, geographic locations, and even domestic home environments. However, a growing amount of evidence suggests that people who face heightened threats to their digital safety are often targeted by abusive adversaries; adversaries who bypass trusted authentication mechanisms for unauthorized access to victim accounts, enabling further harassment, surveillance, and control. The research agenda has four aims. The first will lead to a better understanding of experiences of targets such attacks, support professionals, and abusive adversaries through qualitative, stakeholder investigations. The second will complement this knowledge by cataloguing existing management tools and emerging authentication mechanisms as provided by online services via new forms of measurement studies and new framework for analyzing the abusability of account management tools. The third will offer new designs of account management tools to improve detection and investigation into illicit accesses, refining them via design provocation studies with relevant stakeholders. The fourth will create new empirically-grounded interventions for the targets to restore their digital

Key facts

NSF award ID
2452614
Awardee
New York University (NY)
SAM.gov UEI
NX9PXMKW5KW8
PI
Rosanna F Bellini
Primary program
01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
SaTC: Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace, Human factors for security research, MEDIUM PROJECT
Estimated total
$200,000
Funds obligated
$200,000
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
07/01/2025 → 06/30/2028