Usable Security and Privacy (USP) Lab

The Usable Security and Privacy (USP) Lab is within the Information Group (ISG) at Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL). Our team brings together dedicated post-doctoral researchers, PhD and MSc students, and expert collaborators across academia, industry, charities, and government. Apart from our research and teaching, we organise an annual event called CyberMi2 Research Day. See CyberMi2'23, CyberMi2'24, CyberMi2'25, and CyberMi2'26.

*News*: We won the RHUL 2026 University Team of the Year (Education Excellence Award) for our innovative methods for inclusive research and empowering women in STEM.

We are proud to share our work with the world. Our latest output is the Tech Abuse Handbook for victims and survivors of tech abuse in domestic settings. You can read about it here. For other outputs of the Lab, please visit here. You can read about our approach and practices here. 

Examples of past projects are CyFer and AGENCY. 

Leadership Team

Dr Maryam Mehrnezhad is a Reader (Associate Professor) at the ISG, RHUL. With a background in Systems Security, she is interested in the intersection of security and society, and is currently directing the USP Lab. 

Dr Waleed Shahid is an Assistant Professor at the ISG, RHUL.With a background in Systems Security, he is interested in the intersection of security and accessibility.

Research Associates (RA)

Dr Taylor Robinson (RHUL, 2023-now), Research Assistant/Associate (Tech Abuse, CyberAccess, and SPRITE+ projects):

• With Rebecca Jones and Sophie Hawkes, User Risk Perceptions and Privacy Attitudes towards Menopause Data Collection and Use, ACM Transactions on Social Computing, 2026

Previous RAs: 

Dr Adriano Bermudez Villalva (RHUL, 2022-2025), Research Fellow (AGENCY and CyFer projects):

• Measuring Online Hate on 4chan Using Pre-Trained Deep Learning Models, IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society, 2025

• Dataset: Measuring Online Hate on 4chan Using Pre-Trained Deep Learning Models, 2025

Dr Scott Harper (Surrey, 2024-2025), Research Assistant (working with Ehsan Toreini, AGENCY project):

• Android vs iOS in Smart Security Camera Privacy, Agency blog post, 2025

Stephen Cook (RHUL, 2022-23), Research Assistant (CyFer project):

• Bluetooth Security Analysis of General and Intimate Health IoT Devices and Apps: the Case of FemTech, International Journal of Information Security, 2024

• The Importance of Collective Privacy in Digital Sexual and Reproductive Health, UK Fertility Conference, 2024

Dr Laura Shipp (Newcastle, 2022), Research Assistant (CyFer project):

• Bodies Like Yours: Enquiring Data Privacy in FemTech, ACM NordicCHI, 2022

• Vision: Too Little too Late? Do the Risks of FemTech already Outweigh the Benefits?, EuroUSEC, 2022

Zeynep Aki (Newcastle, 2021), Research Assistant,focusingon a privacy-preserving ML-based face mask recognition system during Covid. 

PhD Students

Jorele Simons (RHUL,2025-now), main supervisor with Christian Weinert. Topic: SMEs and Social Media. 

Rebecca Jones (RHUL, CDT'23-now), main supervisor. Topic: FemTech. 

• Narratives of Menopause Tech Cybersecurity, Safety and Privacy in the UK, NordiCHI, 2025

Sophie Hawkes (RHUL, CDT'22-now), second supervisor with Christian Weinert. Topic: PETs. 

• Perceptual Hash Inversion Attacks on Image-Based Sexual Abuse Removal Tools, IEEE S&P Magazine, 2024

James Clarke (University of Surrey'22-now), external advisor with Ehsan Toreini. Topic: Accessibility. 

• AXECC: Benchmarking the Privacy and Accessibility Impact of Browser Extensions, ACM Transactions on Security and Privacy, 2026

• Invisible, Unreadable, and Inaudible Cookie Notices: An Evaluation of Cookie Notices for Users with Visual Impairments, ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 2024

Previous PhD Students: 

Dr Scott Harper (Newcastle, 2020-24) main supervisor, with Matt Leach, PhD title: On the Security and Privacy of Animal Technologies. 

• Are Our Animals Leaking Information About Us? Security and Privacy Evaluation of Animal-related Apps, SSR (IEEE EuroS&PW), 2022

• Security and Privacy Concerns of Pet-Tech Users, STaR-IoT (IoT Conference Workshop), 2022

• Security and Privacy of Pet Technologies: Actual Risks vs User Perception, Journal of Frontiers in Internet of Things, 2023

• International News Coverage including the Telegraph, CBS News, Naked Scientists, La Opinión, Crumpe, etc. 

Dr Dante Gray (RHUL, 2019-24) main supervisor, with Rishad Shafik, PhD title: On the Security of IoT Sensors. 

• PhotonKey: A Key Pairing System for IoT Resource and Input Constrained Devices Using Light Sensors, Journal of Information Security and Applications, 2025

• SenSig: Practical IoT Sensor Fingerprinting Using Calibration Data, SSR (IEEE EuroS&PW), 2022

• Verifying the Identity of a Device via Sensor Calibration Data, UK Patent application, 2022

Dr Rawan Taher (Newcastle, 2019-24) supervisory team, with Charles Morisset and John Mace, PhD title: A Trust-Based Mechanism to Manage User Privacy in University Smart Buildings. 

• “I feel spied on and I don't have any control over my data": User Privacy Perception, Preferences and Trade-offs in University Smart Buildings, STAST'22

Dr Naoom Abu Abah (Newcastle, 2020-24) supervisory team, with Charles Morisset, PhD title: "Human as a Sensor" in Incident Reporting Systems in a Smart Spaces,

• U-Sense: Feasibility Study of “Human as a Sensor” in Incident Reporting Systems in a Smart Campus, STAST, 2023

Selected MSc Projects 

For the complete list, see here. 

• Cheok Ieng Ng (RHUL, 2024), Security and Privacy Evaluation of IP Cameras on Shodan, SSR, 2025

• Diana P. Moniz (Lisbon, Supervised by Teresa Almeida, 2023), Intimate Data: Exploring Perceptions of Privacy and Privacy-Seeking Behaviors Through the Story Completion Method, IFIP, 2023

• Joshua Harrison (Durham, Supervised by Ehsan Toreini, 2023), A Practical Deep Learning-Based Acoustic Side Channel Attack on Keyboards, SLIM, (IEEE Euro S&P), 2023

• James Clarke (Newcastle, 2021), Invisible, Unreadable, and Inaudible Cookie Notices: An Evaluation of Cookie Notices for Users with Visual Impairments, ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, 2023

• Scott Harper (Newcastle, 2020), Paper: User Privacy Concerns and Preferences in Smart Buildings, STAST, 2021, and User Privacy Concerns in Commercial Smart Buildings, Journal of Computer Security, 2022

• Chris Makarouna (Newcastle, 2019), Paper: Risks of Mobile Ambient Sensors and User Awareness, Concerns, and Preferences, EuroUSEC, 2022

Collaborators

Dr Christian Weinert, Cryptography, ISG, RHUL, UK

Dr Ehsan Toreini, Systems Security, Samsung R&D, UK, and Visiting Professor, University of Surrey, UK

Dr Teresa Almeida, HCI, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon | ITI/LARSyS

Dr Jennifer Pybus, Data, Democracy and AI, York University, Canada

Prof Aad van Moorsel, School of Computing Science, Birmingham University, UK

Previous Collaborators:

Prof Mike Catt, Newcastle University (Digital Health), UK

Dr Matt Leach, Newcastle University (School of Natural and Environmental Sciences), UK

Joe Bourne, The Alan Turing Institute, Lancaster University (Institute for the Contemporary Arts), UK

Dr Thyla van der Merwe, Google, Zurich, Switzerland (formerly at ETH Zurich)

Dr Kovial Coopamootoo, KCL (Usable Security and Privacy), UK

Prof Rishad Shafik, Newcastle University (Engineering), UK

Prof Feng Hao, Warwick University (Cryptography), UK