Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen
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Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Utah State University
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mahdi[dot]al[hyphen]ameen[at]usu[dot]edu
If to choose between the sunny and a rainy day,
it's the later – it comes with a rainbow.
If to choose between an open city and dense woods,
it's the later – it signals unseen mysteries.
If to choose between bicycle and a car,
may be, the later – on some days, I am very lazy.
If to choose between a free trip to the moon and
a walk in evening – just anywhere – with a friend I care,
it's always the later…because…it matters…
Studying Journalists to Identify Requirements for Usable, Secure, and Trustworthy Communication
As digital communication technologies improve, they help journalists perform an array of activities more quickly and effectively, however, also put them at the risk of cyber attacks. In this project, we aim to understand the challenges in secure communication between journalists and sources, and leverage that knowledge to design usable and secure tools for journalism profession, with a broader goal of extending these tools to other professions (e.g., lawyers, doctors) as well.
Publications
Susan E. McGregor, Elizabeth Watkins, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Kelly Caine, Franziska Roesner. When the Weakest Link is Strong: Secure Collaboration in the Case of the Panama Papers. In 26th USENIX Security Symposium. August 2017.
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Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Franziska Roesner, Kelly Caine, Susan McGregor. Creative and Set in Their Ways: Challenges of Security Sensemaking in Newsrooms. In USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI). August 2017.
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Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Franziska Roesner, Susan McGregor, Byron Lowens, Kelly Caine, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen. Sensemaking and Storytelling: Network Security Strategies for Collaborative Groups. In International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS). October-November, 2016.
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Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Byron Lowens, Susan E. McGregor, Kelly Caine. A First Look at the Security and Privacy Perceptions of Sources Who Discussed Sensitive Topics with Journalists. In Computation+Journalism Symposium. October 2017. [sp]
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Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Byron Lowens, Franziska Roesner, Susan E. McGregor, Kelly Caine. Evaluating Online Security Training for Journalists Through the Lens of Learning Science. In Computation+Journalism Symposium. October 2017. [sp]
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*sp: short paper/poster session