EECS Faculty Candidate Seminar: Miuyin Wong

Cybersecurity Through the Lens of Practitioners: Bridging Technical Innovation and Human Expertise

Abstract

Cybersecurity professionals are responsible for defending the digital systems we rely on, yet advances in security technology do not always address the challenges they encounter in practice. At the same time, emerging technologies are reshaping how these individuals work and the expertise they need to remain effective. Together, these challenges raise two important questions: How can we develop security technologies that better address practitioners' real-world needs, and how can we prepare the cybersecurity workforce for the changing demands of their work?

In this talk, I will demonstrate how empirical research can help address these questions by uncovering challenges and research opportunities that technical evaluations alone may overlook. First, drawing on my research with professional malware analysts, I will show how investigating their workflows and technical challenges revealed misalignments between academic research and practice, and how these findings informed LUMEN, an LLM-assisted malware-analysis system. Next, I will discuss my research on how AI is reshaping cybersecurity practice, revealing consequences that extend beyond technical performance to professional collaboration, knowledge sharing, and the development of expertise. These findings also motivate new questions about how to prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals for the changing demands of the field.

Biography

Miuyin Yong Wong is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2) at the University of Maryland. She received her PhD in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research lies at the intersection of cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, and AI, with a focus on understanding the challenges and needs of security practitioners. She aims to bridge the gap between cybersecurity research and practice by identifying overlooked challenges, informing technical innovation, and investigating how professional expertise must evolve alongside emerging technologies. Her work has appeared in leading security and dependable-systems venues, including ACM CCS, IEEE DSN, USENIX SOUPS, and ESORICS.