I received my MCS and PhD degress in cryptography and computer security from the School of Computer Science, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). From 1998 till 2002 I was a research scientist at a computer security software company (Entrust) where I led code security reviews, designed new products, and created new IETF and W3C standards, primarily in authentication and key management. From 2002 till 2008 I worked for the Government of Canada where I designed new services (e.g., the "account recovery" service for the Government Online portal, used by more than six million citizens) and wrote the Government's ISO 9001-equivalent IT security standard.  I was a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh from 2008. In 2010 I became a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, and in 2015 I moved to Heriot-Watt University as an Associate Professor.

I am primarily interested in computer security, and in applying human-computer interaction (HCI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to solve computer security problems. I also apply fundamental security techniques to design, and attack modelling and analysis. For example, I have enumerated the attack space for partial passwords and the answers to challenge questions, and I have modelled attacks to implicit smartphone authentication. The results of my research include critical evaluations of current security solutions, the establishment of new security and usability methodologies, and the design of new security techniques. I currently apply these methods and techniques to authentication protocols, and mobile devices and networks, though I am very interested in broader applications of my research.