Associate Professor Nalin Arachchilage

Dr Nalin Arachchilage is an Associate Professor in Cyber Security in the School of Computing Technologies at RMIT University, Australia and a member of the RMIT University Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation (CCSRI). As part of his leadership role, he is currently overseeing the revamp of the Master of Cyber Security program at RMIT University, working collaboratively with other schools to develop a cutting-edge, culturally inclusive curriculum. He held an Honorary Associate Professorship in Cyber Security at the University of Warwick, UK. Besides, Nalin also serves as a Technical Advisor (Board of Advisors) to DEFSAFE Cyber Security Inc., New Zealand, where his responsibilities include providing technical advice/consultancies to develop various cyber-security-related products (e.g., novel training interventions) and other activities related to the advisor role at DEFSAFE Cyber Security Inc.

Previously, he was a Senior Lecturer (2021 - 2024) in Cyber Security at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he served as an Assistant Head of School (Research), and a Director and Coordinator of the Master of Professional Studies (MProfStuds) in Digital Security Programme. He was also a Senior Research Fellow in Cyber Security (2019 - 2021) at La Trobe University, Australia. Before joining La Trobe, Nalin worked as a Lecturer in Cyber Security (from 2015 to 2019) and then as a Visiting Researcher (2019 - 2021) in the School of Engineering and Information Technology of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), where he led the Usable Security Engineering research group. Nalin holds a PhD in Computer Science (Cyber Security) from Brunel University London, UK, where he developed a game design framework for teaching people how to protect themselves from phishing attacks. At Oxford University, he cut his teeth as a Postdoctoral Researcher in Systems Security Engineering (2013 - 2014) in the Department of Computer Science and then joined the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Usable Security and Privacy (2014 - 2015). Nalin's primary research interests are at the intersection of computer security, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Software Engineering, Information Systems Security, Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Serious Games, in an area known as Usable Security and Privacy Engineering. He has been serving on numerous world's leading cyber security and privacy conferences including several flagship conferences. Program Committee Member (usable security and privacy track): 

• ACM CCS - 2022, 2023, 2024
• AsiaCCS - 2023, 2024
• USEC 2025
• SOUPS - 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• CSCW [Associate Chair] - 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• ACM FAccT - 2022
• ACM CSCW Awards Committee member - 2023
• SOUPS Karat Award Chair - 2021
• USENIX SOUPS Mentor - 2020
• SOUPS Publicity Co-Chair - 2018, 2019
• EASE Poster Chair - 2019
• CHI 2019 Late Breaking Work - 2019

In his research, he applies HCI methods and concepts to the Cyber Security and Privacy domain. He also works on Secure Software Engineering (i.e., developer-centred) and Machine Learning for Cyber/Usable Security, specifically threat modelling through the cybercriminals' and end users' behavioural analysis. Nalin's research is interdisciplinary and he has published numerous articles at the world's leading conferences and high-impact journals. Notably, Nalin's recent work has made "a significant global impact" by improving the OWASP Enterprise Security API and Javadoc for the ESAPI Encoder interface - this will appear in their ESAPI 2.2.1.0 release [https://owasp.org]. Nalin has presented his research at Facebook Headquarters, Menlo Park, California, USA and collaborated with HP in a research capacity at the HP Lab, Bristol, UK. His research has been featured in numerous media outlets, including TV One New Zealand (tvnz 1 News), Sky News Australia, ABC TV, ABC News Radio, WIN TV Australia, 2GB 873 AM Radio, SYN Radio 90.7 FM, Daily Show on Radio 2SER 107.3, Choice - Australia, Guardian labs (sponsored by Intel Corporation, Australia), and UNSW TV. He has been an invited speaker for conferences both nationally and internationally. 

Nalin also worked on a number of "Visiting/Sessional" lecturing positions in Computer Science in the UK (Brunel University London, University of Bedfordshire, Westminster University, and Central Bedfordshire College), Canada (University of British Columbia), and Australia (Deakin University, Victoria University, and Central Queensland University (CQUniversity).

Nalin obtained a BSc (MIS) Hons from University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, and has completed a master's degree, MSc Information Management and Security at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. He is a Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) at Sun Microsystems (now Oracle), USA.

*** Please note: I actively seek to supervise good PhD/Masters/Hons research students at RMIT University, Australia. Please feel free to contact me at nalin.arachchilage@rmit.edu.au if you are interested.***