Adam J. Aviv

Associate Professor of Computer Science
The George Washington University


aaviv@gwu.edu

@adamaviv

SEH 5810

202-994-6569

I am on leave Fall 2022

About Me

I am an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the George Washington University. I have broad research interests, primarily in the area of computer security/cybersecurity, privacy, and usable security. Recently, I have been focusing on human factors in mobile authentication and oblivious access in the cloud.

I am the lead for the George Washington University/Usable Security and Privacy Lab (gwusec). If you are interested in joining the lab or collaborating on research, more information can be found there.

Interested in having me as a mentor for your PhD?

Yes! I am looking to accept two (or more) new PhD student to start in January 2023 and/or September 2023. If you are interested in applying, feel free to send me a short email with your research interests and background. Please ensure that your interests overlap with my research interests in usable security/privacy. I may not reply --- please do not take it personally as I get a lot of email -- but I promise to read your email.

Undergrad or masters student at GW interested in research?

Yes! I am always looking for motivated undergraduates and masters students at GW to do research. Shoot me an email.

Want to meet with me?

I offer public office hours on Tue/Wed/Thur (time permitting) -- schedule via Calendly.

News

  • New (May 2022) A new paper accepted to USENIX Security 2022
    • Peter Mayer, Collins Munyendo, Michelle L. Mazurek, and Adam J. Aviv. Why Users (Don't) Use Password Managers at a Large Educational Institution. USENIX Security Symposium (Sec'22). Aug, 2022.
  • New (April 2022) A new paper accepted to IEEE Security and Privacy 2022
    • Collins Munyendo, Yasemin Acar, and Adam J. Aviv. "Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures:" User Concerns with Mobile Loan Apps in Kenya. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy - Oakland’22. May, 2022
  • New (Feb 2022) A new paper accepted to USENIX Security 2022
    • Collins W. Munyendo, Philipp Markert, Alexandra Nisenoff, Miles Grant, Elena Korkes, Blase Ur, and Adam J. Aviv. "The Same PIN, Just Longer": On the (In)Security of Upgrading PINs from 4 to 6 Digits. USENIX Security Symposium (Sec'22). Aug, 2022.
  • New (Dec 2021) A new paper accepted to CHI 2022
    • Jaron Mink, Amanda Rose Yuile, Uma Pal, Adam J. Aviv and Adam Bates. Users can Deduce Sensitive Locations Protected by Privacy Zones on Fitness Tracking Apps. ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'22). May, 2022
  • New (Oct 2021) A new journal paper has been published at ACM TOPS
    • Philipp Markert, Daniel V. Bailey, Maximilian Golla, Markus Dürmuth, and Adam J. Aviv. On the Security of Smartphone Unlock PINs. ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS). Vol. 24 (4). ACM. Sep 2021
    • Open Access Article here
  • New (Sep 2021) A new paper accepted to USENIX Security 2022
    • David G. Balash, Xiaoyuan Wu, Miles Grant, Irwin Reyes, and Adam J. Aviv. Security and Privacy Perceptions of Third-Party Application Access for Google Accounts. 31st USENIX Security Symposium (Security'22). Aug, 2022.
  • New (June 2021) Three new publications at SOUPS 2021
    • Collins Munyendo, Miles Grant, Philipp Markert, Timothy J. Forman, and Adam J. Aviv. Using a Blocklist to Improve the Security of User Selection of Android Patterns. 17th Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (SOUPS '21)
    • David G. Balash, Dongkun Kim, Darika Shaibekova, Rahel A. Fainchtein, Micah Sherr, and Adam J. Aviv. Examining the Examiners: Students' Privacy and Security Perceptions of Online Proctoring Services. 17th Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (SOUPS '21)
    • Daniel V. Baily, Philipp Markert, and Adam J. Aviv. ``I have no idea what they're trying to accomplish:'' Enthusiastic and Casual Signal Users' Understanding of Signal PINs. 17th Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (SOUPS '21)
  • New (June 2021) Three new publications at USENIX Security 2021
    • Noel Warford, Collins W. Munyendo, Ashna Mediratta, Adam J. Aviv, and Michelle L. Mazurek. Strategies and Perceived Risks of Sending Sensitive Documents. 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21). USENIX Association. Aug 2021.
    • Florian Farke, David G. Balash, Maximilian Golla, Markus Dürmuth, and Adam J. Aviv. Are Privacy Dashboards Good for End Users? Evaluating User Perceptions and Reactions to Google's My Activity. 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21). USENIX Association. Aug 2021.
    • Flynn Wolf, Adam J. Aviv, and Ravi Kuber. Security Obstacles and Motivations for Small Businesses from a CISO’s Perspective. 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21). USENIX Association. Aug 2021.
  • New (Apr 2021) New publication at USENIX Security 2021
    • Peter Mayer, Yixin Zou, Florian Schaub, and Adam J. Aviv. "Now I'm a bit angry:" Individuals' Awareness, Perception, and Responses to Data Breaches that Affected Them. 30th USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 21). (Sec'21). USENIX Association. Aug 2021.
    • Article here
  • New (Feb 2021) New publication at NDSS 2021
    • Ian Martiny, Gabriel Kaptchuk, Adam J. Aviv, Daniel S. Roche, and Eric Wustrow. Improving Signal’s Sealed Sender. In the proceedings of the 2021 Network and Distributed Systems Symposium. NDSS'21. Feb 2021.
    • Article here
  • New (Nov 2020) I have two new conference articles to appear at PoPETS 2021
    • Hirak Ray, Flynn Wolf, Ravi Kuber, Adam J. Aviv. ``Warn Them'' or ``Just Block Them''?: Comparing Privacy Concerns of Older and Working Age Adults
    • Rahel A. Fainchtein, Adam A. Aviv, Micah Sherr, Stephen Ribaudo, and Armaan Khullar. Holes in the Geofence: Privacy Vulnerabilities in “Smart” DNS Services.
      • Expanded version of the paper available on the arxiv
  • New (Oct 2020) I have new conference article appearing at USENIX Sec'2021
    • Hirak Ray, Flynn Wolf, Ravi Kuber, Adam J. Aviv. Why Older Adults (Don't) Use Password Managers. In the proceedings of the 2021 USENIX Security Symposium. Aug. 2021.
  • New (Aug 2020) I have two new conference article appearing at ACSAC'2020
    • Timothy J. Forman and Adam J. Aviv. Double Patterns: A Usable Solution to Increase the Security of Android Unlock Patterns. In the proceedings of the 2020 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC'20). Dec. 2020.
    • Hassan Khan, Jason Ceci, Jonah Stegman, Adam J. Aviv, Rozita Dara, Ravi Kuber. Widely Reused and Shared, Infrequently Updated, and Sometimes Inherited: A Holistic View of PIN Authentication in Digital Lives and Beyond. In the proceedings of the 2020 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC'20). Dec. 2020.
  • New (Apr 2020) I have a new conference article appearing at SOUPS'2020
    • Raina Samuel, Philipp Markert, Adam J. Aviv, and Iulian Neamtiu. Knock, Knock. Who's There? On the Security of LG's Knock Codes. 2020 Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy (SOUPS'20). Pgs. 1-24. USENIX. 2020.
  • New (Feb. 2020) We have a new gwusec lab page!
  • New (Feb. 2020) Three new students are joining the research group at GW: David Balash, Nelson Jaimes, and Collins Munyendo. Welcome!
  • New (Nov. 2019) I have a new conference article appearing at IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland)
  • New (Nov. 2019) I've been awarded a Google Faculty Research Award for work on in-app authentication usage on Android.
  • New (Oct. 2019) USNA undergraduate Tim Forman and myself have an accepted Late Break Work paper accepted at CHI'20. .
    • Timothy J. Forman, Adam J. Aviv, and Daniel S. Roche. Twice as Nice? A Preliminary Evaluation of Double Android Unlock Patterns. To appear in CHI'20 Extended Abstracts.
  • I'm hiring I'm looking to admit 2 to 3 Ph.D. students in the next 2 years. Please reach out if you're interested.
  • New (Aug. 2019) I've been awarded the NSF CAREER award for my work on mobile authentication.
  • Big News (Jul 2019) I started a new position at GW