Department of Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

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Faculty Search

The Department of Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics welcomes applications for a tenure-line faculty position with a focus on Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. The appointment will be at the assistant or associate professor rank, with an anticipated start date of July 2026 at the University Park campus. Apply by November 15, 2025.

View Job Posting

Who We Are

Our work in Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics takes an interdisciplinary approach to detecting and removing threats of cyberattacks, enhancing predictability and trust, and understanding online privacy and information manipulation. Our programs and research methodology is rooted in several disciplines, including computer science, applied mathematics, cognitive science, control theory, economics, social sciences, and public policy. Specifically, we conduct research to understand issues and seize opportunities in systems and software security, usability considerations in privacy and security, economics of information security, and data-driven security, among many others.

Interim Department Head: Dongwon Lee, professor

An NSA National Center of Academic Excellence

Penn State has been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD) through 2028. This designation requires participating institutions to pass rigorous curriculum and program requirements, demonstrating research and education capacities at the highest levels.

NSA CAE-CD Designation

P&CI Undergraduate Degrees

B.S., Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations

Protect information, discover security vulnerabilities, and communicate the risks and impacts of cyberattacks.

A person looks at a tablet in a server room.

B.S., Information Sciences and Technology

Understand core information technologies, their practical applications, and their impact on our world.

A person reviews emergency response information on a computer.

B.S., Security and Risk Analysis

Address the security and risk challenges facing individuals, organizations, and the nation.

P&CI Graduate Degrees

M.S., Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations

Deepen cybersecurity insights by blending technology, incident response, strategic planning and crisis management.

IT professionals working together to review analytics.

M.P.S., Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations

Blend education relating to technology, incident response, strategic planning, and crisis management to better protect digital information from attacks.

College-wide Graduate Degrees

M.S., Informatics

Build an understanding of how information and technology impacts and are impacted by people, organizations, and the world community.

Ph.D., Informatics

Learn how to analyze qualitative and quantitative effects in data and to understand, test, and contribute to scientific theory.

Minhao Cheng

Assistant Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

mmc7149@psu.edu

814-863-2945

Dave Fusco

Associate Teaching Professor and Director of Master's Programs
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

djf3@psu.edu

814-867-5862

Nicklaus Giacobe

Associate Teaching Professor and Coordinator, B.S. in Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

nxg13@psu.edu

814-865-8233

Edward Glantz

Teaching Professor and Director of Master's Programs
• Graduate Programs
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

ejg8@psu.edu

814-865-3680

Dongwon Lee

Professor and Interim Head of Department, Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

dul13@psu.edu

814-865-0687

Admin: Victoria Prewitt-Rodriguez

Peng Liu

Raymond G. Tronzo, MD Professor of Cybersecurity
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

pxl20@psu.edu

814-863-0641

Mohamed Meky

Associate Teaching Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

mmm7959@psu.edu

814-863-2454

Henry Moeller

Assistant Teaching Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

hbm103@psu.edu

814-867-4437

Kathleen Moore

Associate Teaching Professor and Coordinator, B.S. in Security and Risk Analysis
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

kam6015@psu.edu

814-865-7884

Funminiyi Olajide

Associate Teaching Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

fao5115@psu.edu

Matt Ruff

Lecturer
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

mvr5567@psu.edu

Chris Sebora

Lecturer and Coordinator, B.S. in Information Sciences and Technology
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

cts32@psu.edu

814-865-4760

Tanusree Sharma

Assistant Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

tfs5747@psu.edu

Anna Squicciarini

Frymoyer Chair in Information Sciences and Technology
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

acs20@psu.edu

814-863-7614

Joseph Squillace

Associate Teaching Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

jms10943@psu.edu

Dinghao Wu

Dewey Walker Professor in IST
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

duw12@psu.edu

814-867-3612

Aiping Xiong

Associate Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

axx29@psu.edu

814-865-2370

Yuchen Yang

Assistant Professor
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

yfy5369@psu.edu

Dongyan Zhang

Lecturer
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

dbz5151@psu.edu

Our research cuts across traditional boundaries to drive interdisciplinary discovery and innovation. Projects are sponsored by a variety of national and international agencies, and we collaborate with diverse groups of scholars within and beyond Penn State. Explore our funded projects to see how IST's transformative research is addressing the world's most complex problems at the intersection of information, technology, and society.

View All Active Projects

NSF Student Travel Grant for 2024 ISOC Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (VehicleSec)

The Internet Society Symposium on Vehicle Security and Privacy (ISOC VehicleSec) is an emerging venue for research around new theories, technologies, and systems that address the security and privacy issues that arise as vehicles become increasingly autonomous and connected. This award will...

Researcher

Aiping Xiong

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: SaTC: CORE: Medium: Cyber-threat Detections and Diagnosis in Multistage Manufacturing Systems through Cyber and Physical Data Analytics

In modern multistage manufacturing systems, with increased software-defined automation and control as well as monitoring of manufacturing assets across networks, exposure to cyber-attacks also grows. The cyber-threats may compromise the integrity of manufacturing assets (manufacturing systems and...

Researcher

Peng Liu

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

REU: CAREER: Advanced Trace-oriented Binary Code Analysis

Binary code analysis is very attractive from a security viewpoint. First, in many tasks such as malware analysis, software plagiarism detection, and vulnerability exploration, the source code of the program under examination is often absent, and the analysis has to be done on binary code...

Researcher

Dinghao Wu

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

SaTC: CORE: Small: Automatic Identification of Privilege-guard Variables for Data-only Attacks and Defenses

As cyber attackers are always exploring novel, low-cost hacking vectors to bypass current defenses, security researchers should examine the remaining threats comprehensively in order to develop effective defenses in advance. Within program memory, attackers are shifting their attentions from...

Researcher

Hong Hu

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

SaTC: CORE: Small: Collaborative: Understanding and Detecting Memory Bugs in Rust

Rust is a young programming language designed for systems software development. Its main design goal is to achieve runtime performance as good as C while offering better memory and thread safety using a linear type system and strict compile-time checking. Rust has become increasingly popular...

Researcher

Hong Hu

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

DoD Cyber Scholarship Program (CYSP)

Cybersecurity is considered so important to our national defense that a formal DoD Scholarship program was established by the National Defense Authorization Act for 2001 (Public Law 106- 398). The purpose is to promote the education, recruitment, and retention of rising junior and senior...

Researchers

Michael Hills
Nicklaus Giacobe

Sponsoring Agency

Washington Headquarters Services (DOD)

CAREER: Enhancing Practical Defense Mechanisms against Memory Errors and Attacks

Given the constant threat of software vulnerabilities and malicious attacks, the computer security community is always working on improving defense mechanisms for real-world use. At the same time, they also need to make sure these defenses can stand up to determined attackers who are ready to...

Researcher

Hong Hu

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

EAGER: SaTC AI-Cybersecurity: SAGA: A Framework for Developing Attributable Cybersecurity Case Studies

We propose a flexible framework, named as SAGA, where scholars can easily create cybersecurity case studies (similar to business case studies) that have AI components. Further, by adopting the notion of “citation” in academic world and implementing it using public platforms (e.g., arXiv, Github,...

Researcher

Dongwon Lee

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: SaTC: EDU: A Curriculum for Watermarking AI-Generated Content: Theory, Algorithms, and Testing

Despite its societal benefits, generative AI also raises many societal and legal concerns. For instance, it may be abused to generate harmful content and boost disinformation campaigns. Watermark-based detection of AI-generated content is a key technology to address these societal and legal...

Researcher

Jinyuan Jia

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

Penn State CyberCorps Scholarship for Service Program

Through the Federal Cyber Corps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program, Penn State provides scholarships to outstanding students studying in the field of Cybersecurity (broadly defined). Each scholarship recipient will complete either a Bachelor, Master, or Ph.D. degree in diverse...

Researchers

Dongwon Lee
Peter Forster
Anna Squicciarini
Nicklaus Giacobe

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

CAREER: Enabling Driver Situation Awareness across Physical and Cyber Spaces via Usable and Trustworthy V2X Communication

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is one of the key pillars upon which connected and automated vehicles rest. In V2X, vehicles communicate directly with other road users and infrastructure, allowing perception of road conditions and driving environment beyond their own sensors, in turn...

Researcher

Aiping Xiong

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

CAREER: Rethinking Toolchain Design for Rust

As a young programming language, Rust features its safety and performance. The key innovation of Rust is to rule out memory bugs and concurrency bugs through strict safety checks during compilation, while keeping the runtime performance of its compiled programs as good as C programs. Rust's...

Researcher

Hong Hu

Sponsoring Agency

National Science Foundation

DISCOVER: Digital Twin for Security and Code Verification

Researcher

Dinghao Wu

Sponsoring Agency

U.S. Department of Energy

: Our research centers, labs, and groups include national and international scholars who cover a broad spectrum of research areas. The diversity of our research is driven by a spirit for interdisciplinary collaboration that advances discovery at the intersection of information, technology, and society. In addition to our own facilities, we leverage relationships with related centers and labs across Penn State.

View All Centers and Labs

Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

The Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AAI Lab) conducts foundational and applied research on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. Our projects explore the applications of AI in cyber-physical systems with a focus on smart and connected communities and critical infrastructure (e.g., transportation and energy) and in cybersecurity.

Software Systems Security Laboratory

The Software Systems Security Laboratory explores the broad area of software systems, including software security, protection, analysis, verification, software and information assurance, programming languages, and software engineering. Our research improves the practice of software design and implementation by creating high assurance secure computing and information platforms and systems, improving software and systems security, developing innovative software analysis and verification technologies, and promoting rigorous and secure software engineering practice.

AI for Cyber Security through Big Data

Harvesting big data related to cyber security using AI requires the identification of (1) use-inspired problems that can be addressed using AI, and (2) cyber security challenges that require the advancement of fundamental topics in AI. This research lab aims to achieve both goals by leveraging related real-world big data.

Center for Cyber-Security, Information Privacy, and Trust

The Center for Cyber-Security, Information Privacy, and Trust—also known as the LIONS Center—conducts interdisciplinary research in cybersecurity and privacy. We pursue projects that detect and remove threats of information misuse to the human society, mitigate risk, reduce uncertainty, and enhance predictability and trust. Our goal is to play a leading role in helping Penn State pursue security and risk research and development opportunities for the Department of Homeland Security, National Security Agency, and Department of Defense.

Cyber Security Laboratory

The Cyber Security Laboratory aims to advance leading cybersecurity knowledge and discovery across a variety of domains. Current and past projects have explored attack-resilient automated control of unmanned aerial vehicles, privacy protection in social networks, software plagiarism detection, classification and attribution of malware analysis, security issues related to Internet of Things devices, computer-aided human centric cyber situation awareness, and proactive worm containment, among many others.

HAX Lab

The primary mission of HAX Lab is to build and enhance online learning environments by contributing to the hax.psu.edu web service. This open-source community provides free services to anyone at the University. We welcome contributors from all backgrounds and interests and are committed to developing a sustainable ecosystem of advanced web-building solutions that are ultimately costs-less, portable, and easy for faculty, students, staff, and developers to dream with. Our community's work includes programming (full stack), UI/UX design, Data Sciences/AI, learning design, education technology development, and more.

P&CI News

Read All News

December 19, 2025

IST researchers well-represented at international AI conference

<p>The College of Information Sciences and Technology presented awards to faculty and staff at its annual holiday celebration, held Dec. 17 at the Hintz Family Alumni Center.</p>

December 18, 2025

IST recognizes faculty and staff at annual awards ceremony

college students walking with campus building in background

November 11, 2025

IST announces fall 2025 teaching grant awardees

<p>In this Q&A, faculty members from the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology discussed what cybersecurity is, how it's evolving and what the average person can do to secure their data. </p>

October 21, 2025

Department of Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics

Faculty Search

Who We Are

An NSA National Center of Academic Excellence

P&CI Undergraduate Degrees

B.S., Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations

B.S., Information Sciences and Technology

B.S., Security and Risk Analysis

P&CI Graduate Degrees

M.S., Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations

M.P.S., Cybersecurity Analytics and Operations

College-wide Graduate Degrees

M.S., Informatics

Ph.D., Informatics

P&CI News

IST researchers well-represented at international AI conference

IST recognizes faculty and staff at annual awards ceremony

IST announces fall 2025 teaching grant awardees

Cybersecurity Awareness Month Q&A: Why pay attention to cybersecurity?

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