Profile

I am an incoming Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity in the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics (Si2) at the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO), starting Fall 2026. I earned my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Arizona State University, where I was advised by Dr. Adam Doupé in the SEFCOM Lab.

My research interests broadly lie in human-centered security and privacy. My goal is to understand how people and organizations shape—and are shaped by—security technologies, policies, and practices. To this end, I study security & privacy challenges across a variety of real-world settings, including online platforms, educational technology, security operation centers, research computing infrastructures, and AI-supported security.

Beyond my work in human-centered security, I am also passionate about metascience—the study of how (security & privacy) research is conducted, reviewed, and evaluated. My work explores topics such as peer review, publication practices, and scientific incentives, with the goal of strengthening the rigor, transparency, and long-term health of the security research community. To foster discussion around these topics, I founded and co-chaired MetaCRiSP (Metascience and Critical Reflections in Security & Privacy), a workshop dedicated to critically examining the research practices, evaluation processes, and community structures that shape the field.

At UNO, I am building a research group focused on human-centered security & privacy, human–AI collaboration in cybersecurity, and metascience research.

If you would like to work with me or have questions about my research, please feel free to get in touch.

Publications

1. Beyond the Buzzword: How do Professionals Understand and Translate Zero Trust?
   Ananta Soneji, Souradip Nath, Moritz Schloegel, Yan Shoshitaishvili, Gail-Joon Ahn, Adam Doupé, and Carlos Rubio-Medrano.
   To appear in Proceedings of the 2026 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2026.


2. Do Hackers Dream of Electric Teachers?: A Large-Scale, In-Situ Evaluation of Cybersecurity Student Behaviors and Performance with AI Tutors
   Michael Tompkins, Nihaarika Agarwal, Ananta Soneji, Robert Wasinger, Connor Nelson, Kevin Leach, Rakibul Hasan, Adam Doupé, Daniel Votipka, Yan Shoshitaishvili, and Jaron Mink. (arXiv)


3. I Can SE Clearly Now: Investigating the Effectiveness of GUI-based Symbolic Execution for Software Vulnerability Discovery
   Acceptance rate: 25.3%
   Yi Jou Li, Zeming Yu, James A. Mattei, Ananta Soneji, Zhibo Sun, Ruoyu Wang, Jaron Mink, Daniel Votipka, and Tiffany Bao.
   In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’26), Barcelona, Spain, April 2026.


4. Decompiling the Synergy: An Empirical Study of Human–LLM Teaming in Software Reverse Engineering
   🏆 Distinguished Paper Award, Acceptance rate: 17.8%
   Zion Leonahenahe Basque, Samuele Doria, Ananta Soneji, Wil Gibbs, Adam Doupé, Yan Shoshitaishvili, Eleonora Losiouk, Ruoyu Wang, and Simone Aonzo.
   In Proceedings of the Symposium on Network and Distributed System Security (NDSS), San Diego, CA, Feb 2026.


5. Towards Collaboration-Aware Resource Sharing in Research Computing Infrastructures
   Souradip Nath, Ananta Soneji, Jaejong Baek, Carlos Rubio-Medrano, and Gail-Joon Ahn.
   In Proceedings of the 11th IEEE International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (IEEE CIC ’25), Pittsburgh, PA, Nov 2025.


6. ''It’s almost like Frankenstein'': Investigating the Complexities of Scientific Collaboration and Privilege Management within Research Computing Infrastructures
   Acceptance rate: ~14.8%
   Souradip Nath*, Ananta Soneji*, Jaejong Baek, Tiffany Bao, Adam Doupé, Carlos Rubio-Medrano, and Gail-Joon Ahn.
   In Proceedings of the 46th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland), San Francisco, CA, May 2025.
   * Equal Contribution


7. Investigating the Security & Privacy Risks from Unsanctioned Technology Use by Educators
   Easton Kelso, Ananta Soneji, Syed Zami-Ul-Haque Navid, Yan Shoshitaishvili, Sazzadur Rahaman, and Rakibul Hasan.
   In Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’25), April 26–May 01, 2025, Yokohama, Japan.


8. Trust, Because You Can’t Verify: Privacy and Security Hurdles in Education Technology Acquisition Practices
   Acceptance rate: 331/1964, 16.9%
   Easton Kelso, Ananta Soneji, Sazzadur Rahaman, Yan Shoshitaishvili, and Rakibul Hasan.
   In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS ’24), October 14–18, 2024, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.


9. ''I feel physically safe but not politically safe'': Understanding the Digital Threats and Safety Practices of OnlyFans Creators
   pdf talk Acceptance rate: 417/2276, 18.32%
   Ananta Soneji, Vaughn Hamilton, Adam Doupé, Allison McDonald, Elissa M. Redmiles.
   In 33st USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24)


10. ''Watching over the shoulder of a professional'': Why hackers make mistakes and how they fix them
    Acceptance rate: 258/1449, ~17.8%
    Irina Ford, Ananta Soneji, Faris Bugra Kokulu, Jayakrishna Vadayath, Zion Leonahenahe Basque, Gaurav Vipat, Adam Doupé, Ruoyu Wang, Gail-Joon Ahn, Tiffany Bao, and Yan Shoshitaishvili.
    In Proceedings of the 45th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland), San Francisco, CA, May 2024.


11. ''Nudes? Shouldn't I charge for these?'': Motivations of New Sexual Content Creators on OnlyFans
    🏆 Honorable Mention (top 5%), Acceptance rate: 27.6%
    Vaughn Hamilton, Ananta Soneji, Allison McDonald, Elissa M. Redmiles.
    In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23), Hamburg, Germany, April 2023.


12. ''Flawed, but like democracy we don't have a better system'': The Experts’ Insights on the Peer Review Process of Evaluating Security Papers
    pdf talk Acceptance rate: 147/1012, ~14.52%
    Ananta Soneji, Faris Bugra Kokulu, Carlos Rubio-Medrano, Tiffany Bao, Ruoyu Wang, Yan Shoshitaishvili, and Adam Doupé.
    In Proceedings of the 43rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (Oakland), San Francisco, CA, May 2022.


13. Matched and Mismatched SOCs: A Qualitative Study on Security Operations Center Issues
    Acceptance rate: 149/934, ~16%
    Faris Bugra Kokulu, Ananta Soneji, Tiffany Bao, Yan Shoshitaishvili, Ziming Zhao, Adam Doupé, and Gail-Joon Ahn.
    In 2019 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS ’19), November 11–15, 2019, London, United Kingdom.

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
2019 - 2026

MCS in Computer Science
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
2017 - 2019

B.Tech. (Honours) in ICT
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gujarat, India
2013 - 2017