About

I am an Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity in the School of Interdisciplinary Informatics (Si2) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO), where I am teaching CYBR 8470: Secure Web Application Development. 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

• 2026

  • ACM CCS

    • Beyond the Buzzword: How do Professionals Understand and Translate Zero Trust?
      Acceptance rate: TBD
      Ananta Soneji, Souradip Nath, Moritz Schloegel, Yan Shoshitaishvili, Gail-Joon Ahn, Adam Doupé, and Carlos Rubio-Medrano.
      In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS ’26), November 15–19, 2026, The Hague, Netherlands.
    • Do Hackers Dream of Electric Teachers?: A Large-Scale, In-Situ Measurement of Cybersecurity Student Behaviors and Educational Performance with AI Tutors
      Acceptance rate: TBD
      Michael Tompkins, Nihaarika Agarwal, Ananta Soneji, Robert Wasinger, Connor Nelson, Kevin Leach, Rakibul Hasan, Adam Doupé, Daniel Votipka, Yan Shoshitaishvili, and Jaron Mink.
      In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS ’26), November 15–19, 2026, The Hague, Netherlands.
    • When Scammers Talk Back: Understanding Potentially Unwanted Calls via LLM-Based Interaction
      Acceptance rate: TBD
      In Proceedings of the 2026 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS ’26), November 15–19, 2026, The Hague, Netherlands.

  • ACM CHI

    • 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.

  • NDSS

    • 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.

• 2025

  • IEEE CIC

    • 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.

  • IEEE Security & Privacy

    • ''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

  • ACM CHI

    • 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.

• 2024

  • ACM CCS

    • 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.

  • USENIX Security

    • ''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)

  • IEEE Security & Privacy

    • ''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.

• 2023

  • ACM CHI

    • ''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.

• 2022

  • IEEE Security & Privacy

    • ''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.

• 2019

  • ACM CCS

    • 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.

Professional Service