
Dr Ruba Abu-Salma
Deputy Head of the Cybersecurity Group
- Senior Lecturer in Computer Science
Research interests
- Computer science
Contact details
Biography
Ruba Abu-Salma is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Computer Science at King’s College London, affiliated with the Cybersecurity Group and Human-Centered Computing Group in the Department of Informatics. She is also Deputy Head of the Cybersecurity Group and Co-Champion of the department’s Security Hub. Her research is interdisciplinary, sitting at the intersection of cybersecurity, privacy, human-computer interaction (HCI), emerging technologies, and public policy. She uses computational and social science methods to understand and improve people’s security, privacy, and safety decision-making processes, with a focus on at-risk populations. Her work has been published at top-tier venues, including IEEE S&P (Oakland), USENIX Security, ACM CHI, and ACM TOCHI, and has been featured in national and international media outlets such as BBC News, BBC Women’s Hour, Financial Times, The Register, Euronews, The New York Times, CNET, Science News, and Politico.
Before joining King’s in 2021, Ruba was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Usable Security and Privacy Group at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) at the University of California, Berkeley, and in the PRIVATICS Team at INRIA Sophia Antipolis.
Ruba defended her doctoral thesis in December 2019, earning a PhD in Computer Science from University College London (UCL). Her dissertation focused on designing user-centered privacy-enhancing technologies. As a postgraduate student, she was supported by Google, a Marie-Skłodowska Curie Research Fellowship, and a Supporting Usability and Design in Security (SUDS) Fellowship from the Open Technology Fund (OTF). She also performed research at the Open Data Institute, Cambridge Cybercrime Centre, Brave, and Telefónica Research.
Research interests
- Cybersecurity
- Privacy-enhancing technologies
- Human-computer interaction (HCI)
- Usable security and privacy
- Privacy and human rights
Further information
Research

Health Hub
The Health Hub centres on computational characterisation of medically relevant study cases and data.
Security Hub
The Security Hub consolidates the research related to security

King's Cybersecurity Centre
An EPSRC-NCSC Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). It provides expertise on most areas of cyber security, it has a critical mass of researchers working on three main research themes and their interrelationship.
Centre for Technology and the Body
Stories of embodied technology: from the plough to the touchscreen

Human Centred Computing Research
The group is concerned with the design, development and evaluation of human computer systems.

Cyber Security Research Group
CSRG promotes research into cyber security bringing together experts from diverse disciplines.

Cybersecurity
The group studies design, modelling, analysis, verification and testing of networks and systems.
News
Smart home devices used to monitor domestic workers raise safety concerns
The growing use of smart home devices is undermining the privacy and safety of domestic workers.

Female health apps misuse highly sensitive data, study finds
The study revealed user data could be subject to access from law enforcement or security authorities.

International Women's Day 2023: Transforming technology for gender equality
In recognition of the United Nation’s 2023 International Women’s Day theme celebrating innovation and technology for gender equality, we shine a light on some...

Google funds project tackling risks of sharing personal data on female health apps
Researchers from the Department of Informatics will investigate how users can protect sensitive data in platforms such as period-tracking apps.

Data privacy concerns of migrant domestic workers
New research paper published

Research

Health Hub
The Health Hub centres on computational characterisation of medically relevant study cases and data.
Security Hub
The Security Hub consolidates the research related to security

King's Cybersecurity Centre
An EPSRC-NCSC Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). It provides expertise on most areas of cyber security, it has a critical mass of researchers working on three main research themes and their interrelationship.
Centre for Technology and the Body
Stories of embodied technology: from the plough to the touchscreen

Human Centred Computing Research
The group is concerned with the design, development and evaluation of human computer systems.

Cyber Security Research Group
CSRG promotes research into cyber security bringing together experts from diverse disciplines.

Cybersecurity
The group studies design, modelling, analysis, verification and testing of networks and systems.
News
Smart home devices used to monitor domestic workers raise safety concerns
The growing use of smart home devices is undermining the privacy and safety of domestic workers.

Female health apps misuse highly sensitive data, study finds
The study revealed user data could be subject to access from law enforcement or security authorities.

International Women's Day 2023: Transforming technology for gender equality
In recognition of the United Nation’s 2023 International Women’s Day theme celebrating innovation and technology for gender equality, we shine a light on some...

Google funds project tackling risks of sharing personal data on female health apps
Researchers from the Department of Informatics will investigate how users can protect sensitive data in platforms such as period-tracking apps.

Data privacy concerns of migrant domestic workers
New research paper published
