Melanie Knieps currently researches trust in cybersecurity settings and the darknet. Since 2021, she is a postdoc at the Digital Society Initiative at the University of Zurich. As part of a multidisciplinary research team, she works in the project “Promoting trust in cybersecurity through ethics and law” which aims to provide data, insights, and recommendations on non-technical aspects of cybersecurity.

Nico Ebert has a background in information systems and is a senior researcher/lecturer in the Cybersecurity and Process Management group at the Institute for Business Information Systems at ZHAW. His research interest is human factors in data protection and information security. He is a fan of applied and interdisciplinary research that combines expertise from computer science, information systems, psychology, and other areas. Nico holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of St. Gallen and is on the Swiss Association for Corporate Data Protection (VUD) advisory board.

Leyla Ciragan is the DSI Cybersecurity Community Manager and Project Coordinator of CYREN^ZH. At CYREN^ZH, she is also responsible for the development of educational programs in the area of cybersecurity. She studied German Linguistics and Literature, Political Science and Film Studies at the Universities of Zurich, Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Cornell University (New York) and received her PhD in 2008. In 2022 she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and has been working to deepen her knowledge in the field of cyber security ever since.

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the ZHAW and UZH, working on behavioural and organizational aspects of cybersecurity. Previously I worked at Eawag, leading a research project in WaSH of an international consortium. Having completed studies in Social Psychology, Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology and holding a PhD in Health Psychology of the University of Bern, my research focuses on the behaviour of individuals and organizations. I am particularly interested in behaviour change processes concerning sustainable use, greater acceptance, and increased stewardship behaviour towards shared resources and technologies. For this, I conduct research on the concept of psychological ownership and systematic behaviour change frameworks on individual and organizational level, using interdisciplinary approaches and qualitative and quantitative methods.

Thierry Schaltegger is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich. His background is in Psychology and Economics and his doctoral research is focused on the role of the human factor in cybersecurity. The main interests of his research are decision making under uncertainty, risk and behavioral economics. He is a team member of the DSI-Project “CYREN ZH” which aims to bridge the gap between research and practice to increase the cyber resilience of the canton of Zurich.