Biography
Conor Gilsenan is a PhD student at UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences where he studies the usability and impact of account recovery mechanisms on users’ adoption and acceptance of multi-factor authentication. In addition, he investigates possible modes of account recovery and client-side solutions to 2FA usability at an industrial level. He also gives talks on cyber security issues, particularly 2FA technology, at cybersecurity conferences, including Secure World.
Over the last decade, Conor worked at Booz Allen Hamilton, the National Security Agency, and Virtru in technical and software lead roles, and also designed browser extensions Two Factory Buddy and 2FA Notifier. Both improve the secure experience of web users while remaining in the browser, unlike methods such as two-factor authentication, which require a second device. Conor also acts as a Security UX Consultant to tech companies on how to maintain best security practices without sacrificing optimal user experience.
CLTC Grant Projects
- Increasing the Usability of Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Recovery Mechanisms (2022)
