Virginia Franqueira

Dr Franqueira is a Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security at the University of Kent (UK) and the director of Kent’s Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE) – Gold award (2023-28), recognised by the National Centre of Cyber Security (NCSC, part of GCHQ).

She is also the Deputy Director (Education) of the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS).

Dr Franqueira has research experience mainly in three domains of cyber security: digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), adversarial behaviour (i.e., characteristics of adversaries), and human factors (i.e., cyber security awareness and education). Three cross-cutting themes of interest are: child sexual exploitation and abuse, technology-facilitated domestic abuse, and protection of children online.

Dr Franqueira has also been active in research related to security of cyber physical systems (i.e., IoT and autonomous vehicles) and risk management and governance (i.e., security metrics and security decision making).

Selected research projects:

• PI (Kent) for the project “Child-protection based strategies to fight against sexual abuse and exploitation crimes” (ALUNA), funded by the European Commission (Agreement No 101084929), 2023-2025 (24 months).
• Co-I (Kent) for the project “Novel Strategies to Fight Child Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking Crimes and Protect their Victims” (HEROES), funded by European Commission (H2020, Agreement No 101021801), 2021-2024 (36 months).
• Co-I for the project “A Pragmatic Approach for Generating Synthetic Data for Protecting Young People from Online Harm” funded by REPHRAIN, 2023-2024 (12 months).
• Co-I for the project “Technology-facilitated domestic abuse: A multidisciplinary examination of methods” funded by Home Office, 2021-2021 (4 months).

Dr Franqueira has teaching experience from three HEIs in the UK:
• Since 2019: University of Kent
• 2014-2019: University of Derby
• 2012-2014: University of Central Lancashire

At Kent, she teaches modules at master level related to digital forensics, and network security. 

Dr Franqueira welcomes applications related to the domains and themes mentioned above.

You can also check her Google Scholar and contact her if you have a concrete idea to discuss.

Dr Franqueira has been nominated as a member of the EURASIP (European Association for Signal Processing) Technical Area Committee on BForSec (Biometrics, Data Forensics, and Security), tenure 2023-2025.

She is a member of Board of Referees for the journal "Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation", and a technical program committee member of conferences such as ARES (since 2022) and DFRWS EU (since 2021).

She has been involved in organising workshops, such as the International Workshop on Digital Forensics (WSDF) series held at the ARES Conference since 2015, and in co-chairing conferences, such as the European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2023).

Dr Franqueira has been guest editor of special issues in international journals: [2024] Special Issue on “Fighting Cybersecurity Risks from a Multidisciplinary Perspective”, Journal of Universal Computer Science; [2023] Special Issue on “Deepfake Media in Case Investigations: Practical Implications, Interventions and Solutions”, Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation; [2019] Special Issue on “Security and Forensics of Internet of Things: Problems and Solutions,” IEEE Internet of Things Journal; and [2016] Special Issue on “Cyberharassment Investigation: Advances and Trends”, Journal of Digital Forensics, Security and Law.