Rachel Sitarz, a CERIAS Ph.D. candidate in cyber forensics, was awarded the Women in Security Academic Excellence Award by Duo Security. The Women in Security Awards recognize exceptional contributions to the fields of information security and privacy in commercial and academic domains. Sitarz was awarded a $2,500 stipend and a full briefing pass to BlackHat USA 2015. Press release at Duo Security

More about Rachel

Rachel Sitarz is a PhD student in Cyber Forensics at Purdue University. She studies under the guidance of Dr. Marcus Rogers. She obtained her Master degree in Cyber Forensics in 2010 from Purdue University. She received her undergraduate degrees in Law and Society, Psychology and Forensics in 2007 from Purdue University. Over the past three years, while being a full-time student, Rachel worked full-time for the Indiana State Police, as a Criminal Intelligence Analyst, on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Currently, Rachel works for the IT Security and Policy section at Purdue, where she builds analytical products from the current threats that are seen on the Purdue network. Rachel is also an Adjunct Professor, teaching Research Methods. Rachel’s area of research interest is on the psychological and behavioral analysis of cyber criminals. She aims to understand the user behind the crime. How they are behaving, what programs they are using to facilitate their crimes, how do they engage with other criminals, are among many of her areas of study.

Watch Rachel speak about Women in Cyber Security in this CERIAS Security Seminar in April 2014.