Cassandra Cross
Professor, Associate Dean, Queensland University of Technology (Australia)
Bio: Dr. Cassandra Cross is currently Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching), Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice. She also holds a position as Professor in the School of Justice, QUT. In 2021, she completed a Senior Research Fellowship, with the Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) on the topic of romance fraud. Previously, Dr Cross worked as a research/policy officer with the Queensland Police Service, where she commenced research on the topic of online fraud and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2011. Since taking up her position at QUT in 2012, she has published in this area across several journals and continued her research into online fraud focusing across the prevention, victim support and policing aspects of this crime. She has received over AUD $1.5 million in grants and industry funding to further this work. She is co-author (with Professor Mark Button) of the book entitled “Cyber frauds, scams, and their victims”, which was published by Routledge in 2017.
Thomas Dearden
Associate Professor, Virginia Tech
Title: Are Hackers Human? Using Honeypot Data to Examine the Person Behind the Hack
Abstract: Cyber threats are ubiquitous. A quick Google search will highlight that cybercrime is escalating, and damages are approaching an incomprehensible dollar figure. Yet, each of these threats is dependent on people. Using a honeypot, I examine what we can learn about the nature of the people who hack. In examining over 3 million attempts against Windows Remote-Desktop Protocol, I show how behavioral patterns emerge. Do they work weekends? How long until they get tired of hacking? How do they decide what passwords to try? What do they do when they breach the system? By descriptively showing how hackers behave in the wild, we can better understand how to protect critical systems.
Bio: Thomas Dearden is an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Tech and an affiliated faculty member and hub coordinator for the Center for Peace and Violence Prevention. In addition to more than 20 peer-reviewed articles, his work has led to international reports, a patent, an invitation to advise bestselling author David Baldacci, and an appearance on NPR.
Taylor Fisher
Postdoctoral Researcher, Michigan State University
Bio: Dr. Taylor Fisher is a Post-Doctoral Researcher with her PhD in Criminology from the University of South Florida. Her research focuses on cybercrime and cybersecurity, with a focus on digital and network forensics and a goal of establishing best practices for cybercrime prevention for both organizations and individuals. Her work has been published in the Journal of Crime and Justice, Crime and Delinquency, and Victims & Offenders. Taylor worked closely with LexisNexis' blue team to develop network forensic strategies for overburdened security systems, like Microsoft Defender and Sentinel. Her work aims to identify common vulnerabilities to both systems and users and provide evidence-based solutions to any online security needs.
Jay Kennedy
Head of Policy and Engagement, Illicit Trade Prevention, PMI
Title: The intersection of Cybercrime and Human Trafficking
Abstract: What presentation will address: Discussion of technology-fueled growth in the scale of human trafficking, as well as the ways in which technologies are affecting different types of human trafficking. Attention will be paid to the use of legitimate channels such as social media and dating apps to recruit/lure/entrap victims, as well as other forms of cybercrime such as spam, phishing, and fake job adds that are used to identify potential victims. The types of human trafficking discussed will likely focus on forced labor (e.g., people recruited through fake job adds to take "to good to be true" positions and are ultimately forced into modern day slavery) and sex trafficking (e.g., use of technologies to identify and lure victims into sex trafficking rings, and the use of technologies by criminals operating in the virtual environment to secure sexually explicit materials that exploit victims).
Bio: Dr. Jay Kennedy has spent the last 10+ years in the brand protection / anti-counterfeiting industry as Assistant Director of Research for the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at Michigan State University, Head of Anti-Counterfeiting External Relations at Amazon, and now as Head of Policy and Engagment, Illicit Trade Prevention at Philip Morris International (PMI). He is a regular presenter at global anti-counterfeiting conferences such as IACC, INTERPOL, and A-CAPP Brand Protection Strategy Summit. Dr. Kennedy is a member of the OECD's Anti-Illicit Trade Working Group Industry Experts Advisory Panel, and in his current role he leads the USA-IT coalition, which is dedicated to raising awareness of the many harms associated with illegal trade in America. Dr. Kennedy was a contributor to Forbes writing on counterfeiting issues within retail and has published numerous academic papers on counterfeiting, cybercrime, insider threats, employee theft, and business ethics.
Jin R. Lee
Assistant Professor, George Mason University
Bio: Dr. Jin R. Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. His research examines a broad range of topics within cybercrime and cybersecurity, including law enforcement competencies and perceptions of online crime; computer hacking and the role of the Internet in facilitating criminal and deviant behaviors; online illicit market activities; ideologically motivated cyberattacks; and online interpersonal violence offending and victimization. Dr. Lee is a research partner at several esteemed research organizations, including Michigan State University's International Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Cybercrime (IIRCC), George Mason University's Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy (CEBCP), Boston University's Center for Cybercrime Investigation and Cybersecurity (CIC), and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology's Digital Life Research Group (DLRG). Additionally, Dr. Lee has delivered invited lectures on cybercrime and cybersecurity at several leading academic institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Temple University, and Old Dominion University.
In 2024, he was appointed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to serve as a consensus committee member on the Committee on Cybercrime Classification and Measurement. Dr. Lee also serves as an Associate Editor on the Cybercrime Editorial Board for the International Journal of Police Science & Management (IJPSM). Dr. Lee's contributions to the field have been recognized with several national awards, including the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division of Cybercrime Early Career Award in 2022, the American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division of Cybercrime Best Peer-Reviewed Publication Award in 2024, and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) Academy New Scholar Award in 2025. Dr. Lee's recent scholarship has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Criminology & Public Policy, American Journal of Criminal Justice, Computers in Human Behavior, Crime & Delinquency, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Victims & Offenders.
Rutger Leukfeldt
Senior Research, NSCR, Professor, The Hague University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands)
Rachel McNealey
Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
Bio: Dr. Rachel McNealey is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice with her Ph.D. in criminology from Penn State University. Her research focuses on cybervictimization events and cyberoffending behavior, with the goal of tying new forms of crime to traditional theories of crime. Her work has been published in the Journal of Crime and Justice, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. Her non-academic experience includes working in the digital forensics lab at the Joint Electronic Crimes Task Force in Tuscaloosa, Alabama as well as their Network Intrusion Lab and security group Project Halo. As an early career scholar, her work aims to investigate emerging forms of crime with established methods and theories to produce actionable, practice-oriented findings.
Ryan Weber
Lead Cloud Security Engineer, Cisco
Title: Defending Locally, Thinking Globally - The State of AI in cybersecurity & cybercrime
Abstract: Explore the transformative impact of AI on cybersecurity and cybercrime and we will dive into a simple use case for using AI to help mitigate cybercrime & cybersecurity and how you can protect yourself (and your organization) at a local level and a global level.
Bio: Ryan Weber is an Industry Professional currently working at Cisco as an Lead Cloud Security Engineer with over 17 years of experience spanning power utilities, healthcare, automotive, and technology. Academically, he holds a Master's in Information Assurance from Eastern Michigan University and a Cyber Criminology and Cybersecurity Graduate Certificate from Michigan State University. In higher education, Ryan Weber has been an adjunct professor for six years at Eastern Michigan University and two years at Trine University, teaching Cloud Security, Cybersecurity, and Engineering courses—some of which have received national recognition. Originally from Jackson, Michigan, Ryan Weber is married to his wife Emily of 9 years and 13 years being a couple and Emily, an MSU alumna and Social Worker in Lansing and he would not be the person he is today without her. Together, Ryan has two sons, Elijah (Eli) and Kaiden (Kai). Outside of work, Ryan enjoys running, working out, and driving Dodge vehicles or going to car shows.
Chad Whelan
Professor, Deputy Director, Deakin Center for Cyber Research and Innovation, Deakin University (Australia)
Bio: Chad Whelan is a Professor of Criminology and Deputy Director, Deakin Centre for Cyber Research and Innovation, Deakin University. He principally conducts research in cybercrime, organised crime, and security. Much of his research involves applying network perspectives to these and other problems. He has received numerous research grants worth over $5m on these and related problems and has over 50 research publications.
He is author of Networks and National Security: Dynamics, Effectiveness and Organisation (Routledge, 2012); Securing Mega-Events: Networks, Strategies and Tensions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018; with Adam Molnar); Policing Across Organisational Boundaries: Developments in Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2019, with Benoit Dupont and Peter Manning); and Organised Crime and Law Enforcement: A Network Perspective (Routledge, 2021; with David Bright).
Click here for a full list of past speakers
