Kevin Christopher Gallagher (181E-F10E-C91C)

Curriculum Vitae

Kevin Christopher Gallagher

NOVA LINCS Group: Computer Systems Research Topics: - Anonymity; Privacy; User Experience. Google Scholar: KON3-s8AAAAJ Kevin Christopher Gallagher completed his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering on 2019/12/18 at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, his Master in Computer Science and Engineering in 2016 at New York University Tandon School of Engineering and his Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science in 2014 at CUNY Hunter College. Kevin is an Assistant Professor at the NOVA School of Science and technology and a researcher within NOVA LINCS. He has published 3 articles in journals, 3 articles in conferences, and 3 in workshops and has supervised 9 MSc dissertation(s) and co-supervised 4. He has received 1 awards for excellency in teaching. In addition to his academic work, Kevin is a co-founder of the non-profit association DEFEND OUR PRIVACY ASSOCIATION (PrivacyLx) and a Tor Core Contributor. He has long-lasting collaborations with researchers at New York University, Purdue University, the University of Utah, and more. Selected Publications: - Enhancing the Unlinkability of Circuit-Based Anonymous Communications with k-Funnels Vitor Nunes, José Brás, Afonso Carvalho, Diogo Barradas, Kevin Gallagher, Nuno Santos The 19th International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT), 2023. - Studying the Online Deepfake Creation Community Brian Timmerman, Pulak Mehta, Progga Debb, Kevin Gallagher, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, Damon McCoy, Siddharth Garg, Rachel Greenstadt Journal of Online Trust and Safety (JOTS) Vol. 2 No. 1, 2023. - "It Feels Like Whack-a-mole": User Experiences of Data Removal from People Search Websites Kejsi Take, Kevin Gallagher, Andrea Forte, Damon McCoy, Rachel Greenstadt Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium (PETS), 2022. - COLBAC: Shifting Cybersecurity From Hierarchical to Horizontal Designs Kevin Gallagher, Santiago Torres-Arias, Nasir Memon, Jessica Feldman NSPW '21: New Security Paradigms Workshop (NSPW), 2021. - Peeling the Onion's User Experience Layer: Examining Naturalistic Use of the Tor Browser Kevin Gallagher, Sameer Patil, Brendan Dolan-Gavitt, Damon McCoy, Nasir Memon Proceedings of the 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), 2018.

Read full resume ↓

Identification

Personal identification

Full name: Kevin Christopher Gallagher

Citation names

Gallagher, Kevin

Author identifiers

Ciência ID: 181E-F10E-C91C
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2714-7841
Google Scholar ID: KON3-s8AAAAJ

Languages

Language	Speaking	Reading	Writing	Listening	Peer-review
English (Mother tongue)
Portuguese	Advanced (C1)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Upper intermediate (B2)	Advanced (C1)	Upper intermediate (B2)

Education

	Degree	Classification
2019/12/18 Concluded	Computer Science and Engineering (Doctor of Philosophy) New York University Tandon School of Engineering, United States "Measurement and Improvement of the Tor User Experience" (THESIS/DISSERTATION)	Approved
2016 Concluded	Computer Science and Engineering (Master) New York University Tandon School of Engineering, United States	Approved
2014 Concluded	Computer Science (Bachelor) Major in Computer Science Hunter College, United States	Approved

Affiliation

Science

	Category Host institution	Employer
2023/02/01 - Current	Researcher (Research)	Universidade Nova de Lisboa Laboratório para a Ciência da Computação e Informática, Portugal
	Universidade Nova de Lisboa Laboratório para a Ciência da Computação e Informática, Portugal
2020/01 - 2021/09/30	Postdoc (Research)	New York University Tandon School of Engineering, United States
	New York University Tandon School of Engineering, United States

Teaching in Higher Education

	Category Host institution	Employer
2023/03/01 - Current	Assistant Professor (University Teacher)	Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
	Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
2021/10/01 - 2022/01/14	Invited Assistant Professor (University Teacher)	Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
	Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal

Positions / Appointments

	Category Host institution	Employer
2019 - 2023	President	Defend Our Privacy Association, Portugal

Projects

Contract

	Designation	Funders
2025/03/01 - 2026/01/31	ParSec: Melhorar Astronomicamente a Cibersegurança Parlamentar através da Autorização Colectiva 2024.07643.IACDC Principal investigator Universidade Nova de Lisboa Laboratório para a Ciência da Computação e Informática, Portugal	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Ongoing

Outputs

Publications

Conference abstract	Vilalonga, Afonso; Gallagher, Kevin; Yagan, Osman; Resende, João; Domingos, Henrique. Corresponding author: Vilalonga, Afonso. "Using TURN Servers for Censorship Evasion". Paper presented in Free and Open Communications on the Internet 2025 (FOCI 2025), Online, 2025. Published
Conference paper	Quijano, Andrew; Halkidis, Spyros T.; Gallagher, Kevin; Akkaya, Kemal; Samaras, Nikolaos. "Enhanced Outsourced and Secure Inference for Tall Sparse Decision Trees". Paper presented in International Performance, Computing, and Communications Conference (IPCCC), Orlando, 2024. Published • 10.1109/ipccc59868.2024.10850192 Vilalonga, Afonso; Gallagher, Kevin; Davidson, Alex; Domingos, Henrique. Corresponding author: Vilalonga, Afonso. "Comunicação: Algoritmos de Resposta Aleatória como Mecanismo para a Desvinculação entre o Tráfego de Entrada e de Saída em Sistemas de Anonimato Baseados em Circuitos". Paper presented in 15º Simpósio Nacional de Informática, Lisboa, 2024. Published Nunes, Vitor; Brás, José; Carvalho, Afonso; Barradas, Diogo; Gallagher, Kevin; Santos, Nuno. "Enhancing the Unlinkability of Circuit-Based Anonymous Communications with k-Funnels". Paper presented in International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT'23), Paris, 2023. Published • https://doi.org/10.1145/3629140 Gallagher, Kevin; Barradas, Diogo; Santos, Nuno. Corresponding author: Gallagher, Kevin. "Rethinking Realistic Adversaries for Anonymous Communication Systems". Paper presented in Free and Open Communications on the Internet 2023 (FOCI 2023), Lausanne, 2023. Published Pulak; Gauri Jagatap; Gallagher, Kevin; Brian Timmerman; Progga; Siddharth Garg; Rachel Greenstadt; Brendan Dolan-Gavitt. "Can Deepfakes be created on a whim?". Paper presented in International Workshop on Cyber Social Threats (CySoc 2023), 2023. Published • 10.1145/3543873.3587581 Gallagher, Kevin; Torres-Arias, Santiago; Memon, Nasir; Feldman, Jessica. Corresponding author: Gallagher, Kevin. "COLBAC: Shifting Cybersecurity from Hierarchical to Horizontal Designs". Paper presented in New Security Paradigms Workshop 2021 (NSPW 2021), 2021. Published • 10.1145/3498891.3498903 Gallagher, Kevin; Patil, Sameer; Dolan-Gavitt, Brendan; McCoy, Damon; Memon, Nasir. Corresponding author: Gallagher, Kevin. "Peeling the Onion's User Experience Layer: Examining Naturalistic Use of the Tor Browser". Paper presented in The 2018 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS '18), Toronto, 2018. Published • 10.1145/3243734.3243803 Gallagher, Kevin; Patil, Samer; Memon, Nasir. Corresponding author: Gallagher, Kevin. "New Me: Understanding Expert and Non-Expert Perceptions and Usage of the Tor Anonymity Network". Paper presented in Thirteenth Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS 2017), Santa Clara, 2017. Published
Journal article	Take, Kejsi; Young, Jordyn; Bhalerao, Rasika; Gallagher, Kevin; Forte, Andrea; McCoy, Damon; Greenstadt, Rachel. "What to Expect When You’re Accessing: An Exploration of User Privacy Rights in People Search Websites". Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2024 4 (2024): 311-326. https://doi.org/10.56553/popets-2024-0118. Published • 10.56553/popets-2024-0118 Timmerman, Brian; Mehta, Pulak; Deb, Progga; Gallagher, Kevin; McCoy, Damon; Dolan-Gavitt, Brendan; Garg, Siddharth; Greenstadt, Rachel . Corresponding author: Timmerman, Brian. "Studying the Online Deepfake Community". Jounal of Online Trust and Safety 1 6 (2023): Open access • Accepted • https://doi.org/10.54501/jots.v2i1.126 Take, Kejsi; Gallagher, Kevin; Forte, Andrea; McCoy, Damon; Greenstadt, Rachel. "“It Feels Like Whack-a-mole”: User Experiences of Data Removal from People Search Websites". Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies 2022 3 (2022): 159-178. http://dx.doi.org/10.56553/popets-2022-0067. Published • 10.56553/popets-2022-0067 Brizan, David-Guy; Gallagher, Kevin; Jahangir, Arnab; Brown, Theodore. Corresponding author: Brizan, David-Guy. "Predicting citation patterns: defining and determining influence". Scientometrics 108 1 (2016): 183-200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1950-1. Published • 10.1007/s11192-016-1950-1
Newspaper article	Gallagher, Kevin. "O maior perigo da internet não é técnico, é humano", Observador, 2025, https://observador.pt/opiniao/o-maior-perigo-da-internet-nao-e-tecnico-e-humano/.
Thesis / Dissertation	"Measurement and Improvement of the Tor User Experience". PhD, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, 2020. https://www.proquest.com/openview/160e0d08939b96e2a4d7b49247c3bbbd/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y.

Activities

Supervision

	Thesis Title Role	Degree Subject (Type) Institution / Organization
2023/09/01 - Current	Improving Tor's Traffic Analysis Protection using Differential Privacy Supervisor of Rui Daniel da Silva Genovevo	Engenharia Informática (Master) Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
2023/09/01 - Current	Usability study of the Signal Secure Messaging protocol Co-supervisor of Romão Lagoa Madruga da Costa	Engenharia Informática (Master) Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
2023/09/01 - Current	Safe and Private Multicast over Tor Supervisor of Ricardo Delgado Romão	Engenharia Informática (Master) Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
2023/02/01 - Current	Queering Intimate Data: Inquiring Privacy and Security in Intimate Self-tracking Technologies and the LGBTQIA+ Community Co-supervisor of Inês Reis Verdasca Oliveira	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/08/01 - Current	Siphon: Towards removing inefficient gas patterns from Smart Contracts Supervisor of João Fancisco Duarte da Silva	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/08/01 - Current	Developing a Threat Modeling Protocol for Horizontal Organizations Supervisor of Sebastian Chimal Montes de Oca	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/08/01 - 2023/11/23	Smart Contract Security Academy: Studying Common Attacks Against Smart Contracts Supervisor of Guilherme Eusébio Reis Gaspar	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/08/01 - 2023/11/20	Using Smart Contracts to Automate the Role of a Food Hub Supervisor of Rui Mira Gomes Gama da Costa	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/08/01 - 2023/11/17	DAOliberate: Decentrally Moderated Chat through Collaborative Decision Making Supervisor of Tiago Emmanuel Dos Santos Fournigault	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/08/01 - 2023/11/17	Thwarting Traffic Confirmation Attacks in Tor with Traffic Modulation and Cover Traffic Co-supervisor of Afonso Pedro Antunes da Mota Gomes	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/02/01 - 2023/06/19	Mitigating Rogue Administrator Attacks in Democratic Institutions Using New Access Control Methods Supervisor of Maria Margarida Espanhol Lopes	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/10/26 - 2023/04/19	The Not-So Disruptive Nature of Blockchain Technology: A systematic review Co-supervisor of Stefan Kwant	Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences (Master) Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands
2022/06/07 - 2022/11/11	Preventing misinformation with a private blockchain: A case study on a news industry application Supervisor of Diogo Filipe Pinto Nogueira	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Master) Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal

Event participation

	Activity description Type of event	Event name Institution / Organization
2024/02/16 - 2024/02/18	Judge of the 2024 Winter Hackathon Hosted by NOVA School of Science and Technology's Núcleo de Informática Other	2024 Winter Hackathon Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal

Conference scientific committee

	Conference name	Conference host
2024 - 2024	Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2024)
2023 - 2023	Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PETS 2023)
2022 - 2022	New Security Paradigms Workshop

Course / Discipline taught

	Academic session	Degree Subject (Type)	Institution / Organization
2023/03/03 - 2033/06/09	Arquitetura de Computadores	Engenharia Informática (Licenciatura)	Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
2023/09/04 - 2024/01/20	Introdução à Programação para Ciência e Engenharia	(Licenciatura)	Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Portugal
2022/10/31 - 2022/12/15	Fundamentos de Privacidade e Anonimato	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Doutoramento)	Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/03/14 - 2022/04/30	Tópicos Avançados em Sistemas Paralelos e Distribuídos - Blockchain Security	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Doutoramento)	Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2022/03/07 - 2022/04/22	Sistemas de Elevada Confiabilidade	Engenharia Informática e de Computadores (Mestrado integrado)	Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal
2019 - 2021	Information Security and Privacy	Computer Science and Engineering (Doctor of Philosophy)	New York University Tandon School of Engineering, United States
2019 - 2021	Application Security	Computer Science and Engineering (Doctor of Philosophy)	New York University Tandon School of Engineering, United States

Distinctions

Award

2023	Diploma of Excellency in Teaching Universidade de Lisboa Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal