Virginia Franqueira

Dr. Virginia Franqueira is a Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security at the School of Computing, University of Kent. She serves as Deputy Director (Education) of the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS) and directs Kent’s Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE), awarded Gold status (2023-2028) by the National Centre of Cyber Security (NCSC, part of GCHQ).

• Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security
• Director, Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE)
• Deputy Director (Education), Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS)

Her research focuses on digital forensics and incident response (DFIR), adversarial behavior in cybersecurity, and human factors such as cybersecurity awareness and education. Cross-cutting themes include child protection in digital spaces, technology-facilitated domestic abuse, and security of cyber-physical systems (IoT, autonomous vehicles).

Recent publications address deepfake detection, synthetic dataset generation for violence detection, child sexual abuse material analysis in dark web markets, and security incident learning frameworks. These span disciplines like computer science, digital forensics, and artificial intelligence.

Dr. Franqueira has secured significant research grants including:

• PI for ALUNA project (European Commission, 2023-2025)
• Co-I for HEROES project (European Commission, 2021-2024)
• Co-I for REPHRAIN project (2023-2024)
• Co-I for Home Office project on technology-facilitated domestic abuse (2021)

She actively contributes to cybersecurity education through guest editor roles for special issues in journals like IEEE Internet of Things Journal and Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation. Professional roles include membership in EURASIP Technical Area Committee, board membership of Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation, and organizing committees for conferences such as ARES and European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC 2023).