Rate My Professor monica Whitty

Professor Monica Whitty serves as Head of the Department of Software Systems and Cybersecurity and Professor of Human Factors in Cyber Security in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. She earned her PhD in Psychology from Macquarie University in 2000 and her BA (Hons) in Psychology from the same university in 1992. Her research focuses on human factors in cybersecurity, including the prevention, disruption, and detection of cyber fraud—particularly romance scams and investment scams—cyber security training, identities created in cyberspace, online security risks, behaviour in cyberspace, insider threats, and mis/disinformation. Whitty has authored over 100 articles and five books, with key publications such as 'Age/sex/location: uncovering the social cues in the development of online relationships' (2001), 'A systematic literature review of profiling victims of cyber scams: setting up a framework for future research' (2025), 'Audio Deepfake Detection: What Has Been Achieved and What Lies Ahead' (2025, with B. Zhang, H. Cui, V. Nguyen), and 'COVID-19 lies and truths: Employing the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) to gain insights into the persuasive techniques evident in disinformation (fake news)' (2025, with C. Ruddy).

Whitty's distinguished career spans Australia and the UK. She began at Macquarie University and the University of Western Sydney, moved to the UK in 2003 holding positions at Queen's University Belfast, University of Warwick (including in a GCHQ-accredited Cyber Security Centre), and University of Leicester, then returned to Australia in 2018 at the University of Melbourne, followed by UNSW in 2020 where she founded and directed the Institute for Cyber Security (IFCYBER). She holds honorary appointments at the University of Oxford's Martin School and Internet Institute, and at Royal Holloway, University of London. Having secured over $20 million AUD in research funding—leading most projects—she has shaped policy and tools in the UK and Australia to improve cybersecurity behaviours, prevent cyber fraud victimisation, mitigate insider attacks, and counter disinformation. In 2025, she received the Cyberpsychology Lifetime Achievement Award at the CYPSY28 conference. Whitty serves as Editor-in-Chief of Computers & Security (since 2020), was a member of the World Economic Forum's Cyber Security Centre and Global Futures Committee, has acted as an expert witness in over 10 international cybercrime cases, supervised more than 15 PhD students, and delivered over 50 keynotes and invited talks.