Dr. Mamoona Asghar, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Galway, is one of Insight’s newest members.

She first came to Ireland in 2018 as a Marie Curie (MSCA) Career-FIT International Postdoc Research Fellow, bringing a strong research focus on cybersecurity and privacy for surveillance applications. She joined School of Computer Science, University of Galway in 2022, having previously worked as a Lecturer and MSCA fellow at the Technological University of the Shannon, Athlone.

“When I joined the School of Computer Science at University of Galway, there was no running cybersecurity programme. I was involved in establishing the school’s first Cybersecurity Programme, the Postgraduate Diploma in Cybersecurity and Software Development, funded through Springboard+, and later, I was heavily involved in developing the Advanced MSc programme in Computer Science, i.e., Adaptive Cybersecurity,” she explains. “For MSc, we developed six new cybersecurity modules; the programme is unique in its integration of cybersecurity with a strong emphasis on next-generation AI and machine learning.”

Dr Asghar began to work with researchers from the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics through her involvement with Insight industry partners Cisco, Siren and Lia Healthcare (under the EDIH-Data2Sustain initiative). “My work covers a wide range of areas, from detecting deepfake content in data packets with Cisco, IoT device Compliance with Lia Healthcare, to combating human trafficking with Siren. Of particular importance to my work with Siren, we developed a Gold Standard dataset as ground truth for identifying Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to enhance their investigative intelligence capabilities for anti-human trafficking efforts. This aligns with the University of Galway’s mission for Public Good, reinforcing its commitment to applying advanced data-driven methods to societal challenges.”

I have been passionate about cybersecurity ever since my Master’s studies in Pakistan, where I specialised in Network Security. At that time, only 3 of us in my class of 40 chose this specialisation, as it wasn’t popular then. I found it exciting to learn about the data security algorithms and protocols, and later on, embedding privacy into systems. While many of my peers entered the industry, I chose academia, and I was fortunate to receive a scholarship from the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan to pursue PhD in Computing and Electronic Systems at the University of Essex, UK.  My PhD research focused on security in scalable video distribution by developing lightweight cryptographic solutions and a method to secure encryption key distribution as part of a comprehensive Digital Rights Management (DRM) framework. I completed my PhD within three years and my PhD research was published in nine research articles (five journals and four conferences).”

Since moving to Ireland, Dr. Asghar has embraced Galway as her second home. “I feel a strong sense of belonging in Galway, its vibrant, flourishing environment and positive community make it a wonderful place to live and work. I am proud to contribute to the Research Ireland Centres and to support Ireland in every way I can.”

As an Insight member, she is keen to expand her work in Cybersecurity (Cryptography, Threat Intelligence), Computer vision, Privacy engineering, Internet of Things, and GDPR Compliance, continuing to merge cutting-edge research with meaningful societal impact.

Publication with Siren (on Human Trafficking project):

Aribilola, I., Catena, M., Asghar, M., Breslin, J., Delbru, R. (2025). Building Realistic Ground Truth Datasets of Personal Identification Information for Entity Matching. In: Coppens, B., Volckaert, B., Naessens, V., De Sutter, B. (eds) Availability, Reliability and Security. ARES 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15997. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-00639-4_12

Publication with Cisco (on Deep Packet Inspection Techniques):

Kumar, T., Leavy, S., Eustace, P., Curry, E., Asghar, M. (2025). A Review of Deep Packet Inspection for Network Security: From Traditional Techniques to Machine Learning Integration. In: Coppens, B., Volckaert, B., Naessens, V., De Sutter, B. (eds) Availability, Reliability and Security. ARES 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15997. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-00639-4_11