dr. D.K. Sarmah MSc (Dipti)

Dipti K. Sarmah is a Docent in the group Semantics, Cyber Security and Services (SCS) in the Department of EEMCS at the University of Twente, The Netherlands.

She works at the intersection of human behaviour and cybersecurity, a space where sophisticated algorithms meet wonderfully unpredictable humans. Her research explores how information can be hidden, protected, authenticated, and sometimes unintentionally revealed, with a particular interest in the interplay between technology, security, and people. 

Her work spans information hiding, image steganography and steganalysis, AI-enabled security, and human-centred cybersecurity. She also works on practical cybersecurity challenges including phishing, quishing, e-skimming, cybersecurity education, and gamification. Across these areas, she is interested in translating emerging technologies and research ideas into practical approaches that make digital environments more secure, usable, and human-aware.

Dipti's doctoral research focused on developing a high-capacity, robust image steganography method using nature-inspired optimization technique. In essence, she studied how nature hides patterns and translated those principles into secure digital communication. The major outcomes of her work have been published in the Journal of Information Security and Applications and Information Sciences, contributing to advancements in secure data embedding and resilience.

Beyond technical security mechanisms, she is deeply interested in understanding why people click, trust, reuse passwords, or fall for spear-phishing attempts, and how systems can be designed to anticipate human behavior rather than merely react to breaches. Her work reflects a belief that cybersecurity is not just a technical discipline, but a socio-technical one.

Equally passionate about teaching, she holds a University Teaching Qualification Diploma from the University of Twente. She is committed to mentoring students who wish to move beyond theory and build solutions that address real-world security challenges. She particularly enjoys supervising projects that combine creativity, technical depth, and societal relevance.Selected supervised projects include:

1. Network Authentication of Images to Stop E-Skimmers.
2. Hide Your Pattern Password From Shoulder Surfers
3. Studying Human Behavior to Prevent Successful Spear-phishing Attempts
4. A Serious Game on Image Steganography Training For Students in Higher Education

Her work also includes academic service and educational innovation. She has served on programme and technical committees for international conferences and workshops, chaired sessions and workshops, reviewed research for international journals, and contributed to diversity, equity and inclusion activities at the University of Twente. She was also involved in a University of Twente DE&I Incentive Fund project investigating menstrual health and its implications for large-class teaching.

Dipti is particularly interested in collaborations that bring together cybersecurity, steganography, AI, human behaviour, education, and societal challenges.

Curious about cybersecurity, human behavior, or hiding messages in plain sight? Let’s talk.

Expertise

• Computer Science

  • Steganography
  • Cryptography
  • Proof
  • Data Hiding
  • Discrete Cosine Transform
  • Steganalysis
  • Advanced Encryption Standard
  • Attackers

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Courses academic year 2026/2027

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2025/2026

1. Featured in U-Today for our work on improving menstrual health support at the University of Twente:
   https://www.utoday.nl/news/77251/ut-lecturers-working-on-dashboard-for-menstrual-health-issues
2. Featured in UToday for my work on AI-resilient assessment design: https://www.utoday.nl/news/76480/how-ut-teachers-are-making-their-assessments-ai-proof
3. Best research paper nomination at 42nd Twente Student Conference IT (2025): https://sites.google.com/view/42ntwentestudentconference
4. Best research paper nomination at  41st Twente Student Conference IT (2024): https://sites.google.com/view/41thtwentestudentconference/programme-and-proceedings
5. A small contribution of our research was published in an interview conducted by Eveline Meijer from AG Connect at the following link: https://www.agconnect.nl/artikel/social-engineering-groter-risico-door-coronacrisis

News on utwente.nl

https://www.utwente.nl/en/organisation/about/shaping2030/stories/078/

Address

University of Twente

Zilverling (building no. 11), room 2062
Hallenweg 19
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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