Dominik Wermke

Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University
Academic:
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For Prospective Students: If you are a student interested in working with me, please check out this post before reaching out: Prospective Students

About #

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University (NC State). I am a member of the Secure Computing Institute (SCI), the Wolfpack Security and Privacy Research (WSPR) Lab, and the Secure Software Supply Chain Center (S3C2).

My Research #

My research focuses on computer security, particularly human-centered security. I examine how security mechanisms intersect with the practices, constraints, and decision-making of software professionals and end users.

Interests:

My recent publications are available on the publications page. Some of my main research interests include:

Human-Centered Security and Privacy. Investigating how developers, security professionals, and other stakeholders understand and respond to security concerns, especially in complex environments and systems [C19, C17, C16, C11, C9].

Software Supply Chain Security. Studying how software is packaged, built, and distributed, with focus on security-relevant issues such as reproducibility, dependency management, and vulnerability metadata [C20, J1, W3, C14, C13].

Open Source Security and Trust. Analyzing practices in distributed development environments, including contribution workflows, coordination mechanisms, and the handling of vulnerabilities or secrets [C18, C15, C12, C10].

Methods:
I leverage both qualitative and quantitative methods, often in a mixed-methods approach. This includes interviews [C19, C17, C14, C13, C12, C10], large-scale analyses of software ecosystems and repositories [C20, C18, C16, C14], user experiments [C11, C8], and surveys [C14, C6] to identify behavioral patterns, systemic risks, and the practical constraints software experts encounter when engaging with security mechanisms.
Outcome:
My research supports software professionals in navigating security challenges when building, maintaining, and distributing modern software systems.

Selected Publications #

Some recent-ish publications that highlight my research interests, full list available at publications:

[C20]
Mahzabin Tamanna, Yash Chandrani, Matthew Burrows, Brandon Wroblewski, Laurie Williams, and Dominik Wermke.
ASE. In Proceedings of the 40th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, November 16-20, 2025.
[C19]
Elizabeth Lin, Sparsha Gowda, William Enck, and Dominik Wermke.
USENIX Sec. In Proceedings of the 34th USENIX Security Symposium, August 13-15, 2025, pp. 2165-2183.
[J1]
TOSEM, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, Volume 34, Issue 5 (Nr. 146), May 26, 2025, pp. 1-38. 10.1145/3714464

Mail Address #

Dominik Wermke
890 Oval Drive, Box 8206
Engineering Building II
Raleigh, NC 27695-8206