security.cs.berkeley.edu

security.cs.berkeley.edu is the website of the Security Group in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley. It is an informational research hub, not a product or service: the site introduces the group's research areas, lists its faculty, affiliates, postdocs, staff, graduate students, and alumni, and points visitors to further pages for research details. It is worth browsing if you want to understand who works on security at Berkeley, what topics they cover, or how to follow their work; it is not a place to sign up for a tool or buy anything.

What the group studies

According to the site, the Security Group studies a wide variety of topics, including:

• Cryptography
• Network security
• Usable security
• Secure machine learning

The page frames this as an overview rather than a complete list, and directs readers to individual faculty and student pages for deeper research information.

Who is on the site

The page organizes people into several groups, which tells you how the lab is structured:

The alumni list is unusually long, which is a useful signal if you are trying to trace where security researchers in this community have gone.

What else the page covers

Beyond people, the site states that Berkeley security research spans multiple labs, centers, departments, colleges, and schools, and it links out to related groups. It also highlights that the group hosts events and teaches courses, and closes with an invitation to join. Those sections are pointers rather than detailed content, so expect to click through for schedules, course listings, or collaboration details.

How to use the site

If you want to learn more about the research, the page's own recommendation is to visit the linked faculty and student pages. A practical path:

1. Start with the faculty list to identify whose work matches your interest (for example, cryptography vs. usable security).
2. Follow individual names to their pages for publications and projects.
3. Check the affiliates, postdocs, and students if you are looking for collaborators or current work rather than established leads.
4. Use the alumni list if you are researching the group's history or tracking specific researchers.

What it is not

The page contains no pricing, sign-up, or access-restriction information, so nothing here should be read as offering a free or paid service. It is a research group's public-facing overview page, and its value is in the people and topic pointers it provides.

The UC Berkeley Security Group, part of the EECS Department, studies a broad range of security topics. Its stated areas include cryptography, network security, usable security, and secure machine learning. If you want to know whether your interests match the group's work, the most reliable path is to check the individual faculty and student pages linked from the group's site, since those pages describe specific projects rather than just broad labels.

The four named research areas

The group's own description lists these directions:

• Cryptography — the design and analysis of cryptographic systems.
• Network security — security issues in networked and distributed systems.
• Usable security — how people interact with security tools and how to make security practical.
• Secure machine learning — security and privacy concerns in machine learning systems.

These four labels are the group's own summary, not an exhaustive list. The phrase "a wide variety of topics" signals that work extends beyond them.

Why the breadth matters

Security research at Berkeley is not confined to one lab or department. The group notes that its work "spans a number of labs, centers, departments, colleges, and schools." That means a single research question may involve cryptography, systems, human factors, or ML depending on the project. For a prospective student or collaborator, this cross-cutting structure is useful: you are not limited to one narrow subfield.

How to find more specific topics

The homepage itself does not enumerate every project. To go deeper:

1. Open the faculty pages linked from the group site. Faculty listed include Henry Corrigan-Gibbs, Natacha Crooks, Chris Fletcher, Anthony Joseph, Vern Paxson, Raluca Ada Popa, Dawn Song, and David Wagner.
2. Check the graduate student pages. Students listed include Noura Alomar, Sizhe Chen, Vivek Nair, Chawin Sitawarin, and many others.
3. Look at affiliates and postdocs for adjacent work.

Each person's page typically describes their current projects, which is where the broad categories turn into concrete research questions.

Who should pay attention

• Prospective graduate students — the faculty and student listings show who works on what, which helps you decide whom to contact.
• Researchers and collaborators — the cross-lab structure indicates where interdisciplinary security work happens.
• Industry and practitioners — the named areas (cryptography, network security, usable security, secure ML) map to common applied problems.

What the page does not tell you

The site describes research areas and people, but it does not publish pricing, admission requirements, or course schedules on this page. For those details you would need the relevant department or program pages. Treat the homepage as a map of who and what, not as an application guide.

Yes. The Berkeley Security Group's site explicitly signals all three: it says the group hosts events, teaches courses, and invites people to join. The page itself is a directory-style overview rather than a schedule, so the practical path is to use its people lists and outbound links to find the specific course, event, or contact you need.

What the group says it offers

The site's own section headings are the clearest evidence of what it provides:

• "We host events!" — the group runs events, though the page does not list dates or formats.
• "We teach courses!" — teaching is presented as an ongoing activity of the group.
• "We'd love for you to join us!" — an explicit open invitation to join.

The page also states the group studies "a wide variety of topics, including cryptography, network security, usable security, and secure machine learning." That matters for choosing a course or event: the group's work is broad, so you should match your interest to a specific faculty member or lab rather than to "security" in general.

How to find the right course or event

The page does not publish a course catalog or event calendar. Instead, it points you to the people involved and says: "To learn more about our research, we encourage you to visit the pages of our faculty and students, linked below."

A workable approach:

1. Pick your subarea. Decide whether you care about cryptography, network security, usable security, or secure machine learning.
2. Find the matching faculty. The page lists faculty including Henry Corrigan-Gibbs, Natacha Crooks, Chris Fletcher, Anthony Joseph, Vern Paxson, Raluca Ada Popa, Dawn Song, and David Wagner. Faculty pages are the most likely place to find current course listings and reading groups.
3. Check affiliates and postdocs for applied or adjacent work. Affiliates listed include Serge Egelman and Nicholas Weaver; postdocs and staff include Alisa Frik, Zhanhao Hu, Yiping Ma, Mona Wang, and Primal Wijesekera.
4. Look at the broader network. The page notes that "Security research at Berkeley spans a number of labs, centers, departments, colleges, and schools," and links out to related groups — so a course or event may sit outside the core group page.

Who this is for

Practical caveats

• The page is a people-and-links hub, not a schedule. Treat any specific course title, term, or event date as something you must confirm on the linked page.
• The "join us" invitation is a general statement. It does not describe an application process, eligibility, or timeline — those details are not on this page.
• Because the group spans multiple departments and schools, the most reliable first step is to identify one person whose work matches your interest and follow their page outward.

If your goal is to take a course, attend an event, or join the group, start from the faculty and student lists on this page and work outward to their individual sites.

The Berkeley Security Group's website (security.cs.berkeley.edu) organizes its people into clearly labeled categories on a single page, so you can locate a specific person or scan the team by role. The page lists faculty, affiliates, postdocs and staff, graduate students, and alumni, and it states that individual pages are linked from each name. It also notes that security research at Berkeley spans multiple labs, centers, departments, colleges, and schools, so collaborators may sit outside the core group.

What the page gives you

The page is a directory rather than a searchable database. Its value is the role-based grouping and the outbound links to individual pages.

The page's own framing is informal — headings such as "We've got great people!" and "We have lots of friends!" — but the underlying structure is a standard academic roster.

Steps to find a person or collaborator

1. Open the group's main page and scan the category headings.
2. Identify the role that matches your goal: faculty for advising or high-level collaboration, students or postdocs for project-level contact, affiliates for cross-institution connections.
3. Click the linked name to reach that person's individual page. The group states it encourages visitors to visit faculty and student pages for more on their research.
4. If your interest is topical rather than personal, use the "friends" section, which points to related labs, centers, departments, colleges, and schools.

Expected result: you land on an individual or related-group page with that person's or group's own research description, rather than staying on the roster.

Choosing the right category for your goal

• Seeking a PhD advisor or faculty collaborator: start with the faculty list. These are the people who lead research directions.
• Looking for a co-author or someone to discuss a specific project: postdocs, staff, and graduate students are closer to active work.
• Tracing a research area's history or a former connection: the alumni list is the relevant section.
• Looking beyond the core group: the affiliates and the related labs/centers section cover people and units outside the immediate roster.

Common sticking points

• The page is a static roster, not a search tool. There is no filter by topic, so you match people to interests by opening their individual pages.
• Role labels are broad. "Affiliates" and "friends" do not specify the exact nature of each relationship, so the linked page is where you confirm the connection.
• The page does not list contact details directly; those live on individual pages.
• Because research spans multiple departments and schools, a collaborator you want may not appear on this roster at all — check the related-labs links.

What to do next

Pick the category that matches your intent, open the linked individual pages, and use the related-labs section when your target sits outside the core group. If you are deciding whom to contact, the faculty list is the starting point for research direction, while students and postdocs are the better entry point for ongoing project work.