At a time when 3.6 billion people worldwide use the Internet each day for work, personal banking, online shopping, and a host of other scenarios, information security and privacy have never been more important. Yet, without rigorous security systems behind each of these platforms, users won’t embrace online technology and Internet trust begins to crumble. IT security expert Julie Thorpe, Ph.D., examines online security, the way people interact with devices, and how that influences security systems. Users are prone to making mistakes in online authentication and security systems which can lead to loss and breach of trust. An Associate Professor in the Faculty of Business and Information Technology, Dr. Thorpe aims to improve online security by designing systems that understand key functions of the human brain. With a myriad of online systems and services, users are required to select and remember a variety of character-specific passwords that don’t necessarily work well with human memory. Dr. Thorpe’s latest research focuses on the design and evaluation of stronger authentication systems that work with the users’ memory. Using a model that assumes most online users are working with a password manager, her research explores ways to help generate a secure password including the use of locations, password phrases and a set of policies to help create secure passwords. Highly specialized computer security programs brought Dr. Thorpe to Ontario Tech University as an Assistant Professor in 2010, and she has developed and taught courses in Malware and Software Security, IT Security Policies and Procedures, and Operating System Security. An advocate for learning beyond the classroom, she founded IT Security Reading Group to create a broad discussion of the latest IT security industry news and help students build critical thinking and communication skills. Dr. Thorpe is also a member of the ACM-W Women in Computing Chapter at Ontario Tech University and DC where she aims to raise the profile of female experts in her field. And as a founding member of the Information Forensics and Security Lab, she helped create an advanced space for hands-on learning. Dr. Thorpe completed her Bachelor of Computer Science with First Class Honours at the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax; then gained six years of invaluable industry experience as a software systems analyst before earning her Doctorate of Philosophy in Computer Science from Ottawa’s Carleton University in 2008. Ontario Tech University's