Security debt is usually understood as postponed fixes, insecure shortcuts, and vulnerabilities left for later. It is rarely questioned, and is framed as technical, measurable and inevitable. But security debt begins earlier than we admit. It accumulates not only in systems, but in how we prioritise delivery over resilience, separate authority from accountability, and normalise levels of risk we would never accept explicitly. By the time systems fail, the decisive choices have already been made. What if security is less about tools and more about the environments, perceptions, and norms that shape our decisions? And what, exactly, are we passing on to the next generation?
Talk
The Architecture of Insecurity
March 20, 09:00 (CLOUD)
Speaker
Anastasija Collen
Anastasija Collen is an Associate Professor of Cybersecurity at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland (HES-SO - HEG) Geneva and Co-Head of the Information Security Lab. She holds a PhD in Information Systems from University of Geneva and has worked in the industry as a software and R&D engineer before returning to the academia. Her research focuses on cybersecurity and privacy in complex cyber-physical systems, including connected infrastructures, intelligent transportation systems, and IoT environments.
Prof. Collen has led and contributed to multiple European research projects addressing security and risk in large-scale, interconnected systems. Her work combines technical security engineering with formal risk modelling and the study of human factors, examining how architectural design, organisational structures, and governance decisions shape security outcomes. She was recognised by the IEEE Computer Society among Computing’s Top 30 Early Career Professionals in 2024 and received the SNIS International Geneva Award in 2026.
