Rebekah Overdorf is Professor for Security and Trustworthiness of Online Information at Ruhr University Bochum.
Computer Science Rebekah Overdorf ensures security and privacy on the internet
Much of the newly appointed professor’s research in computer science revolves around social media.
More security and privacy for people on the internet – this is how you could roughly summarize the aim of Rebekah Overdorf’s research. Since March 2025, she has been Professor of Security and Trustworthiness of Online Information at the Faculty of Computer Science at Ruhr University Bochum. She is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence CASA – Cybersecurity in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries and the Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security, in which researchers from the University Alliance Ruhr work closely together. It was precisely these structures that attracted the US-born scientist to make the move to the Ruhr region. “Bochum brings a bunch of people together that are really smart on a topic I am interested in”, she says. “It’s a good environment!”
Rebekah Overdorf’s research is divided into two main areas: “On the one hand, I’m interested in attacks on the internet that already exist – my focus here is on security,” she explains. “On the other hand, it's about attacks that don’t yet exist and that we want to prevent. Here I focus on aspects of privacy.”
Detecting bots and analyzing writing styles
Much of Overdorf’s group’s research revolves around social media. For example, the computer scientist is interested in the mechanisms which bots use in the networks to spread propaganda – with the aim of detecting malicious activities. She is also investigating how anonymous online accounts can be deanonymized by analyzing their writing style. “This is a problem, for example, when you think of journalists in countries with oppressive regimes,” Overdorf gives an example.
Even though she has already fully immersed herself in work during her first month in Bochum, Rebekah Overdorf has already familiarized herself with the surroundings. “I really like Bochum,” is her conclusion. “There are lots of things I can do here with my children, I have good research conditions and my cooperation partners from the Netherlands and Belgium are just around the corner. When you're here, you realize that you're close to many other places!”
