Dr Manmeet Mahinderjit Singh

Cybersecurity Associate Professor Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)

Associate Professor Dr Manmeet Mahinderjit Singh is a distinguished cybersecurity educator, researcher, and thought leader at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang. She earned her PhD in Data Security from the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2012 and has since been at the forefront of advancing cybersecurity through impactful research, education, consultancy, and innovation.

Dr. Singh’s research spans critical cybersecurity domains including privacy engineering, identity system protection, threat defense models, behavioural profiling, AI security, IoT security, and frictionless authentication. Her multidisciplinary approach bridges technical safeguards, regulatory compliance (e.g., PDPA, GDPR), and ethical design, making her work highly relevant across sectors such as healthcare, e-commerce, and smart cities. She specializes in developing privacy-preserving systems that balance data protection and usability in smart environments and AI-driven platforms. Her work on behavioural analytics and identity modelling supports secure, policy-aligned data handling. In the realm of cyber threat defense, she adopts a proactive stance against muti-stages threats such as Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) and ransomware threats, designing adaptive risk models, novel behavioural profiling methods, and strategic mitigation frameworks to strengthen national cyber resilience.

Dr Singh is also a recognized expert in Internet of Things (IoT) and RFID security. Her research addresses both theory and real-world applications, including hardware protections, lightweight cryptography, and secure deployment. Her innovations have enhanced industrial traceability and anti-counterfeiting efforts and have earned recognition at events such as ITEX 2020, Penang Science Cluster, and the Korea Academy of Innovation. As AI becomes more embedded in daily life, Dr Singh contributes to building trustworthy and explainable AI systems especially for life-critical applications like healthcare. She focuses on adversarial robustness, transparency, and ethical AI development, contributing to global movements for responsible AI. In authentication, she pioneers frictionless identity frameworks by integrating biometrics, behavioural profiling, and cryptography supporting secure, seamless access across pervasive computing platforms and next-generation digital ecosystems.

Beyond her research, Dr Singh is a dedicated educator and mentor, actively supervising postgraduates and leading research teams in areas like cybersecurity analytics, AI security, and digital trusts. She has also developed and delivered numerous cybersecurity training programs, covering emerging technologies, big data, mobile security, and executive-level cyber strategy for academic and industry participants. In addition, she is a certified Computational Thinking trainer and had successfully trained secondary level STEM teachers and students. 

Dr Singh is also a prolific contributor to the cybersecurity community through her impactful academic publications, editorials, and book reviews, many of which are cited in national digital security blueprints and roadmaps. Dr. Singh’s influence extends across borders. In 2024, she was a keynote speaker at Binus University, Indonesia, on “Cybersecurity and Sustainability in ASEAN” and spoke at UTA’45 Jakarta on Applied Cryptography. She also delivered invited talks at the University of Strathclyde’s NEXUS UK Summer School, addressing Trustworthy AI and ASEAN Cybersecurity Perspectives, and returned in 2023 with talks on Mobile APT detection using the MITRE Framework. In Malaysia, she chaired and spoke at CISO Kuala Lumpur 2025, participated as a panelist at CyberSecMY 2025, and was a featured speaker at ECSOM (Cybersecurity Malaysia Conference), the Asia Anti-Fraud Leaders Summit, and Cyberattack Retreat Malaysia. Her topics ranged from Zero Trust Architecture and SASE frameworks to fraud prevention, AI–ML integration in cybersecurity and Cyber Hygiene: IoT Cybersecurity Strategies and Enterprise Environment.   She also served as guest speaker at the MY Universities Hackathon 2024, discussing Blockchain for Sustainable development.

Dr Singh’s leadership in the field is further underscored by her roles as Technical Assessor and Judge for PhilSec Awards (Philippines, 2024); CSO ASEAN Awards (IDG Singapore, 2021–2024) and HILTI Cybersecurity Competition (2022). Her contributions have earned her several prestigious accolades, including the Women in Security Malaysia Award (2020) and the Women in Cybersecurity ASEAN Award (2021). These honors reflect her trailblazing role in promoting cybersecurity leadership, STEM excellence, and gender diversity in the field. Through her integrated contributions in research, teaching, policy engagement, and innovation, Associate Professor Dr Manmeet Mahinderjit Singh continues to shape Malaysia’s cybersecurity landscape while contributing meaningfully to the global conversation on secure, ethical, and sustainable digital systems