AAU Excellence Portrait – Edlira Dushku

🔐 How can we know if a device can be trusted - and ensure it stays safe and trustworthy over time?

This question is at the heart of Edlira Dushku’s research. She has just been selected for AAU Excellence, Aalborg University’s talent programme for early-career researchers with the potential to make a difference.

Edlira works in the field of Trusted Computing and Remote Attestation – technologies that make it possible to verify that internet-connected devices (IoT) are secure and free from malware before they are granted access to a network. Edlira asks: 

🗨️Imagine a security camera in your home. You’ve set a strong password – but what if the device itself is compromised? Would you still trust the images it sends? 

Her research is especially relevant at a time when:

Attacks on critical infrastructure are on the rise
AI is being deployed at scale
Demands for data security and verifiability are increasing 
With attestation and confidential computing, we can ensure that systems and AI models are trustworthy – and prove it.

🗨️I’m particularly interested in how we can build trust in technology. Not just by reacting to attacks, but by ensuring that systems are healthy and secure from the start. It’s a more proactive and trust-establishing approach to cybersecurity. 

She hopes her research can help protect vital sectors such as healthcare, infrastructure, and IoT ecosystems.

Being selected for AAU Excellence means a great deal to Edlira:

🗨️It’s a major recognition and an opportunity to grow as a researcher. The programme gives me access to mentorship, networks, and collaboration with leading institutions. My goal is to help position Denmark at the forefront of cybersecurity and Trusted Computing.

Edlira is currently employed as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Cybersecurity at the Department of Electronic Systems.

She is originally from Albania where she worked for 6 years in industry before her PhD. She received the PhD from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 2020. After the Ph.D., Edlira was a Postdoctoral Researcher in Cybersecurity at DTU Compute.