Dr. Deanna D. Caputo, Ph.D.

Chief Scientist & Senior Principal Behavioral Psychologist
MITRE Insider Threat Research & Solutions

Dr. Deanna D. Caputo is the Chief Scientist for Insider Threat Capabilities and a Senior Principal Behavioral Psychologist at the MITRE Corporation, applying her deep expertise in the behavioral sciences to insider threat efforts across a very broad work program. Deanna is an internationally recognized expert in insider threat, and at the intersection of cybersecurity and behavioral science. She has over 25 years of experience designing, conducting, and analyzing research with human participants using experimental, quantitative, and qualitative analyses. During her 16-year career at MITRE, she has built and led MITRE’s Human Behavior and Cybersecurity capability area and dedicated team focused on operational research and consultation on human behavior and cybersecurity, particularly usable security and technology adoption, cyber risk perceptions and awareness, and cybersecurity teams and exercise assessment.

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Dr. Caputo has also built and currently leads MITRE’s Insider Threat Research and Solutions Capability and multi-disciplinary team. She created and pioneers the development of Insider Threat solutions as repeatable offerings for government and critical infrastructure organizations with more than 18 IP disclosures, and stood up an air-gapped, secure MITRE Insider Threat Lab. She uses behavioral methodologies and analytics to reduce insider threats by analyzing how human behavior manifests in cyber and non-cyber sensors, and developing solutions to identify and change employee attitudes, intentions, and/or behaviors. Deanna holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Santa Clara University and a Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology with a specialization in Judgment and Decision-Making and Psychology and Law from Cornell University. Dr. Caputo has multiple research articles published in peer-reviewed journals, authored two book chapters including in 2020 Insider Threats: Leveraging the Benefits of Behavioral Science Research in the International Handbook of Threat Assessments, Oxford Press (2021).