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New Software-Campus started by BMBF
Development program for master's and doctoral students
The Software Campus is an elite development program for master's and doctoral students with excellent qualifications and a creative entrepreneurial spirit who are in the final phase of their master's program (before the master's thesis) or at the beginning of the doctoral program in computer science. It also welcomes participants from related disciplines such as mathematics or physics or applied fields such as engineering, medical technology, linguistics, etc., if they have a strong interest in IT and the necessary basic skills.
Dr. Xuebing Zhou
Young CASED researchers excell at CAST-Awards
Awards for best Ph. D. thesis and best master theses
Dr. Xuebing Zhou reached at yesterday’s presentation of the PhD award 2011 the first place for her work titled “Privacy and Security Assessment of Biometric Template Protection.” The awardee is determined by 26 IT security experts from all over Germany and receives a price money of 4.000 €.
Anika Pflug and Sebastian Abt from the Universitiy of Applied Sciences Darmstadt received the first and second prize in the category of master- and diploma theses.
- Anika Pflug convinced with her master thesis “Finger Vein Recognition“.
- Sebastian Abt gets the second place for his work titled “Assessing Semantic Conformance of Minutiae-based Feature Extractors”.
The ranking is decided through a secret ballot from all CAST-Members attending the ceremony.
For further information and abstracts from the PhD-Award (Promotionspreis) and the CAST-Award (Förderpreis).
Michael Waidner new Director of CASED
Johannes Buchmann continues as Vice Director
Darmstadt, November 17, 2011 – Starting from November 21, 2011, Prof. Dr. Michael Waidner becomes new Director at the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED). The 49-year old scientist switched positions with founder Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann, who becomes Vice Director at CASED.
Think about IT Security from the very beginning
The BMBF competence center “EC SPRIDE” launches program for the promotion of young talent
Darmstadt, November 22nd, 2011. The “European Center for Security and Privacy by Design – EC SPRIDE” at the TU Darmstadt has started its work with the launch of the Claude Shannon Program for promoting young talent. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) will support the competence center with funding of around 8 million euros over the next four years.
This center for IT security supplements the strong basic research activities performed at the TU Darmstadt and further develops the results of the university in an application-oriented manner. “The launch of the new competence center EC SPRIDE shows that we are not only investing in scientific progress, but also Germany as a location for top researchers”, said Annette Schavan, the Federal Minister of Education and Research.
Read press release at www.ec-spride.de
Study on the Usability of Graphical Passwords open for registration
Online study started by SecUSo research group
The SecUSo - IT-Security, Usability and Society - research group wants to provide a broad comparative usability study of several graphical password systems and textual passwords, all configured to meet the same security level. Participation is highly appreciated!
Further information and registration
http://passwortstudie.cased.de/en/
German IT Security Prize 2012 – call for participation
Horst Görtz-Foundation awards 200.000 to applied IT Security solutions
The Horst Görtz-Foundation calls for participation in the competition for the 4th German IT Security Prize. The prestigious award is endowed with the highest prize money for applied IT security solutions in Germany: a total of 200.000 Euro is distributed between three winners, chosen from ten nominees. The Jury is looking for ideas and concepts from the areas of IT security, cryptography, system and network security and cyber defense.
Developers or scientists from companies and research institutes are invited to participate; the leading applicant has to be working or studying in Germany. CASED is organizing the competition and hosting the award ceremony on November 29th, 2012 in Darmstadt.
Registration deadline: February 14th, 2012
Deadline for short proposal: February 29th, 2012
Further information (in German only) at: www.horst-goertz.de/it_preis.html
Joint Security Research - Intel and TU Darmstadt
At the Research@Intel Europe event in Leixlip, Ireland (October 12) Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner announced the creation of the new Intel - TU Darmstadt Security Institute.
CASED-Team among best student hardware hackers and ID Protectors
Students Win Trips to Compete in NYU-Poly Cyber Security Awareness Week
New York, October 3, 2011 – PRNewswire/ -- Student finalists have been announced in a contest involving one of the fastest-growing cyber security frontiers: hardware supply chain safety. A record 37 international teams of students accepted the annual challenge issued by students of Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) to compete in the 2011 Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) Embedded Systems Challenge. Top-scoring teams came from universities across the United States and Europe.
The Team from TU Darmstadt_CASED is among the top eight teams in the Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) Design Challenge.
BizzTrust for Android splits one smartphone into 2 virtual phones
Fraunhofer with Showcase at IT SA
Currently researchers at Fraunhofer and CASED have developed software that permits the creation of 2 virtual good phones during a single device providing security for corporations whereas letting employees install their own apps.
Online Privacy:
Towards Informational Self-Determination on the Internet
Manifesto of the Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop is now published online
Edited by
Simone Fischer-Hübner, Chris Hoofnagle, Ioannis Krontiris,
Kai Rannenberg, and Michael Waidner
MONA makes the new personal ID card mobile
Researchers at the TU Darmstadt are turning mobile phones into card readers with the help of an innovative application
Darmstadt, August 5, 2011 – Scientists at the TU Darmstadt in the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) have developed the first mobile eID application, which is called “MONA”, for the new personal ID cards. Instead of a computer and card reader, users with the new personal ID cards will only need a modern smartphone in future for providing secure electronic identification. The scientists are hoping to release the first version of this software, which was developed within the scope of a project initiated by Deutsche Telekom Laboratories in cooperation with T-Systems and the company media transfer AG, over the next few months during the course of an open source project. They then want to further develop the application for different kinds of smartphones, such as Android mobiles, together with programmers who interested in getting involved.
PKC 2012 in Darmstadt, May 2012 - Call for paper out now!
Darmstadt, Frankfurt Rhine Main region, Germany, July 28, 2011 – Original research papers on all technical aspects of public-key cryptography are solicited for submission to PKC 2012, the 15th International Conference on Practice and Theory in Public-Key Cryptography. Papers suggesting novel paradigms, original directions, or non-traditional perspectives are especially welcome.
- Submission deadline: December 15th, 2011, 11:00 UTC
- Notification of acceptance: February 27th, 2012
- Camera-ready version due: March 12th, 2012
- Conference: May 21-23, 2012
SIT Munich becomes Fraunhofer AISEC
On July 1st, the Munich based project group "Sicherheit und Zuverlässigkeit" of Fraunhofer SIT has become an independent Fraunhofer Intitute for Applied and Integrated Security. Prof. Claudia Eckert, who for many years headed the SIT in Darmstadt, is director of the new institute.
Prof. Matthias Hollick & Delphine Christin
CASED Lecture Tops the League in Winter 2010/2011
The semi-annual award for the best lecture has been conferred on “Mobile Networking” for the winter term 2010/2011.
Mobile Networking is a Master-level course that is given by CASED PI Prof. Matthias Hollick and supported by Delphine Christin, it covers topics leading to the area of (secure) mobile networking, which is one of the key topics in the CASED research agenda towards a secure future Internet.
The selection process for the best lecture is organized by the Fachschaft Informatik, which processed more than 2000 questionnaires filled by students in Winter 2010/2011.
The success story continues - Hessen extends CASED support until 2014
The LOEWE center for IT security in Darmstadt is among the winners of the second phase of the excellence program
The State of Hessen is extending its support of the LOEWE Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) until 2014. The Hessian Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts confirmed that the research center for IT security will receive a further 13.4 million euros over the next three years. Experts and politicians have therefore corroborated the immense success of CASED, which is currently one of the largest research centers for IT security in Europe with around 170 scientists from a wide range of disciplines.
Double success for IT security
Scientists from Technische Universität Darmstadt receive Heisenberg and Horst Görtz Foundation Professorships
Two scientists at CASED, the research center for IT security in Darmstadt, were awarded highly coveted sponsorship for their outstanding accomplishments: Prof. Dr. Stefan Katzenbeisser assumed his Horst Görtz Foundation professorship on May 1, 2011. Dr. Marc Fischlin has held the Heisenberg professorship at the TU Darmstadt since June 2011.
Careless Behaviour of Cloud Users Leads to Crucial Security Threats
CASED scientists find sensitive data of Amazon Web Services users
Scientists from the Darmstadt Research Center for Advanced Security (CASED) have discovered major security vulnerabilities in numerous virtual machines published by customers of Amazon’s cloud. From 1100 public Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), that are used to provide cloud services, about 30 percent are vulnerable, allowing attackers to manipulate or compromise web services or virtual infrastructures. The main reason lies in the careless and error-prone manner in which Amazon’s customers handle and deploy AMIs. CASED scientists have developed a vulnerability scanner for virtual machines that customers create to run on Amazon’s infrastructure. It can be freely downloaded at http://trust.cased.de/AMID.
BMBF-conference on "Future Internet"
Berlin Congress Center, June 17, 2011 – The BMBF invites to the conference “Future Internet” from July 5th-6th, 2011 in Berlin. The issue is prominent in social and innovation policy worldwide. The BMBF therefore aims to enhance the dialogue about the structure of the future internet between society, politics, science and economy.
The conference on the future internet is designed to contribute to future research and innovation policy. Prof. Johannes Buchmann and Prof. Michael Waidner will speak at the conference.
CASED featured in ZDF Zoom
TV documentary about privacy (in german)
Reporter Sabrina Hermsen interviewed CASED scientists Prof. Stefan Katzenbeisser and Dr. Martin Mink as technical experts on privacy. The documetary ZDF Zoom with title “Hilfe, ich bin nackt!” (Help, I am naked”) has been aired on June 15th at 10.45 p.m. on the german public TV channel ZDF. It is still available online in the ZDF-Mediathek.
Two CASED publications accepted at CRYPTO 2011
"PUFs in the Universal Composition" and "Random Oracle Reducibility"
CASED-PI Prof. Marc Fischlin presents two papers on this years Crypto conference in Santa Barbara, California.
He and CASED-PI Prof. Stefan Katzenbeisser together with CASED-members Christina Brzuska and Heike Schröder, modeled Physically Unclonable Functions in Canettis Universal Composition and devised efficient protocols for basic tasks: "Physically Uncloneable Functions in the Universal Composition".
Together with Paul Bächer, Ph.D.-candidate at CASED, he presents his work on "Random Oracle Reducibility".
Former CASED-member Dr. Dominique Schröder presents his work "Round Optimal Blind Signature".
Stefan Katzenbeisser receives W2 professorship funded by the Horst Goertz Foundation
As of May 2011 and until 2017, the Horst Görtz Foundation is funding CASED PI Prof. Dr. Stefan Katzenbeisser with 150.000 Euro per year for his W2 professorship. Prior to that, the foundation supported the scientist from Vienna with a Junior Professorship for his research group Security Engineering at the Computer Science Department of TU Darmstadt. His research concentrates on methods for the technichal protection of highly sensitive data: privacy, digital rights management and software security. In six years, the department of Computer Science will continue his professorship.
Mark Seeger won “International Round” at Kaspersky Conference
Mark Seeger, PhD student at the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) in Germany and the Gjøvik University College (GUC) in Norway won this year’s “International Round” of the Kaspersky “IT Security for the Next Generation” conference held in Munich from April 13 – 15.
Liina Kamm from STACC in Estonia
Revisited: CrossFyre-Workshop
1st International workshop for women cryptographers at CASED
CrossFyre (Cryptography, Robustness, and provably Secure Schemes for Female Young Researchers) is the first international workshop to target female researchers in cryptography. This two-day event was organized this year for the first time by TU Eindhoven and CASED, with support from ECRYPT II. The workshop was hosted by CASED on Thursday the 14th and Friday the 15th of April 2011.
Idea contest „How to forget in the internet/Vergessen im Internet“
Federal Ministry of the Interior calls for contributions
On April 13th 2011, the Federal Ministry of the Interior launched the idea contest „How to forget in the internet/Vergessen im Internet“.
A prominent jury, including CASED Direktor Johannes Buchmann and PI Prof. Dr. Alexander Roßnagel, will award outstanding contributions. Contributions should describe the manifold opportunities and threats imposed by the – seemingly permanent but in historical perspective potentially limited - availability of information in the internet. Scientists, companies and private persons are invited to contribute in one or more of three categories ranging from scientific to artistic.
Details can be found (in german) at the contest´s website www.vergessen-im-internet.de.
House of IT coming to Darmstadt
The hessian government and partners from science and industry will establish the House of IT in Darmstadt. The initiators presented their specific plans today at a press conference in the CASED building.
Ziel des neuen Kompetenzzentrums „EC-SPRIDE“: Umfassende Sicherheit und Schutz für den Nutzer. Bild: Katrin Binner
TU Darmstadt awarded with funding for Competency Center for IT Security Research
Center “EC-SPRIDE“ will focus on Security and Privacy by Design
The Technische Universität Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) has been awarded with funding to establish the competency center “EC-SPRIDE” by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The new center’s objective is protecting information technology users against fraud, misuse, sabotage and spying.
Kick-Off Meeting of the DFG-Priority Programme RS3
Darmstadt, 21. - 24. February 2011
In February, the Kick-Off Meeting of the DFG-Priority Programme 'Reliably Secure Software Systems' (RS3) will take place at TU Darmstadt.
Coordinated by Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel, 60 researchers from all over Germany will start a new line of research aiming at making software systems provably secure.
Prof. David Sands from Chalmers University in Gothenburg will give the Keynote Talk.
Meet CASED at CeBIT 2011 - Hall 9, Stand D22
Secure Cloud Computing and protection against product piracy
Interested in secure Cloud Computing or in new techniques against product piracy? Visit our stand at CeBIT, the team of Prof. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi is looking forward to discussing latest developments in these areas.
Two years: LOEWE Research Center CASED
An ever-increasing number of applications are demanding increasingly complex IT security solutions – personal data needs to be protected against unauthorized access, our computers need protecting against malware, and corporate secrets need to remain a secret. In order to meet these challenges, the Minister for Science and the Arts in Hessen, Eva Kühne-Hörmann, opened the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) two years ago
CASED-Paper accepted at ACM ASIACCS 2011
"Practical Affiliation-Hiding from Improved Polynomial Interpolation"
The paper "Practical Affiliation-Hiding from Improved Polynomial Interpolation" by Prof. Mark Manulis and Bertram Poettering has been accepted for publication at ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS 2011). A full version of the paper can be found at eprint.iacr.org.
This year's ACM ASIACCS acceptance rate was about 15%.
CASED wins BSI Open Tender
Study on group signatures
A bid for conducting a study on group signatures, submitted by CASED PIs Mark Manulis, Marc Fischlin, and Johannes Buchmann, has won the corresponding open tender of Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI - German Federal Office for Information Security).
The duration of the project is estimated with eight months and has the overall budget of roughly 100.000 EUR.
New Enisa report "Governmental Cloud in the EU"
with contributions by CASED researchers Dennis Heinson and Steffen Schreiner
The EU’s ‘cyber security’ Agency ENISA has launched a new report on Govermental Cloud Computing. The report is targeted at senior managers of public bodies who have to make a security and resilience decision about how to ‘go cloud’, if at all.
CASED researchers awarded with E-Teaching Award 2010
Prof. Mark Manulis und Prof. Peter Buxmann convince reviewers
Darmstadt, January 17, 2011 –
CASED researchers Prof. Mark Manulis and Prof. Peter Buxmann each received an E-Teaching Award 2010.
The award was granted by Carlo and Karin Giersch-Stiftung at TU Darmstadt for distinguished achievements in the realisation of blended learning according to the dual mode strategy of TU Darmstadt.
Prof. Mark Manulis excelled with his "Introduction to Cryptography" held in winter 2010/2011.
Prof. Peter Buxmann and Thorsten Frey from the Information Systems group convinced with their lecture "Einführung in die Wirtschaftsinformatik II".
2. International Workshop on Constructive Side-Channel Analysis and Secure Design - COSADE 2011
February 24th - 25th, 2011
Darmstadt, Fraunhofer SIT, January 17, 2011 – This workshop provides an international platform for researchers, academics, and industry participants to present their work and their current research topics. It is an excellent opportunity to meet experts and to initiate new collaborations and information exchange at a professional level.
The workshop will feature both invited presentations and contributing talks. COSADE 2011 also appreciates work in progress.
Workshop on Usable Security and Privacy on March 10th, 2011
Social and technical aspects
Darmstadt, January 10, 2011 – On March 29th, 2011, CASED offers an workshop on "Usable Security and Privacy".
Its goal is to identify concret research questions and next steps in the context of usable security and privacy as well as bringing people from different areas (research, industry, policy makers) and different disciplines (security and usability, software engineering, social and legal sciences, and psychology) together.
Top Scientist moves to Darmstadt
Prof. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi strengthens IT security research in Darmstadt: His research focuses on security and data protection for embedded and mobile systems, and cloud computing.
Darmstadt, December 13, 2010 – Prof. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi moves from Ruhr University Bochum to Technical University Darmstadt. Since October 2010 he heads the research group ”System Security Lab“ newly implemented in the TUD’s Computer Science Department, and is holding the new lecture Secure, Trusted and Trustworthy Computing. In addition Prof. Sadeghi has accepted a position at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt as ”Director of Science“, as which he is responsible for coordinating research activities and programs for young scientists. He is also the head of Fraunhofer SIT’s new research field „System Security and Cryptography“. At the same time he and his team are expanding CASED’s working area „Secure Things“, which he will take over in 2011.
Security for the “eye in the sky”
CASED develops secure communication and image processing for flying models
Aerial pictures of large sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, provide television viewers with spectacular perspectives. Scientists at the TU Darmstadt in the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) have developed a flying model that may enable television channels to dispense with real helicopters in future.
New security technology tested in courts of law
Realistic negotiations predict the effects of future security technologies
Computer scientists from the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) will participate in simulated court cases together with judges, lawyers and legal experts on Thursday and Friday (2.-3.12.) in Darmstadt. The simulation of various legal cases should enable the experts to gather experience with current and future technologies in a realistic and protected environment, while both the technology and the legal rules are still capable of being shaped.
Dr. Horst Görtz und die Gewinner des
3. Deutschen IT-Sicherheitspreises
Deutscher IT-Sicherheitspreis 2010 (German IT Security Prize)
Second place for Professor Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, Lucas Davi and Marcel Winandy
Bochum, December 1, 2010 – Professor Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi, Lucas Davi and Marcel Winandy achieved second place in the “Deutscher IT-Sicherheitspreis”, which comes with a total of 60,000 Euros in prize money, with their ROPdefender: a tool for preventing return-oriented program attacks. Prof. Sadeghi moved to the TU Darmstadt in October.
He is the principal investigator at CASED and Director of Science at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT).
The following topics where among the ten nominations:
Biometric Transaction Authentication Protocol (BTAP)
Christoph Busch, Daniel Hartung
Institute: Darmstadt University of Applied Science - CASED
MAUS - Mobile Authentisierung und Signatur (mobile authentication and signing)
Moritz Horsch, Detlef Hühnlein, Tina Hühnlein, Alexander Wiesmaier
Institutes: ecsec GmbH, TU-Darmstadt/CASED
Security in a digital world
forschen - The TU research periodical
Darmstadt, November 11, 2010 – In this periodical we will be introducing the authors who affect our lives today, and will continue to do so in the future. Many of the current and newly developed technologies perform amazing feats in devices and software, yet they remain hidden in their abstractness. Our scientists work on the security of IT and increase security in the public sphere through IT.
In addition to the scientific content, we would also like to introduce the people behind the research and give a face (or many faces) to IT security at the TU Darmstadt and its partner institutions.
The authors would therefore like to invite you to take a look inside their areas of expertise within this book. Specialist publications and further information on all of the topics presented can be found on the websites provided.
Hacking also needs to be learned
The TU Darmstadt utilizes hacker methods in its IT security course/usd AG from Langen funds doctoral scholarship
During the so-called “Hacker Apprenticeship” at the TU Darmstadt, students learn the latest methods and strategies that are being used by computer hackers. The “Hacker Apprenticeship”, which is part of the Master’s Degree in IT security, should help the graduates to block real hacker attacks in future.
Sorin A. Huss et al. received Outstanding Paper Award
at the 17th ITS World Congress in Busang, Korea
With their paper "Verifying Mobility Data under Privacy Considerations in V2X Communication" the authors Hagen Stuebing, Attila Jaeger, Norbert Bißmeyer, Christoph Schmidt und Sorin A. Huss received the Outstanding Paper Award at the 17th ITS World Congress in Busang, Korea.
This publication results from a collaboration between the research group around Prof. Sorin A. Huss from CASED/TU Darmstadt,the Adam Opel GmbH and Fraunhofer-Institut SIT within the project simTD .
Best paper Award for CASED researcher Claudia Nickel
Sixth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing
Darmstadt, October 20, 2010 – With their paper "Unobstrusive User-Authentication on Mobile Phones using Biometric Gait Recognition" the authors Claudia Nickel und Mohammad Derawi received the best paper award at the sixth International Conference on Intelligent Information Hiding and Multimedia Signal Processing (IIH-MSP 2010) in Darmstadt, October 15-17, 2010. This work results from a collaboration with the Norwegian Information Security laboratory (NISlab) at Gjøvik University College. As researcher from the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Claudia Nickel works in the CASED-Research Area "Secure Services" on "Secure Provision of Services". Mohammad Derawi was an exchange student at CASED between April and October 2009.
Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel
Foto: Katrin Binner
Start of DFG Priority Programme "Reliably Secure Software Systems"
13 Projects at 13 Universities and 2 Research Institutes
In October 2010 starts the Priority Programm "Reliably Secure Software Systems” (RS3) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The program is beeing coordinated by Prof. Heiko Mantel, Professor at TU Darmstadt and Principal Investigator at CASED.
Greater goal of the program is to make the security of complex software systems reliably revisable.
FORBILD project started
The Information Rights Management group at CASED was happy to receive funding granted by the HMWK for the FORBILD project. In FORBILD, researchers from Fraunhofer SIT and TU Darmstadt will develop efficient automated classification mechanisms for image data by means of image forensics and perceptual image hashing in cooperation with with LSK Data Systems GmbH.
The results shall assist the federal and state police in visual inspection of seized image data that potentially shows illegal content, namely child pornography. Privacy-preserving mechanisms are included in the project in order to reflect the delicacy of the image content.
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Prof. Dr. Michael Waidner
Foto: Katrin Binner
Michael Waidner is new Vice Director at CASED
and new Director of Fraunhofer SIT in Darmstadt
Darmstadt, October 1, 2010 – Michael Waidner is new Vice Director of the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED). At the TU Darmstadt he researches and teaches as head of the division "Secure Information technology" in the areas IT Security, technical data protection and Reliability. At the same time he is the new director of Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT in Darmstadt.
Until October Professor Waidner has been Chief Technology Officer for IT Security at IBM Corporation in New York, USA and before this he was Head of the IT Security Research at IBM Research Laboratory in Rüschlikon, Switzerland.
Former Vice Director of CASED Professor Claudia Eckert leads the independent Fraunhofer Institute SIT in Munich and the chair for IT Security at the Techncal University in Munich.
CASED scientists start three new DFG (German Research Foundation) projects
Research regarding electronic voting, algebraic-statistic attacks, and digital signatures that are quantum computer resistant
Project: "Constitutionally consistent electronic voting"
In this project, conducted by Prof. Johannes Buchmann and Dr. Melanie Volkamer (CASED), the scientists are examining how constitutionally consistent electronic voting and in particular constitutionally consistent verification processes can be implemented.
Comprehensive legal and technical requirements are hereby being defined, proposals for the wording of a voting device directive prepared, a constitutionally consistent voting device implemented, which besides the votes cast and the result calculation also enables voter authentication, and an adequate evaluation concept elaborated.
In order to create the basis both regarding legal considerations and the measures related to information systems for constitutionally consistent electronic parliamentary elections, close co-operation with lawyers of the University of Kassel in the group working with Prof. Alexander Roßnagel is planned.
Project: "Algebraic-statistic attacks: algorithms and tools"
Prof. Johannes Buchmann and Dr. Stanislav Bulygin (CASED), in co-operation with Prof. Gert-Martin Greuel (TU Kaiserslautern), are starting the project "Algebraic-statistic attacks: algorithms and tools". The project is part of the DFG Special Focus Program 1489 "Algorithmic and Experimental Methods in Algebra, Geometry, and Number Theory".
The cryptanalytic part of the project will be conducted in Darmstadt whereas activities on developing the necessary tools from computer algebra will be carried out in Kaiserslautern.
Project: "Efficient and provably secure digital signatures for the era of quantum computers"
This project, conducted by Prof. Johannes Buchmann and Dr. Erik Dahmen, is intended to provide evidence that the "generalized Merkle signature scheme" (GMSS) developed in their work group is a practically suitable and provably secure post-quantum signature procedure for all types of applications.
As minimum security prerequisites the procedure demands only collision resistance and the pseudorandomness of the employed hash function. The group is also presenting a long-term secure GMSS option which does not require any modification of existing public-key infrastructures.
"RESIST" project of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) started under the leadership of the Fraunhofer SIT
RESIST - Methods and tools for safeguarding embedded and mobile systems against attacks of the next generation
July 1st marked the start of the "RESIST" research project of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the direction of Prof. Claudia Eckert, Manager of the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology. For the Technical University Darmstadt the CASED scientists Prof. Sorin A. Huss and Prof. Johannes Buchmann are taking part. For the Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) CASED scientist Prof. Werner Schindler is taking part. It is the goal of the project to reduce the economic damages resulting from weak points in electronic access and authentication systems.
The security and reliability of embedded and mobile systems and their integration in existing IT landscapes will gain considerably in significance in the future. This applies particularly to the attack resistance of security-critical embedded and mobile systems with respect to so-called side-channel attacks and error-provoking attacks.
In order to optimize this attack resistance, scientists in RESIST will develop sophisticated analyses of security leaks of programmable circuits, chip cards, and selected security software and propose evaluation criteria. Then, on this basis, methods and protective techniques are to be developed to build resistance to attacks of the next generation as well as corresponding verification methods.
For this purpose, engineering knowledge is to be combined with mathematical methods. In a third project step an attempt will be made to translate into practice resistant software and hardware components, security modules, and reference implementations. The underwriting group of the research association is bringing together highly qualified partners from the areas of industry and research. The Federal Office for Security in Information Technology is associated as evaluator. (Source: BMBF)
Industrial espionage based on "electronic attacks" is on the increase
The Federal Ministry of the Interior calls for more prevention in its Report on the Protection of the Constitution 2009
In the current Report on the Protection of the Constitution, the Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière (CDU) admonishes to greater awareness and sensitivity with respect to the increase in industrial espionage.
"Electronic" attacks on computer systems of business enterprises and government agencies are being increasingly carried out in Germany; according to the Report on the Protection of the Constitution "it appears quite probable that many cases involve control or at least participation of intelligence services".
St. Johns, Mykonos
Summer School on Applied Cryptographic Protocols 2010
Sept 26 to Oct. 01 in Mykonos
This year, CASED offers from Sept 26 to Oct. 01 the first Summer School on Applied Cryptographic Protocols in Mykonos, Greece. It aims at PhD students working in the areas of (applied) cryptography and network security. The school is organized jointly by ECRYPT/MAY and CASED.
CASED experts talk at European Security Round Table
Dennis Heinson and Steffen Schreiner on cloud computing
Brussels, June 14, 2010 – On June 8. participants from EU institutions, national governments, business and academia or the research sector met for the European Security Round Table adressing the topic "Moving to the cloud: Risks and opportunities – Assessment for local entities". CASED participated with two talks from researchers Dennis Heinson and Steffen Schreiner. Dennis Heinson, legal scientist at the University of Kassel in Germany, gave an overview of legal aspects in cloud computing. Steffen Schreiner focussed on the technical security aspects of cloud computing and presented first approaches.
The European Security Round Table is a neutral platform between the EU Institutions, NATO and other relevant actors to discuss European security and defence issues. A membership-based organisation, it provides a forum for the crucial topics of today as much as for discussions about the future direction of European security and defence policy. It is supported by a high-level Advisory Board and it is unique with its EU focus and its systematic approach.
Detailed information and presentation slides from all speakers are offered online by ESRT.
The New Codebreakers
An invitation to celebrate the 80th birthday of David Kahn
Luxembourg, June 13, 2010 – The purpose of this event is to celebrate the 80th year of the eminent writer and historian of cryptography and intelligence David Kahn.
Peer-to-Peer Concepts for Emergency First Response
Dirk Bradler, head of CASED-research group Smart Civil Security, successfully defended his doctoral thesis
Darmstadt, June 7, 2010 – In his thesis "Peer-to-Peer Concepts for Emergency First Response", Bradler proposes a P2P communication paradigm as an alternative communication approach in the first response application domain.
New Master’s Program in “IT Security” at the TU Darmstadt
Invitation to an informational event on May 4, 2010
Darmstadt, April 21, 2010 – Persons interested in the new Master’s Degree in IT Security at the TU Darmstadt can obtain further information during an informational event on May 4, 2010. The demand for qualified IT security specialists is great, as the IT security sector continues to grow, even during periods of economic crisis. Applications for the winter semester can be submitted from May 1. to July 15.
Just published by CASED-researcher Stanislav Bulygin:
Book chapter: "Decoding and Finding the Minimum Distance with Gröbner Bases: History and New Insights"
Dr. Stanislav Bulygin (CASED) and Dr. Ruud Pellikaan (TU Endhoven, Netherlands) have just published the chapter "Decoding and Finding the Minimum Distance with Gröbner Bases: History and New Insights" in the book "Selected Topics in Information and Coding Theory", Series on Coding Theory and Cryptology - Vol. 7, World Scientific.The book consists of 15 chapters highlighting different aspects of applications of error-correcting codes constructions in praxis.
Best Paper award at SPPRA 2010
With their paper "Markov Random Fields Pre-warping to Prevent Collusion in Image Transaction Watermarking" the authors Michele Fenzi, Huajian Liu, Martin Steinebach and Roberto Caldelli received the best paper award at the Seventh IASTED International Conference on Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition and Applications (SPPRA 2010) in Innsbruck, Austria, February 2010. This work results from a collaboration with the Department of Electronics and Telecommunications of the University of Florence (Professor Roberto Caldelli). Michele Fenzi was a exchange student for a six month internship at CASED, in the RA1 subproject on "Information Rights Management" from April to September 2009.
In Review: COSADE 2010
COSADE 2010, the first international workshop on constructive side-channel analysis and secure design, was initiated and organised by the working group CASCADE and the area "Secure Things" and took place in Darmstadt on February 4-5, 2010. Co-Chairs were Prof. Dr. Werner Schindler and Prof. Dr. Sorin Huss, and Michael Kasper and Marc Stöttinger were responsible for the local organisation.
Besides 14 contributed talks and two special sessions 3 invited talks were given by the internationally recognised experts Pankaj Rohatgi (Cryptographic Research, USA), Ingrid Verbauwhede (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium) and Stefan Mangard (Siemens, Germany); see http://cosade2010.cased.de/ for further information.
COSADE 2010 was visited by 66 particpants (32 from academia, 29 from industry, 5 from government), exceeding even optimistic expectations. COSADE 2011 is already agreed and will take place in Darmstadt, too.
Prof. Dr. Sorin A. Huss is Co-Chair of SIN 2010
Darmstadt, February 1, 2010 – Prof. Dr. Sorin A. Huss, Head of the CASED Research Area "Secure Things", is Co-Chair of the 3rd International Conference on Security of Information and Networks (SIN 2010). The conference will take place from September 7th to 11th, 2010 in Taganrog, Russia. Proceedings will be published by ACM Press und Digital Library.
Truffle Capital announces that the Rhine-Main-Neckar region is Europe’s software industry powerhouse
- Germany's Rhein-Main-Neckar region is officially Europe's "Silicon Valley"
- Just over 50% of the total revenue of Europe’s 100 largest software companies is generated by companies from Rhine-Main-Neckar
- The Paris region is ranked 2nd, ahead of London
Truffle Capital, the leading European private equity firm, today published the first edition of its "Truffle 100 European Clusters" ranking Europe's top 42 software industry regions. Companies based in Germany’s Rhine-Main-Neckar region accounted for 50% of the worldwide revenue generated by Europe’s top 100 vendors. The study highlighted the major role played by the region marking it as Europe’s "Silicon Valley". The Paris region and North East UK were second and third respectively. The cluster ranking is based on the results of the 2009 "Truffle 100 Europe" survey performed with the support of Mrs Viviane Reding (European Commissioner for the Information Society and Media (video interview)and in collaboration with analysts CXP and the "Top 100 Research Foundation
h_da: New IT security focus in master program
The Master program at Hochschule Darmstadt (h_da) is now augmented with a new study focus on IT-Security, which was established in the context of CASED. Since October 2009 master students at h_da can now concentrate their master studies on topics that are relevant to and inspired from our security research.Students will contribute with their master thesis to the CASED research and will be prepared for a subsequent PhD-track.
Darmstadt researcher receives award
Dissertation paper on the security of electronic voting systems praised
Darmstadt, November 17, 2009 – Melanie Volkamer, a computer scientist from Darmstadt, receives the Koblenz University Prize for her dissertation on the IT security of electronic voting systems. Dr. Volkamer performed postdoctoral research at the Darmstadt University of Technology and the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED), an IT security research cluster in Darmstadt.
DFG Forschergruppe QuaP2P: Kick-Off in Darmstadt
Darmstadt, November 5, 2009 – After three successful years of research work, the DFG Research Group QuaP2P “Improving the quality of peer-to-peer systems through the systematic study of quality characteristics and their reciprocal dependencies” was extended for a further three years in August 2009. The start of the second phase of work for the DFG Research Group QuaP2P will be celebrated on the 10.11.2009. Dr. Manfred Efinger, Head of Administration at the Darmstadt University of Technology, will open the celebrations with an initial greeting, which will be followed by some short lectures. The event will be brought to a close with some refreshments and demos.
Prof. Dr. Matthias Hollick
New CASED-Professorship: Professor Dr. Matthias Hollick head of new research group Secure Mobile Networking Lab – SEEMOO at TU Darmstadt
Darmstadt, October 29, 2009 – In October Matthias Hollick accepted the LOEWE-funded CASED-Professorship "Sichere Mobile Netze (Secure Mobile Networks)" at the Technische Universität Darmstadt.
In the CASED Research Area "Secure Things" he is responsible for the division "Secure Interaction". Furthermore, Hollick will support post doctoral researchers and promote the international orientation of CASED
Talk by Prof. Dr. Mark Manulis at CAST-Workshop on Data Privacy
Darmstadt, October 20, 2009 – On October 29, 2009 Prof. Dr. Mark Manulis, CASED Research Area "Secure Data" will give a talk within the CAST e. V. workshops on Data Privacy (in german). Focussing on "Parameter settings for secure and up to date Encryption" he will give an overview on up to date and practical encryption methods, comment on the basics of their security and will give recommendations on the right setting of their security parameters. Registration necessary.
DFG Priority Programme: Scientists discuss initial project ideas
Programme coordination: Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel, TU Darmstadt
Darmstadt, October 1, 2009 – Darmstadt October 1, 2009 – On the 1st and 2nd of October researchers that are interested in the DFG Priority Program „Reliable Secure Software Systems – RS3“meet for a preparation workshop at TU Darmstadt. The workshop shall provide orientation to researchers who are interested in submitting a project proposals and shall help to initiate collaborations between groups at different institutions.
Professor Werner Schindler receives Best Paper Award
Darmstadt, September 28, 2009 – At the CHES 2009 conference authors Thomas Finke, Max Gebhardt and Werner Schindler received one of three Best Paper Awards for their article „A New Side-Channel Attack on RSA Prime Generation“. Authors from 29 countries submitted overall 148 articles at CHES 2009, from which 29 had been accepted. Schindler is Principal Investigator at the CASED Research Area "Secure Things" and professor at the TU Darmstadt. All 3 authors are employees at the german "Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI)".
Kongruenzen, von Börje Müller
Art at CASED
Darmstadt, September 17, 2009 – Photography exhibition on the 23. September 2009
The Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED) is inviting visitors to view the work of the photographer Börje Müller during a vernissage on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.
Software Cluster picks up momentum
State issues grant to the IHK / Financing for the development of the Cluster in the region secured for three years
Darmstadt, September 17, 2009 – The Software Cluster Rhein Main Neckar, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) Darmstadt Rhein Main Neckar, The Darmstadt University of Technology (TU) and corporate partners have been provided with a secure financial basis for the next three years: the spokespersons of the Software Cluster, Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann from the TU Darmstadt and Dr. Roland Lentz from the IHK Darmstadt, received confirmation of their grant in the amount of 345,000 Euros on Thursday, September 17, 2009, from the Hessian Ministry of Economics, Transport and Urban and Rural Development. Steffen Saebisch (FDP), State Secretary of the Hessian Ministry of Economics, handed over the official confirmation.
Secure encryption for electronic ID cards
Researchers from CASED and the BSI provide proof of the security provided by the PACE procedure
Darmstadt/Bonn, August 20, 2009 – In the future, communication between electronic ID cards and scanners will be protected using, amongst other things, the encryption procedure “Password-Authentication-Connection-Establishment (PACE)”. The research group of Marc Fischlin at the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED), together with the experts Jens Bender and Dennis Kügler from the Federal Office for Information Technology Security (BSI), has proven that PACE provides the highest level of security, from a cryptographic perspective. The results will be presented during the International Information Security Conference 2009 in Pisa.
Prof. Dr. Sorin A. Huss invited as Keynote-speaker at SIN 2009
Darmstadt, August 15, 2009 – Prof. Dr. Sorin A. Huss, Head of the CASED-Research Area "Secure Things", will speak the keynote "Embedded Systems for IT Security Applications: Properties and Design Considerations" at the 2nd International Conference on Security of Information and Networks (SIN 2009). The conference with this year's main theme "Intelligent Systems for Information Assurance, Security, and Public Policy in the Age of e-Euphoriatakes" will take place on October 6–10, 2009 in Gazimagusa, North Cyprus.
DFG Priority Programme Reliably Secure Software Systems RS3: Call for project proposals
Programme coordination: Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel, TU Darmstadt
Darmstadt, August 10, 2009 – The DFG published the Call for Project Proposals . Each proposal shall exhibit potential to contribute to the formal certification of system-wide security guarantees. Proposals must clearly identify which security properties they will address. Proposals for the first funding period should be submitted no later than March 15, 2010.
Family excursion to Fraunhofer: Innovations in Darmstadt
Darmstadt, August 6, 2009 – In line with the anniversary campagne „Fraunhofer – good2know“ the Fraunhofer truck will come on August 14-16 to the Fraunhofer SIT premises in Rheinstraße 75. It is packed with exciting new developments and an adventure for the whole familiy.
Evaluation of Electronic Voting: Requirements and Evaluation Procedures to Support Responsible Election Authorities
Dr. Melanie Volkamer published her doctoral dissertation at Springer Verlag
Darmstadt, August 5, 2009 – Electronic voting has a young and attractive history, both in the design of basic cryptographic methods and protocols and in the application by communities who are in the vanguard of technologies. The crucial aspect of security for electronic voting systems is subject to research by computer scientists as well as by legal, social and political scientists. The essential question is how to provide a trustworthy base for secure electronic voting, and hence how to prevent accidental or malicious abuse of electronic voting in elections.
IT security location Darmstadt
CASED and the Federal Office for Information Technology Security (BSI) seal their collaboration with a cooperation agreement.
Darmstadt, June 5, 2009 – The Darmstadt University of Technology and the Federal Office for Information Technology Security (BSI) have concluded a cooperation agreement in order to intensify their successful collaboration. This cooperation will be implemented in the Science, Research and Training departments of the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt (CASED).
Increase the level of IT security in German society
The scientists from CASED and experts from the BSI will work together on research projects in order to increase IT security levels in German society. The Darmstadt University of Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology SIT are already successfully working together with the BSI, for example, on the development of electronic ID cards.
IT security: Promoting dialog
First ISPRAT Science Day at CASED in Darmstadt
Darmstadt, June 5, 2009 – On Thursday, 25. June 2009, members of “Forschungsgemeinschaft für Interdisziplinäre Studien zu Politik, Recht Administration und Technologie (ISPRAT – Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies on Politics, Legal Administration and Technology) got together for the first ISPRAT Science Day at CASED – the Center for Advanced Security Research Darmstadt. The objective of this get-together was to promote dialog between ISPRAT members and experts from the areas of science, business and administration and provide those scientists, who are receiving support from ISPRAT, with the opportunity to present their projects to the research community.
Prof. Dr. Renato Renner, ETH Zürich
„Security against Quantum Mechanical Adversaries"
The CASED Distinguished Lecture Series at TU Darmstadt
Darmstadt, June 3, 2009 – On Thursday, 4th June 2009 Professor Renato Renner from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at ETH Zurich informs about „Security against Quantum Mechanical Adversaries”. His talk is part of the CASED Distinguished Lecture Series and it is held from 4.15 p.m. to 5.45 p.m. in room C110 of the Piloty-building S2|02), Hochschulstraße 10.
New DFG Priority Programme
Darmstadt, April 27, 2009 – The DFG priority programme "Reliably secure software systems" (Schwerpunktprogramm "Zuverlässig sichere Softwaresysteme") has been approved. It will start in 2010. Coordinator of the programme is Prof. Dr. Heiko Mantel. For more information, see the programme's website.
Prof. Dr. Harald Baier
Dr. Harald Baier joins as CASED Professor of Internet Security at the
Darmstadt, April 1, 2009 – On April 1, 2009, Prof. Baier became the first CASED professor financed through LOEWE at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt. He will initiate research projects for the CASED department “Secure Services” and coordinate knowledge transfer. He will also oversee Ph.D. students from CASED and other cooperative Ph.D. programs.
Security Vulnerabilites in DECT- Standard for Cordless Home Telephones
Darmstadt, December 29, 2008 – Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann, director of CASED and head of the research group cryptography and computeralgebra at the department of computer science and mathematics at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany
National IT summit comes to Darmstadt / CASED
Darmstadt, November 20, 2008 – The third national IT summit takes place on November 20 in Darmstadt. In the science and congress center „darmstadtium,“ represenatives of German information and telecommunication technology meet high-ranking politicians and academics. Chancellor Angela Merkel will also take part in the summit. The IT summit has been meeting annually since 2006 and is concerned with the question how can Germany strengthen its position as a location for IT.
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Infofilm zum E-Personalausweis (05.53 min.) (in German) >>
ZDF Mittagsmagazin berichtet zum E-Personalausweis, 20.11.2008 (in German) >>
Excellence puts Darmstadt ahead
Darmstadt, November 7, 2008 – Ceremony for the presentation of LOEWE-Sponsorship for CASED/ Minister Lautenschläger: IT security important for society and business
In a ceremony last Friday, November 7, official notification of the promised sponsorship from Hessen from the LOEWE program was presented by Minister for Higher Education, Research and the Arts Silke Lautenschläger. Prof. Claudia Eckert from Fraunhofer SIT and Prof. Johannes Buchmann from the TU Darmstadt represented the new IT security center and accepted the certificates.
TU successful in LOEWE-Excellence Sponsorship
Darmstadt, November 5, 2008 – This coming Friday, November 7, official notification for the Hessian Excellence sponsorship will be presented by Minister Silke Lautenschläger in a ceremony. At the same time, the ceremony is the kick-off for the new security center CASED.
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TU researchers awarded for innovative signature algorithm
Darmstadt, October 24, 2008 –
Buchmann and Dahmen successful at the German IT Security Prize
Prof. Dr. Johannes Buchmann and Erik Dahmen from the department of theoretical informatics at the TU Darmstadt were awarded second place in the German IT Security Prize today October 24. The award is connected with 60,000 euros prize money.
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