CSE section conducts research in cybersecurity and cryptography from both a theoretical and an applied perspective. In particular, CSE research centres around three major research themes in cybersecurity engineering.
Cybersecurity in Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing
The evolution of the computing paradigm from large mainframes to pervasive computing (highly interconnected networks of small computing devices embedded in everyday objects) has meant for cybersecurity a switch from closed operating environments (in which everything was fairly contained and controlled) to an open cyberspace in which every computing device (actually, every object equipped with computation and connectivity) can be accessed from anywhere on the planet, thus hacked by malicious actors. Moreover, most networked computing systems can be considered socio-technical systems and the successful defence against cyber-attacks requires consideration of a broad range of human and technical factors, from the general security awareness among agents in an organisation to the proper enforcement of security policies and mechanisms.
CSE research focuses on the design, development and testing of cybersecurity services for networked computing systems, including models, policies and mechanisms to support secure collaboration in open dynamic systems, such as sensor networks, mobile systems, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Examples of research topics include intrusion detection, biometric authentication, trust management, malware detection, blockchain, cloud security, IoT/CPS/edge security, botnet monitoring, alert data correlation, machine/deep learning, to mention a few.
Contacts: Nicola Dragoni, Christian D. Jensen, Weizhi Meng, Emmanouil Vasilomanolakis
Privacy and Privacy-Enhancing Technologies
The data that computing devices generate every day holds a lot of value, as potentially contains sensitive information that individuals or organisations might not wish to share with everyone. Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) covers the range of technologies that are designed for supporting privacy and data protection in an open environment like the Internet.
CSE research focuses on metrics to quantify the effectiveness of privacy protection mechanisms, and privacy-enhancing technologies in smart cities, genomics, vehicular networks, and smart grids. We are also interested in bio-inspired mechanisms for privacy and web measurement to create transparency for corporate surveillance systems.
Contacts: Christian D. Jensen, Weizhi Meng
Cryptography: Symmetric, Quantum and Post-Quantum
Cryptography is the science of providing and analyzing the fundamental algorithms needed for secure communication. Cryptography thus plays a key role in providing the security and privacy for today's digitalized and interconnected society. Advances in the development of quantum computers that are threatening classical security assumptions, as well as the appearance of novel cryptographic applications, have lead to an increased need for the development of new cryptographic algorithms and new techniques for cryptanalysis and security proofs.
At CSE, cryptographic research is focused on two main topics:
- We develop and analyze symmetric-key cryptographic algorithms with a particular focus on developing novel cryptanalytic techniques and on developing symmetric cryptographic algorithms with low multiplicative complexity for usage in zero-knowledge proofs, fully-homomorphic encryption and secure multi-party computation.
- We analyze the security of cryptographic algorithms, from hash functions and block ciphers to public-key encryption and digital signatures, agains quantum attacks ("post-quantum security"). In particular, we provide security proofs that reduce the cryptographic attack surface of these algorithms.
Contacts: Christian Majenz, Tyge Tiessen, Carsten Baum, Luisa Siniscalchi