News

Study by ATHENE Scientist published in A* rated journal

How do different types of so-called nudges, small "nudges" that try to move us to a decision in a more or less subtle way, influence our cybersecurity decisions?

This was investigated by the ATHENE Scientist Verena Zimmermann from TU Darmstadt and Prof. Karen Renaud from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

Their observations and results are summarized in the article “The Nudge Puzzle: Matching Nudge Interventions to Cybersecurity Decisions”, which was recently published in the A * -rated journal ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.

Impulse papers from the Scientific Working Group on National Cyber Security

ATHENE-Director Prof. Dr. Michael Weidner is a member of the Scientific Working Group on National Cyber Security, which has been supporting the National Cyber Security Council in its work since October of 2018. In regular intervals, the Scientific Working Group prepares impulse papers that illuminate selected topics on cybersecurity from a research perspective.

ATHENE Director joins acatech - German Academy of Science and Engineering

Prof. Michael Waidner is a new full membre of acatech -German academy of Science and Engineering. With him, 35 more scientists were added to the circle of members. With this election, acatech recognizes their relevant scientific work and invites the experts to contribute their skills to advise  politics and society.

© Katrin Binner

ATHENE-Scientist are strengthening the Data sovereignity in the financial sector

With Prof. Mira Mezini, Prof. Carsten Binnnig and Prof. Kristian Kersting, three ATHENE-Scientists from the Technical University of Darmstadt are part of the new project SafeFBDC, which is funded as part of the AI-innovation competition of the Federal Ministry for Economics and Energy (BMWi).

VeraCrypt with minor flaws

Fraunhofer SIT press relase (German):
In der kostenlosen Open-Source-Verschlüsselungssoftware VeraCrypt wurden keine gravierenden Sicher­heits­lücken gefunden, allerdings gibt es Verbesserungsbedarf bei der Entwicklungspraxis und der Codequalität. Das ist das Ergebnis einer Sicherheitsanalyse der Expertinnen und Experten des Fraunhofer-Instituts für Sichere Informations­technologie SIT in Darmstadt, die im Auftrag des Bundesamts für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik BSI durchgeführt wurde. Die vollständigen Ergebnisse der Analyse sind in einer Studie zusammengefasst, die von der Webseite des BSI heruntergeladen werden kann: https://www.bsi.bund.de/DE/Publikationen/Studien/VeraCrypt/veracrypt.html

ATHENE-Prize 2020: ATHENE researcher receives honorary prize for interdisciplinary teachings

Every year, the Carlo and Karin Giersch-Stiftung at the TU Darmstadt awards the “Athene-Preis für gute Lehre” worth 46.000 euros. With this prize, the TU Darmstadt recognises outstanding best-practice-models in the area of teaching. This year’s special prize for interdisciplinary teachings goes to ATHENE researcher Prof. Christian Reuter.

ATHENE researcher receives IANUS Prize 2020

Seven excellent submissions from seven different departments at the TU Darmstadt reached the final round for the IANUS Prize 2020 – a prize the TU Darmstadt awards for outstanding qualifying work in any department at the university. Two applicants were awarded first place. The first prize, doted with 500 euros, was awarded to ATHENE researcher Dr. Marc-André Kaufhold, M.Sc., for his dissertation “Information Refinement Technologies for Crisis Informatics: User Expectations and Design Implications for Social Media and Mobile Apps in Crisis”.

© Katrin Binner

In the media: ATHENE researcher talks crisis-proof infrastructures

How crisis-proof are our digital infrastructures? The Hessischer Rundfunk programme “alles wissen” investigates this question. Prof. Matthias Hollick, head of the project EmergenCITY at the TU Darmstadt, says, “I don’t think that there are many catastrophes waiting to happen. On the other hand, we are indeed endangered by catastrophes at any time.” He continues that especially the Covid-19 crisis shows how crises can emerge out of nowhere and require learning proper handling amidst such a crisis.

ATHENE researcher confirmed for FONAS board until 2022

ATHENE researcher Thea Riebe has been confirmed as board member for FONAS in this year’s general meeting on 14 September 2020, for two more years until 2022. In 2018, Riebe was voted into the board of FONAS for the first time.

CAST-Förderpreis IT-Sicherheit 2020 goes to ATHENE researcher

Daniel Günther from the TU Darmstadt won the first prize of the CAST-Förderpreis IT-Sicherheit in the category "Best Master Thesis" for his master thesis "Optimizing Private Information Retrieval for Compromised Credential Checking". He prevailed among the four finalists who presented their work to a jury of representatives from industry and research.