User-centered Security and Privacy (UCSP)

Cybersecurity and privacy protection with the focus on people

Digitization affects all people: as users of apps, services and AI systems, as data subjects or as actors during the long lifecycle of digital systems. Cybersecurity and privacy protection are essential in this context: they bring about freer and safer societies, competitive advantages and, through user acceptance, progress.

Experiences with the EU General Data Protection Regulation show that sovereignty, i. e. the people's authority to act with regard to their privacy and cyber security, is still lacking. In addition to the capacity to act, i. e. the legal and technical enabling of sovereign action, the competence to act must be ensured as well. People must be able to understand their digital situation and the consequences of their options for action. Thirdly, action economy is required: the options for action must be affordable - in terms of time expenditure, monetary consequences, reduced social participation, etc. - and implementable with the best possible user experience.

In the ATHENE research field UCSP, computer researchers, economists and legal scholars develop results with immediate benefits. Two examples:

New solutions for privacy-protecting and legally compliant data use enable a fair balance of interests between providers and users of data-based business models.
New solutions that allow people to assess the security and privacy level of digital systems objectively, comparatively and reproducibly, will encourage purchasing and deployment decisions, among other things, for more secure - often more expensive - solutions, which in turn will make the development of systems with more cybersecurity and privacy protection lucrative.

Prinicipal Investigators

Prof. Andreas Heinemann

Prof. Andreas Heinemann
Coordinator
E-Mail

Prof. Christian Reuter

Prof. Christian Reuter
Coordinator
E-Mail

Dr. Jens Heider

Dr. Jens Heider

Prof. Jörn Kohlhammer

Prof. Jörn Kohlhammer

Dr. Annika Selzer

Dr. Annika Selzer

Projects assigned to the research area User-centered Security and Privacy (UCSP)

Comprehensive Probabilistic QoSec-Assessment (ComPAss)
Fingerprinting Detection and Remediation in Mobile Apps​
Systematic privacy for large, real-life data processing systems
User-Centered Technology Design for Cyber Situational Awareness
Visualization-based Technologies as Enablers for Privacy Sovereignty Online (PriVis)
01/2019–12/2022Data Economy and Privacy—An International and Intercultural Perspective
07/2019–12/2022Easy-to-use Processes and Tools for User-Centric Co-Development of PETs
01/2020–12/2022Economics of Cybersecurity (EcoSec)
05/2019–12/2022Formal QoSec for Comparison and Composition (FoCC)
01/2019–12/2022PETs for Smart Cities in Security Situations
01/2019–12/2022PETs in Disease-Management Programs to Reduce Health Care Costs
01/2019–12/2022Practical Private Set Intersection for Data Protection
01/2019–12/2022Privacy Risks and Safety in Machine Learning (PRisMa)
01/2019–12/2022Quantitative and Probabilistic QoSec in Complex HW/SW-Systems (QPSys)
08/2019–12/2022Technical Support for the Implementation of Requirements in Applications in Accordance with GDPR (TECHIRA)
01/2019–12/2022Visualization of Critical Aspects for Data Analysis and Privacy