News

05/06/2020

Digital passport photos only from now on

A few days ago, the German Federal Government ratified a law for more security concerning identification documents: going forward, for every new passport or identification card application, a digital passport photo has to be submitted. This is meant to make the process more forgery-proof. However, there is still a remaining risk, since frauds have discovered a new trick to elude border controls with fake identities: the so-called face-morphing, a method which enables the combination and superimposition of two faces over one another to create a new picture, which then strongly resembles two people at the same time. ATHENE researchers of the Fraunhofer IGD and the Hochschule Darmstadt are currently occupied with the detection, discovery and identification of face-morphing attacks, searching for solutions to make biometric passport photos more secure and unforgeable.

20/05/2020

Women power in IT

Women and IT – does that makes sense? German magazine COMPUTERWOCHE introduces technophile females holding their ground in various branches in the IT sector in their latest career booklet. Among them is ATHENE researcher Dr Haya Shulman of the Fraunhofer SIT. She speaks about her cybersecurity research and makes a comparison between career opportunities for women in Germany and her home country Israel.

20/05/2020

ATHENE researcher appointed for selection commission of the ERC Scientific Council

ATHENE researcher Prof Mira Mezini of TU Darmstadt was appointed member of the selection commission for the European Research Council ERC by Mariya Gabriel, EU Commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth. The selection commission works to identify members for the renewal of their membership in the Scientific Council and to maintain a pool of candidates for future memberships.

13/05/2020

White Paper "Auswahl und Nutzung webbasierter Kommunikationsdienste in Zeiten von Corona"

The recent corona pandemic has inspired many businesses to utilize web based communication tools for webinars, video conferences and matchmaking services in order to provide at-home communication and advanced training opportunities for their employees working from home. In their white paper “Auswahl und Nutzung webbasierter Kommunikationsdienste in Zeiten von Corona“, the Fraunhofer SIT data protection experts describe relevant requirements for appropriate data protection and security when choosing online tools.

06/05/2020

How to avoid hacker attacks on your own data

In a recent episode of the science television programme arte Xenius called "Cybersicherheit - Wie wir Hackerangriffe vermeiden", Dr. Steven Arzt of Fraunhofer SIT gives advice on how smartphone users can protect themselves from data piracy and hacker attacks on their devices. A healthy degree of alertness, as well as frequent updating and attention to approving access rights are essential. When buying a used smartphone, it should be reset to its default settings before the first use.

30/04/2020

Synamic Technologies receives funding for IT security project Patch Pilot

The subsidy program StartUpSecure of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the product idea for automatized estimation and risk evaluation for vulnerabilities in IT.

23/04/2020

Secure cloud infrastructure with the push of a button

Since April 1, 2020, meshcloud has been backed by the subsidy program StartUpSecure of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

21/04/2020

ATHENE researcher receives Copernicus Award 2020

ATHENE researcher Prof. Sebastian Faust from the TU Darmstadt will receive the Copernicus Prize 2020 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the Stiftung für die polnische Wissenschaft (FNP) for his services to German-Polish cooperation in science. The prize, which is endowed with 200,000 EURO, goes equally to him and to Prof. Stefan Dziembowski from the University of Warsaw. They receive the award for their outstanding cooperation in the field of theoretical cryptography and IT security.

15/04/2020

ATHENE researcher explains the realization of obligatory data deletion in CRM-systems in a BvD-News article

"Which obligatory data deletion responsibilities does a company have to comply with in terms of the data protection law?" "What does 'obligatory data deletion' mean in terms of the data protection law?" And "How will the deletion of this data be realized in CRM systems?" These as well as other questions are answered by ATHENE researcher Annika Selzer of the Fraunhofer SIT and Tugba Koc Macit, Junior Consultant at AGOR AG Frankfurt, in an article in the newest issue of the Verbandsmagazin des Berufsverbands der Datenschutzbeauftragten Deutschlands (BvD) e.V..