News
Prof. Mira Mezini honored as ACM Fellow
Professor Mira Mezini, who represents TU Darmstadt on the ATHENE Board, has been inducted into the circle of ACM Fellows. She is now one of 55 outstanding scientists worldwide to be named an ACM Fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 2024. This award recognises their groundbreaking contributions to computer science and technology.
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New professorship for ATHENE scientist Naser Damer at TU Darmstadt
On 1 January 2025, Professor Dr Naser Damer took up the newly created chair of 'Biometrics, Human Analysis and Behaviour Understanding (BHABU)' at Darmstadt Technical University. He will focus on the important question of how biometrics can improve the usability of digital applications while enhancing IT security. Naser Damer has been a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics IGD for many years; the professorship is a joint appointment between TU Darmstadt and Fraunhofer IGD.
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Study "Ethics, law, and security of digital afterlife" published
New technologies such as AI enable people to live on after death in the form of digital representations (avatars) or chatbots. The digital afterlife industry, which offers such possibilities, is developing into a promising growth market. ATHENE researchers in computer science and law at Fraunhofer SIT and the International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW) at the University of Tübingen have analyzed the technical, legal, and ethical challenges of this development. In their study “Edilife – Ethics, Law, and Security of Digital Afterlife,” they provide a systematic overview of digital afterlife. The study can be downloaded free of charge here: www.sit.fraunhofer.de/edilife-studie.
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IT security in outpatient care: ATHENE researchers launch study on the security of digital care documentation systems
With over 15,000 outpatient care services in Germany, more than half of which are privately owned, an immense amount of sensitive health data is processed digitally every day. The care services work with different software systems. And these must not only be efficient, but above all secure - an aspect that deserves particular attention in view of the increasing cyber threats in the healthcare sector. In order to test how secure the various care documentation systems are, ATHENE researchers at Fraunhofer SIT are launching a comprehensive study on the security of digital care documentation systems on behalf of the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
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New Edition: Standard Reference Work on IT in Peace and Security Research Released
Rapid technological developments in information technology and artificial intelligence are increasingly shaping the international peace and security architecture. The newly published standard work 'Information Technology for Peace and Security' provides a comprehensive analysis of these developments. The second edition, edited by ATHENE researcher Prof. Christian Reuter and his research team at the Technical University of Darmstadt, has been thoroughly revised and expanded. It examines the role of modern technologies - especially information technology (IT) and artificial intelligence (AI) - in current conflicts, such as the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the Israeli-Hamas conflict. Special attention is given to the growing importance of ICT infrastructures and social media in crisis areas.
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CAST Award 2024
Yesterday, the CAST IT Security Award was presented for the 24th time in Darmstadt. Seven entrants made it to the final round, including four students who were supervised by research groups led by ATHENE scientists Prof. Marc Fischlin and Prof. Matthias Hollick.
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