CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security

𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗰𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 🤝 𝗖𝗜𝗦𝗣𝗔 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀🧬🤖 At yesterday’s "TrustworthyAI4Health" workshop, our researchers presented three posters. 


Thank you for the organisation @embl.org & @elsa-ai.eu
More on our research: cispa.de/en/research

For the Tamarin Prover: Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography for CISPA researcher Cas Cremers CISPA-Faculty Cas Cremers has been awarded the Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography. Cremers receives this honor together with David Basin (ETH Zurich), Jannik Dreier (Université de Lorraine/Lori...

Huge congrats to CISPA-Faculty Cas Cremers (@cascremers.bsky.social) and his colleagues David Basin (@ethz.ch), Jannik Dreier ( @univlorraine.bsky.social/Loria), and Ralf Sasse (ETH Zurich), who have been awarded the Levchin Prize for Real-World Cryptography today! More at cispa.de/en/levchin-p...

Congratulations!

🌍 CISPA in South Africa: At WITS and UCT, Faculty discussed collaboration in cybersecurity & AI. With Holger Bodag (German Embassy), we outlined 2026 initiatives marking 30 years of joint science.

Greetings from the CISPA Hackathon in Stockholm YouTube video by CISPA

🇸🇪Hey Stockholm.
Winter, science, competitive spirit.
❤️Our unofficial “Valentine's Edition” of the Championship was intense, focused, and colorful.
These pictures will make you want to check out the next stop: Munich.🇩🇪
youtu.be/1GbEDnhkqV0?...

🎙️🔍 Interested in how drones can be monitored? Then check out our latest TL;DR episode in German! We talk to CISPA researcher Jan Baumeister about how monitoring works with RTLola: cispa.de/tldr-episode...

Jilles Vreeken

#HelmholtzKLIMA -Datenbank - Expertise im Überblick

Prof. Dr. Jilles Vreeken ist Experte für Informationssicherheit am @cispa.de & beschäftigt sich u. a. mit der explorativen Datenanalyse, womit Algorithmen für das Maschinenlernen entworfen werden.

Zum Profil: bit.ly/4sa105b

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We’re ready for the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium 2026!
From February 23 until February 27, our researchers are in San Diego, presenting multiple papers.
Check out our contributions: cispa.de/en/ndss-2026

Welcome to CISPA, Andrew Lowy!

Andrew is starting as faculty in the Trustworthy Information Processing research area.

#newfaculty

CISPA-UCT-Summer School 2026 Scientific Event by CISPA and UCT focusing on AI, Security & Privacy. In Cape Town, South Africa

CISPA–UCT Summer School 2026: 40 PhDs and early-career researchers met at the University of Cape Town to discuss AI security, privacy and web tracking. Organized with Cysec Lab and UCT.
cispa.de/summer-school-uct

At the center of our recent visit to the University of Cape Town: joint research projects and strategic cooperation! We’re already looking forward to working together with our colleagues at UCT to further advance research and innovation in cybersecurity and trustworthy AI!

Hej Hej Stockholm: Valentine’s Edition of the CISPA European Cybersecurity & AI Hackathon Championship in Sweden On February 14 and 15, 2026, the third regional preliminary round took place at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

🇸🇪 Stockholm recap: 60 young researchers tackled 3 AI & cybersecurity challenges at @kthuniversity.bsky.social. SeeWeedZ, Polarnutt & The White House qualified for the final at CISPA in July. Next stop: Munich!
Full story: cispa.de/en/cispa-hackathon-championship-stockholm

The results are in
Congratulations to the winning teams!
First place: SeeWeedZ
Second place: Polarnatt
Third place: The White House
A big thank you to all participants and the team led by Dr. Franziska Boenisch, Dr. Adam Dziedzic, and Dr. @eisenhofer.bsky.social.

⏱ Final sprint in Stockholm: Teams wrap up tasks set by CISPA-Faculty Franziska Boenisch, Adam Dziedzic & @eisenhofer.bsky.social, then present and defend their solutions. Which of the around 20 teams takes the lead? Stay tuned for more!
@kthuniversity.bsky.social

Intense focus in Stockholm: Teams continue to tackle several challenges by CISPA-Faculty Dr. @eisenhofer.bsky.social, Dr. Franziska Boenisch and Dr. Adam Dziedzic. We're excited to see the final presentations.

The CISPA Hackathon Championship has kicked off in Stockholm! CISPA-Faculty Dr. Franziska Boenisch, Dr. Adam Dziedzic and Dr. @eisenhofer.bsky.social have introduced the tasks for this Hackathon’s edition. Sign up for the next one here:https://cispa.de/en/cispa-hackathon-championship#registration

A delegation from our Cysec Lab visited the Cape Town Science Centre, a science and student research center focused on technology, engineering, mathematics, and the natural sciences. Just like excellent research, excellent knowledge transfer thrives on intercultural perspectives and expertise.

We spent two days discussing cybersecurity research, university teaching, and international cooperation with our wonderful colleagues at the University of the Witwatersrand! Our dynamic partnership with WITS contributes to a globally connected research ecosystem in cybersecurity and trustworthy AI.

🇩🇪 CISPA Hackathon next stop: Munich.
📅 March 21–22
⏱️ 24 hours to tackle hands-on challenges at the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, work in teams, and turn research ideas into practice.
Location: Mathematics & Informatics Building of TUM
👉 Sign up via the CISPA website. cispa.de/en/cispa-hac...

MetaCRiSP’s deadline got pushed back a week to Feb 19 AoE - you’ve got 10 days!

A private chat with a friend feels safe – but what happens when it takes place in VR? Different environment, different threats. Andrea Mengascini from CISPA explores the security risks shaping the future of our digital privacy. #cispashorts

Smartphone Theft: Why Effective Protection Requires Empirical Research New security updates in Android 16 are based, among other things, on research by CISPA-Faculty Dr. Maximilian Golla.

Google announced stronger smartphone-theft protections in Android 16. Notably, these measures align with insights from empirical security research on what actually protects users in everyday life. Learn how our work makes a difference: cispa.de/en/smartphone-theft

In a packed lecture hall in Saarbrücken, Prof. Dr. Michael Pradel and Dr. Lucjan Hanzlik marked their debut as tenured CISPA-Faculty, sharing accessible insights into software security, AI, and privacy-preserving digital identities. Congratulations to both!

Fairness and Representation in AI with Tejúmádé Àfònjá Episode 46 of CISPA TL;DR is out now!

🎙️ CISPA TL;DR – Episode 46
Can AI make fair decisions if the world it learns from isn’t fair?
CISPA researcher Tẹjúmádé Àfọ̀njá explains why more accurate AI doesn’t automatically mean fairer outcomes – and why representation in AI matters. ⚖️🤖
🎧 Listen now: cispa.de/en/tldr-46

How the Web Is Learning to Better Protect Itself CISPA researcher Jannis Rautenstrauch has systematically investigated how browsers process security headers.

Research insights: Security headers help browsers defend against common attacks. A study by CISPA researcher Jannis Rautenstrauch & team shows browsers now interpret them far more consistently than in the past. They also released an open-source testing framework. cispa.de/en/security-...

24 hours of intense teamwork in Vienna 🇦🇹
Students and early-career researchers tackled real AI & cybersecurity challenges and turned feedback into solutions—fast.
Next up: Barcelona, Apr 11–12. Registrations are open.
cispa.de/en/cispa-hac...

At the first extended in-person meeting at DZNE in Bonn, clinical neurology & machine learning joined forces. The project develops an privacy-preserving AI to support stroke treatment. Liberate AI is supported by the Initiative and Networking Fund of the @helmholtz.de.

Our New Faculty: Dr. Adam Kortylewski, Expert in Machine Learning and Visual Computing Learn more about Dr. Adam Kortylewski, who joined CISPA as tenure-track faculty in November 2025.

Dr. Adam Kortylewski brings new expertise in visual computing to CISPA! He joined ums from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in November 2025. His vision: AI should support humans, not replace them.
@adamkortylewski.bsky.social
➡️ Read the article here: www.cispa.de/en/new-faculty-kortylewski

Special thanks also to co-chair @anantasoneji.bsky.social