CISPA - Helmholtz Center for Information Security (CISPA) from Saarbrücken will be conducting research on cyber security and data protection together with Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) in the future. The strategic cooperation has now been formalized in a cooperation agreement between LUH and CISPA and a declaration of intent between the State of Niedersachsen and CISPA. The aim of the joint project is to establish a dependent branch of CISPA in Hannover with a focus on "Usable Security and Privacy" and "Industrial Security".

The digital interconnection of production and security-critical infrastructures (e.g. energy and water supply, health care) as well as the constantly growing amount of sensitive private and corporate data are of crucial importance for our society. Alongside many advantages and opportunities, however, they also entail new risks of espionage, manipulation and threats to privacy.

Research on "Usable Security and Privacy", i.e. user-centric security and protection of privacy, is of great importance, as more and more successful cyberattacks use humans as a source of vulnerability. Information security must therefore take a closer look than before at users with all their weaknesses and the often complex and interconnected technical systems in practice. This is exactly what research will be conducted in Hannover in the future.

The Niedersachsen Ministry of Science and the Niedersachsen Ministry of Economics are planning to support the cooperation and the development of the new dependent branch with a total of about 10 million euros. The cooperation between CISPA and LUH is to be consistently developed and expanded. For this purpose, a cooperation committee will be established in which both ministries will participate.

"The new cooperation between internationally renowned CISPA and the University of Hannover with its renowned research center L3S is a great asset for Niedersachsen as a research location - and a testimony to its strength in the fields of artificial intelligence, data science and IT security", said Niedersachsen's Minister for Science and Culture, Björn Thümler.

"Cybersecurity and data protection are urgent challenges we are facing due to the digital transformation. I expect the cooperation to bring about significant progress, which will have great potential for transfer to the economy on the one hand, and a very practical benefit for our economy on the other," said Minister of Economics Dr. Althusmann.

The President of Leibniz Universität Hannover, Prof. Dr. Volker Epping, added:
"The topics of cyber security, IT security and data protection are more relevant to society than ever before, and the threat potential of cyber attacks, for example, is growing steadily as society becomes increasingly digitalized. I am very pleased that we at Leibniz Universität Hannover are able to strengthen this important teaching and research field in cooperation with the Helmholtz Center for Information Security through a joint appointment and thus make a contribution to research into data security, security of IT infrastructures and other security-related topics. State-of-the-art foundational research combined with innovative application-oriented research are the prerequisites for social knowledge and the ability to act".

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Michael Backes, founding director and CEO of CISPA, says
"At CISPA we want to make innovations quickly, easily and sustainably accessible to society and commercial companies. For this, we need strong partners - and Niedersachsen is ideally suited for this. The state wants to actively create. It is the home of global market companies. The LUH has excellent scientists who do research in areas that are also highly interesting for CISPA. And in this context, we want to work closely together and jointly drive forward digital innovation.