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Welcome to CISPA

The CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security is a German national Big Science Institution within the Helmholtz Association. Our research encompasses all aspects of Information Security.

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Focus on research

We are committed to scientific excellence and cutting-edge research, and are aiming to develop CISPA into a world-leading research center on information security.

Focus on research

We are committed to scientific excellence and cutting-edge research, and are aiming to develop CISPA into a world-leading research center on information security.

CISPA latest

In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, CISPA and its French partner institute Loria in Nancy got together to celebrate the Franco-German friendship on May 25. The two institutes have been collaborating in the virtual "French-German Center for Cybersecurity (FGCC)” since 2020. This cooperation has been strengthened further in a Memorandum of Understanding.

DEVELOPING FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

Cybersecurity is a young and fast-evolving area. As a Helmholtz Center for Information Security, CISPA is dedicated to cutting-edge foundational research combined with innovative application-oriented research in the areas of cybersecurity and privacy.

We are committed to the highest international academic standards and offer a world-class research environment that grants extensive resources to a wide range of researchers and that constitutes an attractive destination for the best talents and scientists from all countries.

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RESEARCH AREAS

Algorithmic  FOUNDATIONS and  Cryptography

In our highly interdependent world, graph problems are at the algorithmic heart of many computational challenges.

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Trustworthy Information Processing

This research area strives to develop disruptive new frameworks for reasoning about and improving security and privacy in information processing in various settings, efficiently and at scale.

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Reliable Security Guarantees

The fragile security of today's IT infrastructure is the result of a perpetual arms race between attackers and defenders. Formal methods offer a way out of this arms race. Based on mathematically precise system and attacker models, we can systematically eliminate entire classes of attack strategies.

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Threat Detection & Defenses

Attack-detection mechanisms should be able to reliably detect, predict, and understandably explain both known and novel threats, while also being able to cope with evasion techniques (like obfuscation, polymorphism, or stealth low-volume attacks).

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Secure   CONNECTED & MOBILE SYSTEMS

Faulty computer systems allow for spying on, as well as sabotaging even the most security-critical infrastructures - this means that in daily life, our energy supply network, water supply, health network, communication network, transportation network, etc. are under continuous risk.

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Empirical & Behavioral Security

The vast growth in the complexity of modern applications and the multitude of available software technologies have created the need for engineering techniques that not only improve security, but also scale to the complexity of modern IT infrastructures.

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CISPA PODCAST TL;DR

That text was way too long, so you couldn't bother to read it? We feel you! In TL;DR, CISPA's first podcast, we talk to researchers about their work on cybersecurity and artificial intelligence once a month and try to ask them exactly the same questions that you are asking yourself.

People from 43 nations work at CISPA. That's why you'll find conversations in both German and English in this feed.

Have fun listening!

CISPA ZINE

CISPA Zine: composed of CISPA and magazine, derived from the idea of the "fanzine." These are mostly folded small magazines created by fans for fans on various topics. The CISPA Zine is published quarterly and keeps our staff, interested parties, and supporters up to date on all important developments at the Center. 

PhD at CISPA

CISPA offers full-time positions to PhD students. Cooperating with our research-group leaders and lecturers, PhD students have the opportunity to acquire new techniques and methodologies and receive support for their research projects.

The targeted support of emerging researchers is part and parcel of our self-understanding as a world-leading research center. We support PhD students in almost all of our research areas, including cybersecurity, data protection, cryptography, machine learning, data science, efficient algorithms, network security and program analysis.

PhD students who are enrolled at one of at one of the universities we cooperate with are eligible for the position of research assistant at CISPA. We are always looking for outstanding academic talent from all over the world. Candidates must hold a degree from a first-rate, research-oriented university in a subject relevant to our research interests. They should also possess an exceptional academic record, a good command of the English language as well as convincing letters of recommendation from their mentors or supervisors. At CISPA, our working language is English.

Aug 21, 2023
to Aug 25, 2023
Summer School on System Security
Jul 31, 2023
to Aug 4, 2023
Cysec Camp (for participants aged 14-16 y)

PAST EVENTS

Feb 7, 2023, 4:00 PM
to Feb 7, 2023, 5:00 PM
Safer Internet Day: Cysec Lab @ Saarbruecken library
Jan 26, 2023
to Jan 29, 2023
Federal competition in Computer Science: Workshop at Cysec Lab
Nov 30, 2022, 11:00 AM
to Nov 30, 2022, 4:00 PM
Airbus CISPA Day
Sep 23, 2022, 11:30 AM
to Sep 23, 2022, 4:00 PM
Cysec Lab Opening
Sep 5, 2022
to Sep 9, 2022
CISPA Summer School on Trustworthy AI

YOUR CAREER AT CISPA

We strive to offer scientists, along with their partners and families a pleasant and friendly living environment. This means that at our research center, all of us are on first-name terms. Everyone’s equal here, especially when it comes to coffee (or tea) in the hallway. 

Recruitment of highly talented students and young researchers in the fields of cybersecurity and privacy is a core element of CISPA's development and growth strategy. Finding the right people is very important to us. Maybe you're one of them!

Our goal is to hire, train and accompany future researchers in all stages of their scientific careers, to help them advance as learners, from bachelor's and master's degrees to doctorates and positions as young researchers at both postdoctoral and faculty level.

 No matter if you’re just starting your career or already have experience, we want to offer all of you an inspiring, international and competitive, yet cooperative and above all enjoyable working environment for your research and education. We strongly believe that, here, you will be able to develop your full potential.