In order for modern computer systems to be truly secure, developers have to consider multiple levels, such as hardware, operating system and applications. The research of the Chair for System Security covers all those aspects and tackles the design and development of security architectures and trustworthy infrastructures.
One focus is Trusted Computing (TC), an emerging technology that is intended to increase trust into IT systems by augmenting conventional computer platforms with secure hardware and software components – for instance with an additional cryptographic chip, the so-called Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The aim is to provide new and useful security functionalities in order to meet higher security requirements. This chair has decisively shaped the research in this area on an international level. Furthermore, the researchers at the Ruhr-University develop and analyze cryptographic algorithms that range from simple encryption algorithms to realizations of practical protocols, in particular for so-called Privacy Enhancing. Moreover, the chair is active in the high-tech field of the development of security solutions based on the physical attributes of hardware – for instance through so-called Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs).
The researchers at the chair are involved in several research collaborations, in particular with many European universities (Cambridge, Royal Holloway, Oxford, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, KU Leuven, Salerno, Siena, Florenz), international corporations and research centers (incl. Philips, HP, Intel, IBM, MIMOS) in Europe, the USA, Asia, as well as Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).