Bachelor | Master | PhD – Thesis Supervision

Education is a core activity of SBA Research, and complements and supports our core, research-intensive activities. We aim at providing high-quality of education in postgraduate and undergraduate studies as well as secondary education, continuing education and in trainings. SBA Research draws from the vast experience, knowledge, and expertise of our staff, the latest research developments in the broader field of cyber-security, and our highly-specialized research infrastructures.

SBA Research is strongly affiliated with the Institute of Software Technology and Interactive Systems of TU Wien. In collaboration with the Faculty of Informatics, SBA Research offers the following courses:

Internet Security (jointly with the Secure Systems Lab)
Advanced Internet Security (jointly with the Secure Systems Lab)
Software Security
Organizational Aspects of Security
Digital Forensics
Privacy Enhancing Technologies
Security Seminar

Furthermore, SBA Research provides internships and part-time employment (4 to 10 hours per week) for undergraduate students.

SBA Research affiliates often teach advanced cybersecurity topics in higher education institutes like FH St. Pölten, FH Campus Wien, FH Oberösterreich, FH Technikum Wien, and Danube University Krems. Also, SBA Research contributes every year to the Intensive Programme on Information and Communication Security (IPICS academic summer school).

STUDENTS INTERESTED to do an INTERNSHIP or pursue a THESIS (B.Sc., DI, M.Sc., or Ph.D.) are advised to directly CONTACT OUR RESEARCHERS as listed below.

Machine Learning and Security

Adversarial Machine Learning:
Starting with the S&P 2017 paper on “Towards Evaluating the Robustness of Neural Networks” (https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.04644; Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIXNL88JBWQ) the goal is to systematically analyze existing attacks and defenses and develop new attacks/defenses in specific application domains (such as industrial productions systems (https://www.sqi.at)). Edgar Weippl
Privacy & Machine Learning. Edgar Weippl

Digital Sustainability and Resilience

Demonstrate a complex yet resilient component based infrastructure by implementing a (Netflix) Chaos Monkey demonstration setup with Docker/Kubernetes components. Edgar Weippl
Runtime analysis of selected open source system(s): use debug interface of (Java) virtual machine to analyse runtime behaviour, draw a “code-landscape” and identify processes. Edgar Weippl
Analyse the complexity of selected Open Source projects following established complexity- and entropy-indicators. This might include static code analysis and analysis of code changes (source code repository). Edgar Weippl
Implement a dynamic simulation of an organisation and deduce efficiency “bottle-necks” using queuing theory. Edgar Weippl

Security for Cyber Physical Production Systems

Network Security in CPPS. Which tools (like metasploit) are readily available for pentesting CPPS (instead of business systems)? Edgar Weippl
Forensics Analysis in CPPS. Which tools exist that can be used to analyse CPPS? Are there guidelines on how to proceed? Edgar Weippl
Secure Software Engineering Processes in CPPS. Edgar Weippl

Combinatorial Testing for Information Security

Test case generation for security testing: Dimitris Simos
Combinatorial testing for hardware malware detection: Dimitris Simos
Linux kernel testing for security bugs: Dimitris Simos
Security protocol testing: Dimitris Simos
Web application security testing: Dimitris Simos
Combinatorial Testing of Tor Network: Dimitris Simos
Mathematical modelling and analysis of security vulnerabilities: Dimitris Simos
Optimizations Algorithms for Combinatorial Testing: Dimitris Simos
Discrete Structures for fault-localization in Combinatorial Testing: Dimitris Simos

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin scalability simulations: Aljosha Judmayer
P2P networking aspects of cryptocurrencies: Aljosha Judmayer
Alternative consensus/mining methods: Aljosha Judmayer
Alternative applications and designs of block chain based consensus Systems: Aljosha Judmayer
Bitcoin wallet Security: Aljosha Judmayer
Altcoin evaluation and categorisation: Aljosha Judmayer

Cryptography

Cryptographic engineering for security applications: Dimitris Simos
Hard problems for post-quantum cryptography: Dimitris Simos
Mathematical properties for testing implementations of crypto schemes: Dimitris Simos
Randomness extractors from discrete structures: Dimitris Simos
Design Estimators for quantum protocols: Dimitris Simos

Fileformat Security

File-format hacks (such as funky file formats): Edgar Weippl
Hiding executable code in data files (such as Word, etc.): Edgar Weippl

Internet of Things (IoT) Security and Privacy

Update mechanisms for constrained IoT systems
Secure embedded operating systems for IoT applications: Georg Merzdovnik
IoT network protocol security analysis
Privacy leaks and protections for IoT devices and protocols
Lightweight intrusion detection for IoT systems: Georg Merzdovnik
Efficient implementation of security and cryptography for IoT
Moving-target defenses in IoT environments
Resilient communication protocols for IoT

Cyber-Physical System Security

Power consumption modulation measurements (GPU, CPU, disk access, etc.): Johanna Ullrich
Attacks on cyber-physical systems: Johanna Ullrich
POSIX blackbox live forensic: Aljosha Judmayer

Mobile Security and Privacy

Dynamic Instrumentation: Georg Merzdovnik
Static code deobfuscation: Georg Merzdovnik
Android native code analysis: Georg Merzdovnik
Mobile OS Security (Firefox OS, Tizen,…): Georg Merzdovnik
On-Device application analysis: Georg Merzdovnik

Network Security

IPv4/IPv6 sibling detection: Johanna Ullrich
Long term observations of IPv6 addresses: Johanna Ullrich
Collection of public IPv6 address data sets: Johanna Ullrich
Internet cartography: Johanna Ullrich
Development of covert and side channels: Johanna Ullrich
IPv6-based network scanning and reconnaissance: Johanna Ullrich
IPv6 address formats (analysis and redevelopment): Johanna Ullrich
Perception of IPv4 vs. IPv6 addresses (user study): Johanna Ullrich
Analyzing top Internet page lists e.g., Alexa: Wilfried Mayer
Net neutrality measurements: Wilfried Mayer
RIPE Atlas data analysis: Wilfried Mayer
Transparency of Internet-based protocols: Wilfried Mayer

Privacy Enhancing Technologies

Tor network measurements: Wilfried Mayer
Tor relay operator transparency: Wilfried Mayer
Impact of Certificate Transparency on non-HTTPS-based ecosystems: Wilfried Mayer
Censorship measurement technologies: Wilfried Mayer

Cloud Security

Modelling of networking capabilities of hypervisors (Xen, KVM, etc.): Johanna Ullrich
Modelling of networking capabilities of containers: Johanna Ullrich
Development of covert and side channels: Johanna Ullrich
Network cartography in clouds: Johanna Ullrich
Network attacks in clouds: Johanna Ullrich

Research in Information Security

Comparing military research and academic research – analysis of de-classified content: Edgar Weippl
Analysis of security in standardization processes: Johanna Ullrich