D-INFK news channel

Public cloud services employ special security technologies. Professor Shweta Shinde has, together with her Secure & Trustworthy Systems Group, discovered a gap in the latest security mechanisms used by AMD and Intel chips. This affects major cloud providers.  

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a smartphone app that can be used to check the authenticity of documents and other items. Extracts from the debt enforcement register of the City of Zurich are being made forgery-​proof as part of a pilot project.

The Department of Computer Science is rapidly growing, and so is the number of its current sites. Being so fragmented and spread around the city, it can be difficult for department members to find a sense of belonging. Professor Kenny Paterson, the new Department Head, talks about the challenges but also opportunities he will face in this demanding role.

For his excellent teaching, Prof. Kenny Paterson, head of the Applied Cryptography Group at the Department of Computer Science, receives the Golden Owl 2022. Congratulations!

Three teams of researchers from the Department of Computer Science have received awards at the ACM Computer and Communications Security Conference (CCS), one of the top conferences in the field of security.

The International Committee of the Red Cross aims to create a digital emblem to distinguish the computer systems of medical and humanitarian facilites and to protect them from cyberwarfare. The Center for Cyber Trust, which includes three D-INFK research groups, is developing the necessary technologies.

The Engineering for Humanitarian Action initiative by the ICRC, ETH Zurich and EPFL aims to use innovative technologies to help people in need. One of the projects offering tangible improvements is the secure digial infrastructure project, based on the SCION network technology and involving D-INFK professors Srdjan Capkun and Adrian Perrig.

Florian Tramèr joined the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich in August 2022 as a Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Get to know him in this short interview.

At the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2022, professor Adrian Perrig and his colleagues received a test-of-time award for their first publication on the SCION network technology. Perrig heads the Network Security Group at the Department of Computer Science and is the inventor of SCION. Congratulations!  

Founded by students, the ETH organisation Cyber Group ETH Student Initiative is dedicated to cyber security. Its co-founder and former president, Karin Holzhauser, and current president Christian Knabenhans explain where Cyber Group came from and where it’s headed.

Thirty international teams competed virtually in the Geneva Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge 2022, including two teams of ETH students. Both made it all the way to the finals, winning second and fourth place, and a special prize. Before the competition, all students went through a rigorous two-month training programme provided by the student organisation Cyber Group.

ETH gave out its annual Spark Award on April 27. With their new system that enables safer digital currency transactions at a national scale, Srdjan Capkun, Kari Kostiainen and Karl Wüst from our department made it into the top five. Congratulations!

Cookie consent banners only appear to give users control over their data. Researchers from the Information Security Group have developed a browser extension that uses machine learning to recognise and block unnecessary cookies.

Since June 2020, Professor Kenny Paterson has represented the Department of Computer Science in the Commission for Good Scientific Practice at ETH Zurich. In this interview, he talks about the role of scientists and scientific integrity in computer science.

The alternative internet SCION, invented and developed at ETH Zurich by Adrian Perrig, provides fast, secure and reliable connections for data transfer. It is now available to any ETH lecturers, researchers or employees with special security, performance or reliability requirements.

Adrian Perrig and Torsten Hoefler, professors at the Department of Computer Science, have been named IEEE Fellows. The prestigious grade of IEEE Fellow is conferred upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.

An international research team whose members include Professor Shweta Shinde from our department, amongst others, has revealed a vulnerability in the security architecture of Intel processors. Until July, Microsoft and Google products were also affected.

For a long time, the development of quantum computers was concerned with theoretical and hardware aspects. But as the focus shifts towards programming, software and security issues, the classical computer sciences are coming back into play.

For the first time, ETH Zürich’s CTF team flagbot qualified for the prestigious DEFCON CTF competition. Our joint participation with EPFL students was a big success. Not only did we make it into the top 10, we also finished as the best European team.

Researchers from the Applied Cryptography group led by Professor Kenny Paterson collaborated with scientists from Royal Holloway, University of London to identify several cryptographic weaknesses in the popular messaging platform Telegram.

The ETH CTF (Capture the Flag) team “flagbot”, led by computer science student and VIS committee chairman Leonardo Galli, has qualified for the CTF finals in Las Vegas in August at DEFCON, the world’s largest hacker convention.

Christina Pöpper, a professor at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), studied and earned her doctorate at ETH Zurich, where she also advocated for women at the Department of Computer Science. Today, she shows her students the elegance and beauty of computer science.

After finding a vulnerability in certain credit cards for the first time last year, three researchers in the Information Security Group at ETH Zurich were now able to outsmart the PIN codes for other payment cards, namely Mastercard and Maestro.

At the end of his two-year term as Head of the Department of Computer Science, Professor David Basin looks back on a turbulent time and explains how running a department has helped him better understand the inner workings of ETH Zurich.

David Basin, professor at the Department of Computer Science, has been named an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to formal methods for information security.

Shweta Shinde joined the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich in October 2020 as Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Computer Science. Get to know her in this short interview.

Larger amounts can only be debited from credit cards with a PIN code. Three of our researchers have now discovered a flaw in the security system.

Dr. Shweta Shivaji Shinde’s research focuses on the overlaps between trusted computing, systems security and programme analysis.

Twenty international teams competed in the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge 2020, including five teams from ETH Zurich. In an unprecedented winning streak, the ETH Zurich teams not only took the top five places, but also won all the special prizes. The thorough preparation by the student organisation Cyber Group was one of the reasons for their success.

Professors David Basin and Joachim Buhmann as well as former doctoral student Mario Frank have received the Symposium on Access Control Models and Technologies (SACMAT) Test of Time Award.

The pilot phase for the long-​awaited COVID-​19 tracing app developed by ETH Zurich and EPF Lausanne has started. Prof. Srdjan Čapkun explains what makes it special. 

The committee of the 41st IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy has honoured Prof. Adrian Perrig with four Test-of-Time awards for papers published in the 12-year period between 1995 and 2006 of which he was an author.

The internet has changed our lives in positive ways, but it also has its risks. Adrian Perrig and his team are set on creating an Internet where society would regain more control.

Prof. Srdjan Capkun and his ‘Snappy’ team have developed a system that speeds up cryptocurrency transactions: a secure, practical and fast, like a snap of the fingers, solution.

Professor David Basin has been selected as an individual member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW).

A donation from the Werner Siemens Foundation is helping to finance a project in which ETH researchers are looking to develop a fundamentally new security architecture.

Congratulations to Prof. Srdjan Capkun for receiving this fellowship for his contributions to systems and wireless network security. Its most prestigious member grade, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) annually recognises the top 1% of ACM members for their outstanding accomplishments in computing and information technology as well as their service to the computing community.

Postdoctoral researcher Felix Günther received this significant award in the field of computer and information security at the 26th ACM Computer and Communication Security Conference in London, UK.

For the fourth time, an eleven-person jury from the Swiss business magazine BILANZ has selected the one hundred most important brains at the forefront of digitalisation – Professor Srdjan Capkun, Professor Andreas Krause and alumnus Dr. Lorenz Meier are amongst them.

Prof. Kenny Paterson, head of the Applied Cryptography Group, explains the secret behind prime numbers and how they matter to our daily lives.

Professor Kenneth Paterson officially joined the Department of Computer Science of ETH Zurich at the beginning of April 2019. He will be leading the newly established Applied Cryptography group. Get to know him in this short interview.

ETH doctoral students of computer science show how linking two popular technologies can have highly problematic consequences for web services.

The foundations for internet communication were laid down in the previous century and have undergone very little modernisation since. With their spin-off Anapaya Systems, Adrian Perrig, David Basin and Peter Müller, professors at the ETH Zurich Department of Computer Science, want to bring the internet into the 21st century and make it a secure and reliable means of communication.

Professor Basin has been named ACM Fellow for his contributions to Information Security and Formal Methods.

Researchers in the Information Security Group subjected the upcoming 5G mobile communication standard to a comprehensive security analysis. Their conclusion: data protection is improved in comparison with the previous standards 3G and 4G. However, security gaps are still present.

Would you consider connecting to your bank account in an internet café? Too risky? ETH researcher Aritra Dhar explains how to make sure that the message you send is the message received, even in a hostile environment.

How can we develop new models of cybersecurity that create trusted digital networks? The Internet of Things and Blockchain have the potential to bring transparency and efficiency.

Digitalisation simplifies many aspects of our everyday life, but it also creates new risks. Srdjan Capkun, Professor for Information Security, explains how to find the right balance between convenience and security.

ETH Zurich is expanding its Zurich Information Security and Privacy Center (ZISC). A donation of five million Swiss francs has been made by Zürcher Kantonalbank to the ETH Zurich Foundation specifically for this purpose.

The internet has provided people with unprecedented access to information, transforming network and information access into a quasi public good. Societies increasingly rely on the internet, making it a key pillar of public life in modern societies. Given its importance, a key question is how to improve the internet to achieve a level of reliability that is commensurate with its importance.

At first glance, the internet seems to work reliably. A closer inspection, however, reveals some serious flaws, including large-​scale breakdowns and unwelcome data redirections. Computer science professor Adrian Perrig now proposes a new internal architecture to remedy these discrepancies.

Hackers claimed last year to have a total of 12 million numbers for iPhone, iPad and iPod devices, along with some other phone numbers and personal data on their owners. During the London 2012 Olympic Games the IT network was hit by cyber attacks every day.