- Data and Application Security Group

Two book chapters published in Human Factors in Privacy Research (Open Access)

Two chapters (co-)authored by members of our research group have been published in the open access book Human Factors in Privacy Research.

The chapter titled Achieving Usable Security and Privacy Through Human-Centered Design, co-authored by Jan Tolsdorf, Stephan Wiefling, and Luigi Lo Iacono, discusses practical methods to create usable security and privacy solutions using the human-centered design process.

The chapter titled Data Cart: A Privacy Pattern for Personal Data Management in Organizations by Jan Tolsdorf and Luigi Lo Iacono introduces a privacy pattern called Data Cart, developed through a user-centered approach. The pattern assists in creating tailored technical and organizational data protection measures that align with employees’ requirements, ultimately enhancing privacy compliance.

David Langer successfully defended his dissertation

David Langer successfully defended his dissertation entitled “The Structuration of Moral Capital and Unethical Behavior: When the Organization Hits an Ethical Meltdown” in Wuppertal on 12 July 2023. David has successfully completed the PhD Programme of the Schumpeter School of Business and Economics at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal. Congratulations!

Stephan Wiefling successfully defended his dissertation

Stephan Wiefling successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Usability, Security, and Privacy of Risk-Based Authentication” in Bochum on 08 May 2023. His dissertation project was carried out as part of a collaboration between the DAS-Group of Prof. Luigi Lo Iacono at H-BRS and the Usable Security and Privacy research group of Prof. Markus Dürmuth. Stephan has successfully completed the PhD Programme of the Faculty of Computer Science at the Ruhr-University Bochum. Congratulations!

Jan Tolsdorf gives a talk at the Stammtisch of the Cyber Security Cluster Bonn

Jan Tolsdorf will give an invited talk (in German) on our ongoing research project MedISA. In the project, a catalog of measures for increasing information security awareness is being developed specifically for medical care facilities. The presentation will introduce the project in more detail, present initial research results, and provide an outlook on future work.

Date and time: February 28, 2023 at 4pm - 5:30 pm

Further information and registration can be found here.

Jan Tolsdorf received the Doctoral Thesis Award 2022 by the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University Society

Congratulations to Jan Tolsdorf for receiving the the Doctoral Thesis Award 2022 by the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University Society (“Promotionspreis Hochschulgesellschaft Bonn-Rhein-Sieg 2022”), funded by the Industrie- und Handelsclub Bonn e. V.

With this award the society honors Jan Tolsdorf’s work in the context of his dissertation “Investigation of Information Privacy in Employment: Fundamental Knowledge and Practical Solutions for the Human-Centered Design of Measures to Preserve the Right to Informational Self-Determination in Employment”.

More information on the award is available here.

Credits photo: H-BRS/Nathan Dreessen

Stephan Wiefling gives a talk at the Stammtisch of the Cyber Security Cluster Bonn

Stephan Wiefling will give an invited talk (in German) on how risk-based authentication (RBA) can protect our accounts with better usability. Participation is free and online.

The presentation shows

  • how popular online services use RBA
  • how users perceive it
  • how you can implement it in a privacy-compliant way
  • and how it can be configured for best possible security and usability on a large online service.

Date and time: January 17, 2023 at 4pm - 5:30 pm

Further information and registration can be found here.

Open Data Impact Award for Members of DAS Group

The Stifterverband awarded Stephan Wiefling and Luigi Lo Iacono with the Open Data Impact Award 2022. The award recognizes the release of our open Login Data Set for Risk-Based Authentication (RBA), and its innovation potential for science and society. The prize money of 10,000 euros will be used to move RBA forward. You can download the data set and the corresponding publication at our RBA website.

New article accepted for publication in IEEE Security & Privacy

The article “Eight Lightweight Usable Security Principles for Developers” by Peter Leo Gorski, Luigi Lo Iacono, and Matthew Smith has been accepted for inclusion in IEEE Security & Privacy. The article proposes eight usable security principles that provide software developers with a lightweight framework to help them integrate security in a user-friendly way. The principles are supposed to help developers who must weigh usability and security tradeoffs to facilitate adoption.

Paper on an interview study with data protection officers on privacy challenges in digital ecosystems accepted for presentation at SPOSE 2022

The paper entitled “Data Protection Officers’ Perspectives on Privacy Challenges in Digital Ecosystems” by Stephan Wiefling, Jan Tolsdorf, and Luigi Lo Iacono has been accepted for presentation at the 4th Workshop on Security, Privacy, Organizations, and Systems Engineering (SPOSE). The paper presents the result of an interview study with seven data protection officers from Germany on challenges in implementing data protection requirements and data subject rights in digital ecosystems.

Jan Tolsdorf successfully defended his dissertation

Jan Tolsdorf successfully defended his dissertation entitled “Investigation of Information Privacy in Employment: Fundamental Knowledge and Practical Solutions for the Human-Centered Design of Measures to Preserve the Right to Informational Self-Determination in Employment” in Göttingen on 08 August 2022. His dissertation project was carried out as part of a collaboration between the DAS-Group of Prof. Luigi Lo Iacono at H-BRS and the Computer Security and Privacy Research Group of Prof. Delphine Reinhardt at the University of Göttingen. Here Jan has undergone the PhD Programme in Computer Science at the Georg-August University School of Science. Congratulations!