Ruhr-Uni-Bochum
Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

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Women in IT Security

Whether Communication, Health or Mobility: IT security plays an important role in all socially relevant areas. Due to the continuous linking of the digital and physical world, new challenges and questions are constantly developing. Innovative solutions and ideas are needed! Curiosity, openness, creativity and the ability to change perspectives are therefore essential skills for a career in IT security. 

The career opportunities are as diverse as the challenges. With our Women in IT Security series, we would like to make visible the variety of paths and opportunities in IT security - especially for women*. In the coming months, we will gradually introduce exciting women* with different research interests who are working here at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB).

Each is following her own unique career path and is working on one of countless fascinating aspects of IT security. The range of topics is wide and each angle shows a different facet: sometimes a technical question is the focus of research, sometimes human behavior in the context of IT security is illuminated.

Get to know our Role Models and be inspired!

Our Role Models

Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

Leona Lassak

Leona is a PhD student within the former the Mobile Security Group and part of the interdisciplinary research program SecHuman – Security for Humans in Cyberspace at RUB.

In her research she studies user perceptions, understanding, preferences, and misconceptions of biometric and passwordless authentication. Together with legal scholars, she also explores privacy-friendly solutions for data sharing and data monetization. Before starting her doctoral studies, she completed her bachelor’s degree in IT security at RUB in 2019, and her master’s degree in 2021.

Insights into Leona’s Research:

Leona’s Poster

Follow Leona on Linkedin

Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

Sina Däubener

Sina is a PhD student at the Chair for Machine Learning at RUB, within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Within her research, she investigates how stochastic neural networks can be used to detect and prevent attacks through so-called "adversarial examples." In those, attackers add small perturbations to the input that lead to a malicious change in the network's prediction. She studied mathematics at the University of Münster, the Technical University of Valencia and the University of Düsseldorf, where she completed her master in 2017. Previous to her PhD she worked for two years as a full time data scientist on an European research project on improved energy and resource efficiency in the process industry.

Insights into Sina's in Research:

Sina's Poster

Follow Sina on Linkedin

Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

Annika Wilde

Annika is a PhD student at the Chair for Information Security at RUB.

Within the scope of her research, she is engaged in the investigation of vulnerabilities in commercial versions of Trusted Execution Environments in order to develop insights for the development of more secure versions using open-source platforms such as RISC-V. A Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) is a dedicated region on a chip (e.g. in the CPU) with additional isolation and access control. It provides confidentiality and integrity for all code and data deployed within the bounds of the TEE.

She studied IT security in her Bachelor's degree at RUB and was the first to start her PhD via Fast Track during her Master's degree at the Faculty of Computer Science of RUB.

More information about Annika:

Annika's Poster

Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

Carina Wiesen

Carina is a postdoctoral researcher at the Educational Psychology and Technology Research Group at RUB, within the Cluster of Excellence CASA, as well as an associated guest researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP).

Her research focuses on human factors in hardware reverse engineering. Carina holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in Applied Cognitive and Media Science. After working in industry as a product manager for two years, she returned to academia in 2017 and completed her PhD in 2021 as part of the interdisciplinary research college SecHuman - Security for Humans in Cyberspace. Her dissertation is titled “How Do Engineers Analyze Netlists? – Human Problem-Solving Processes in Hardware Reverse Engineering”.

Insights into Carina’s Research:

Carina’s Poster

Follow Carina on Linkedin

Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

M. Angela Sasse

Angela is a Professor for Human-Centered Security at RUB, and Principal Investigator within the Cluster of Excellence CASA. She is a Speaker of CASA, and Leader of Research Hub D "Usability".

Her research explains human behavior in relation to security and privacy and how knowledge from psychology and economics can be applied to build security and privacy protection that meets the needs of individuals, organizations and society. She studied and received her PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Before coming to RUB, she founded and directed the Research Institute for Sociotechnical Cyber Security (RISCS) in the UK.

Insights into Angela's Research:

Angela's Poster

Cyber Security in the Age of Large-Scale Adversaries

Maya-Iggy van Hoof

Maya is a PhD student at the Chair for Cryptology and IT Security at RUB, within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research interest is the application of quantum algorithms to post-quantum cryptography. Maya-Iggy completed her master's degree in industrial and applied mathematics at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2019.

Insights into Maya's Research:

Maya's Poster

Follow Maya on Linkedin

Bild Women in ITS Sabrina Kunzweiler

Sabrina Kunzweiler

Sabrina is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair for Cryptography at RUB, within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research focuses on the mathematical foundations of cryptography. In particular, she is working on the design and analysis of protocols in the area of post-quantum cryptography. She holds two master's degrees in mathematics, one from Syracuse University, USA, in 2017 and one from Ulm University in 2018. Furthermore, she received her PhD in arithmetic geometry from Ulm University in 2020.

Insights into Sabrina‘s Research:

Sabrina's Poster

Bild Women in ITS Asia Biega

Asia Biega

Asia is a tenure-track faculty member at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy (MPI-SP) leading the Responsible Computing group, and Principal Investigator within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research centers around developing, examining and computationally operationalizing principles of responsible computing, data governance & ethics, and digital well-being. Asia completed her PhD in Computer Science at the MPI for Informatics and the MPI for Software Systems. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Microsoft Research Montréal in the Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics in AI Group. In her work, Asia engages in interdisciplinary collaborations while drawing from her traditional Computer Science education and her industry experience (Google, Microsoft).

Insights into Asia's Research:

Asia’s Poster

...and on Linkedin

Bild Women in ITS Doreen Riepel

Doreen Riepel

Doreen is a PhD student at the Chair for Cryptography at RUB, within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research focuses on the design and analysis of cryptographic protocols. This includes, in particular, interactive protocols for cryptographic key exchange and the generation of mathematical proofs. In 2019, she completed her master’s degree in IT security at RUB.

Insights into Doreen’s Research

Doreen‘s Poster

…and on Linkedin

Bild Women in ITS Franziska Herbert

Franziska Herbert

Franziska is a PhD student in the Mobile Security Group at RUB within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research focuses on measuring end-user knowledge, behavior and attitudes in the field of IT security and privacy. She graduated in psychology from the Technische Universität Darmstadt in 2019.

Insights into Franziska's Research:

Franziska's Poster

...and on Linkedin

Bild Women in ITS Clara Schneidewind

Clara Schneidewind

Clara is a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy and a Principal Investigator within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

In her research, she develops solutions for the meaningful, secure, resourceefficient, and privacy-preserving use of blockchain technologies. One of the main goals of her work is to provide strong theoretical foundations to ensure
a high level of reliability in financial processes. She received her PhD from the Technische Universität Wien in 2021.

Insights into Clara's Research:

Clara's Poster

Bild Women in ITS Jennifer Friedauer

Jennifer Friedauer

Jennifer is a PhD student at the Chair for Human-Centred Security at RUB.

Her research focuses on the education of users in the field of IT security in the form of security awareness, trainings, and behavioral change and the role of self-efficacy. Using empirical research methods (e.g. eye-tracking, interviews und questionnaires) she investigates their experiences, knowledge and trust in technologies and systems. Jennifer graduated from RUB in 2019 with a master’s degree in education and social sciences.

Insights into Jennifer‘s Research:

Jennifer's Poster

Follow Jennifer on Linkedin

Bild Women in ITS Lea Schoenherr

Lea Schönherr

Lea is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cognitive Signal Processing Group at RUB, within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research focuses on adversarial machine learning, the robustness of neural networks, and the security of speech and speaker recognition systems. She finished her M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at RUB in 2015 and obtained her PhD from RUB in 2021.

Insights into Lea's Research:

Lea's Poster

Women in ITS Kampagne Veelasha Moonsamy

Veelasha Moonsamy

Veelasha is a tenured research faculty at the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security at RUB and a Principal Investigator within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.  

Her research interests include smart mobile security and privacy, malware detection, and applications of machine learning for systems security and privacy. She received her PhD from Deakin University, Australia, in 2015, and was a postdoctoral researcher and an Assistant Professor in the Digital Security Group at Radboud University, The Netherlands.

Insights into Veelasha's Research:

Veelasha's Poster

...and on Linkedin

Bild Women in ITS Alena Naiakshina 2022

Alena Naiakshina

Alena is an Assistant Professor for Developer-Centered Security at RUB and Principal Investigator within the Cluster of Excellence CASA.

Her research focuses on the security behavior of software developers and the design of security developer studies. She received her PhD from the University of Bonn, where she was part of the BeSec (Behavioral Security) research group.

Insights into Alena's Research:

Alena's Poster

Follow Alena on Linkedin

Benefit From the Opportunities at CASA

 

Career Opportunities

We offer exciting career opportunities to talented young female* scientists:

Support from CASA

CASA encourages talented women* scientists to pursue careers in academia and industry and supports them in achieving a work-life balance. Specific measures include...

Contact

For general questions about the campaign, please contact Annika Gödde.

Information about the general offers for equal opportunities at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum: https://uni.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/en/equal-opportunities