Ruhr-Uni-Bochum

CASA Comic: Beaver Paul Dives into the World of Embedded Security

Third CASA comic takes readers on an exciting journey through the research of the Research Hub B of the CASA Cluster of Excellence.

Copyright: CASA

Deep down in a valley of the CASA universe, beavers Paul and Carl are tinkering to stabilize their smart dam. But no matter how hard they try, they can't seem to solve the problem, and the cause of the trouble remains a mystery. Encouraged by their mother's tale of a mysterious settlement of security experts at the bottom of their river, Beaver Paul begins an adventurous dive.

Together with Paul, readers will go on a journey into the underwater world of CASA's Research Hub B and learn about the research topics and challenges that scientists in the field of "Embedded Security" deal with on a daily basis. From hardware Trojans to side-channel attacks, they will learn about the ways in which potentially malicious users can penetrate supposedly secure hardware systems. The researchers they meet in the course of the comic show them the defense mechanisms being researched and how attacks can be detected and prevented, for example, thanks to hardware reverse engineering, intelligent reflecting surfaces or masking. The presentation of various CASA research projects is complemented by real-life stories and a CASA Wiki that explains technical terms in more detail.

"A Deep Dive Into Hub B and the Swirl of Embedded Security" is the third comic in the series, which introduces readers to the Cluster of Excellence's research in an unusual way. "With this exciting visual tale, we want to take both experts and laypeople into the fascinating world of embedded security, make complex concepts understandable, and arouse the curiosity of readers with different backgrounds," explains Christof Paar, Leader of Research Hub B. Steffen Becker, one of the contributors to the comic, also describes the process of creating the comic with the Ellery Studio agency from Berlin as rewarding: "As scientists, we are constantly looking for new ways to communicate our research beyond the academic world. Working with a skilled and experienced team of comic artists to create our science comic about embedded security was an immensely rewarding experience."

All comics are published in English and require an initial, technical background. They will be made available both digitally and as print editions to interested readers.

Take a look at our comics here!

If you are interested in a print edition, please contact us at hgi-presse(at)rub.de.

General note: In case of using gender-assigning attributes we include all those who consider themselves in this gender regardless of their own biological sex.