Attacks from cyberspace

New demands on research and experts

Phishing, hacking, data theft: digital attacks and cybercrime are on the rise in our networked society. Hochschule BonnRhein-Sieg contributes its expertise to this important social issue both with degree programmes and through research projects and conferences.

In the Bachelor’s degree programme “Cyber Security & Privacy”, the university has been training experts who care about security and privacy in the digital world since winter semester 2020/21. Many topics, technologies and applications are new and therefore require intensive research. In order to train scientists in this area who are much required for the future, the Master’s programme “Cyber Security & Privacy” will launch in winter semester 2023/24.

Female students welcome

Due to an outdated understanding of gender roles, mainly men are interested in the field of computer science. Women are in the minority, says Dr Barbara Hillen, Equal Opportunity Officer at H-BRS. “But computer science also involves analytical and communicative skills, in which women often excel due to their socialisation.” That’s why the “Women in Cyber Security” (WISE) network has been specifically supporting female students since this year.

In addition to reflection and networking, WISE also offers the students excursions to non-university institutes or companies.

Pegah Oveisy, who is in her third semester, gained insight into the IT security department at Deutsche Welle in Bonn. “It was very interesting to see where I could potentially work later on,” she says. “Especially for me as a foreigner, it was a helpful impulse for career orientation.”

SMEs threatened

Threats from cyberspace not only require IT specialists, they also lead to entirely new problems for legal jurisdiction. That is why Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, in cooperation with the German Lawyers’ Conference, organised the discussion round “Data, Hacking, Digital Forgeries – Challenges for the Judiciary” in June 2022. It became clear at the conference that such attacks can threaten the existence of SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in particular. But prosecution is made more difficult by constantly changing business models and a high number of unreported cases. Research plays an important role in the counterstrategy. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), for instance, operates the Biometrics Evaluation Centre (BEZ) together with H-BRS, providing valuable insights into the detection of digital forgeries.

Sensitising medical staff

Hacking attacks do not just cause economic damage. “When computer systems fail in hospitals, this can have dramatic consequences for patients,” says Luigi Lo Iacono, Professor for Information Security at H-BRS and head of the Institute for Cyber Security & Privacy (ICSP). On the one hand, this is a matter of spying out sensitive data, and on the other hand, it is a concrete threat to medical care – because from patient files to diagnostic equipment, information technology is used everywhere.

One challenge in practice is the improper handling of IT infrastructure and the insufficiently developed information security awareness of employees. “A lack of IT expertise about potential damage and too little risk perception can put medical institutions at risk,” explains Lo Iacono. This is where one of six third-party funded projects of the ICSP comes in – the research project MedISA. The team led by Professor Lo Iacono with David Langer and Dr Jan Tolsdorf is developing strategies in cooperation with the university hospitals of Aachen, Bonn and Düsseldorf, as well as other healthcare institutions, to raise the necessary awareness among employees in medical care facilities.

Strengthening the police in the fight against cybercrime

The North Rhine-Westphalian police also require more knowledge about the dangers looming in cyberspace because crime in digital space has developed into a global problem. Since H-BRS and Hochschule Niederrhein founded the joint Cyber Campus NRW in 2020, police officers can obtain further training there to become cybercriminalists, too. Beginning winter semester 2023/24, a degree programme designed to be completed alongside a career and specially geared towards the needs of the police will be added to the Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes already offered by the Cyber Campus NRW. “It’s very beneficial if police officers decide to take this additional course of study,” said Herbert Reul, Minister of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, in April 2022, when the two universities signed a memorandum of understanding together with the state. “With this programme, we are arming our “cyber cops” for the digital world of tomorrow. And we’re going to need their expertise desperately.”