Felix Freiling

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Felix Freiling

Chairholder

Department of Computer Science
Chair of Computer Science 1 (IT Security Infrastructures)

Room 12.159
Martensstr. 3
91058 Erlangen

Phone number: +49 9131 85 69901
Fax number: +49 9131 85 69919
Email: felix.freiling@fau.de
Website: http://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/staff/freiling

Office hours

Each week Mo, 17:00 - 18:00, Room 12.159, während der Vorlesungszeit - Termin vorher mit dem Sekretariat Tel. +49 9131 85-69900 vereinbaren

I am a professor of computer science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In my prior life my research focus for a long time was on fault-tolerant distributed algorithms. Today I focus on computer security and forensic computing. Since I work in the area of applied computer security I am constantly trying to cover my traces: From 2002 to 2010 I worked at five different universities under two different names.

I don’t have any account in social media, so any account with my name is probably somebody else’s.

I support The Cost of Knowledge and currently refrain from reviewing and editorial services to Elsevier.

Announcements

My Sprechstunde during winter semester 2021/2022 is Mondays between 17:00 and 18:00. Please indicate in advance to Christine Stief if you plan to come.

Official Short Biography

Felix Freiling is full professor of Computer Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) in Germany. His main research focus is on forensic computing, meaning the application of methods from computer science to answer questions of the legal system. He has published numerous papers on the methodological foundations of the field, including acquisition processes of digital evidence, tool support for analysis of digital evidence, and technical aspects of legal admissability. He is one of the founders of the first German professional Bachelors and Masters degree programmes focussing on digital forensics and has trained several generations of expert witnesses therein. He is also the spokesperson of the Research Training Group “Cybercrime and Forensic Computing” funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Felix Freiling’s Email Policy

On December 18, 2008 the number of unanswered messages in my email inbox surpassed 1000. I surrender! On christmas day 2008 I decided to change my email handling policy: In the future, I will treat emails more like I treat telephone calls. I will fix a time interval d and after d time I will completely remove all unanswered email from my inbox that is older than d. This means I will most probably not respond anymore to emails that have not been answered in d time. Currently d is one year, but it may be adjusted. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but I am now convinced that I cannot continue to treat email the same as I treat postal mail. If you need a definitive response from me within a certain time, it is probably more reliable to send a letter by postal mail.

Update in April 2009: d is now 6 months.

Update in July 2009: d is now 2 months.

Update in December 2010: d is now 3 weeks.

Update in January 2012: d is now 1 week

Update in December 2013: d is now 4 days.

Update in December 2014: d is now 2 days.

Update in September 2017: d is now 3 days.

Exams

Students planning an oral examination have the chance to visit such an exam as an observer (Hospitation) beforehand under the condition that they do not disturb the exam and the examined student agrees.

Internship and Employment Opportunities

My lab infrequently offers internships and short or long term employment to interested and well-qualified candidates. I however only reply to normal postal mail or (sometimes) to email which has been sent individually to me. In case you wish to communicate via email and are looking for an internship, please include the code word “ref: nightingale” in the subject of your mail to prove that you prepared an individual email.

Memberships

Professional activities

Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS 2002), Osaka, Japan, PC Member
International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS 2002), Taiwan, PC Member
Workshop on Resource Sharing in Massively Distributed Systems (RESH 2002), PC Member
DISC 2004: The 18th Annual Conference on Distributed Computing, PC member
Euro-Par 2005, Vice Chair of Topic 8: Distributed Systems and Algorithms
2nd Workshop on Sensor Networks at INFORMATIK 2005, PC member
Sicherheit in komplexen, vernetzten Umgebungen, PC member
Seventh International Symposium on Self Stabilizing Systems (SSS 2005), PC member
First International Workshop on Distributed Algorithms and Applications for Wireless and Mobile Systems (DAAWMS 2005), PC member
Workshop on Dependability and Fault Tolerance at ARCS 2006, PC member
First International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES 2006), PC member
Sicherheit – Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (Sicherheit 2006), member of organizing committee and PC member
8th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2006), Dallas, PC Member
25th IEEE International Symposium on Reliable Distributed Systems (SRDS 2006), PC Member
Sixth European Dependable Computing Conference (EDCC-6), Student Forum PC member
1st International Workshop on Advances in Sensor Networks, PC member
Workshop Verlässlichkeit und Fehlertoleranz im Rahmen der ARCS 2007, Zürich, Schweiz, March 12, 2007, PC Member
Testing of Software – From Research to Practice Workshop at Software Engineering 2007, PC Member
Workshop on Foundations of Fault-Tolerant Distributed Computing (FOFDC 2007), PC member
Fourth GI International Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware, and Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA 2007), PC member
The First International Workshop on Spoofing, Digital Forensics and Open Source Tools (SDFOST 2007), PC member
International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS 2007), Dependability and Fault-Tolerance Area, PC member
International Conference on Distributed Event-Based Systems (DEBS 2007), PC member
9th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2007), PC member
First International Workshop on Reliability, Availability, and Security (WRAS 2007), PC member
Sicherheit – Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (Sicherheit 2008), member of organizing committee and PC member
2nd Workshop on Recent Advances on Intrusion-Tolerant Systems (WRAITS 2008), PC member
10th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems, PC member
12th Internationnal Conference On Principles Of DIstributed Systems (OPODIS 2008), PC member.
iNetSec 2009. Open Research Problems in Network Security Workshop, PC member.
5th International ICST Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2009), PC member.
Digitale Multimedia-Forensik: Techniken und Anwendungsgebiete, Workshop at INFORMATIK 2009, PC member.
IMF 2009 – 5th International Conference on IT Security Incident Management & IT Forensics, PC member.
The 11th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2009), Fault-tolerance in distributed systems track and stabilization track, PC member.
Sixth European Conference on Computer Network Defense (EC2ND 2010), Berlin, PC member.
Sicherheit, Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (SICHERHEIT 2010), Berlin, PC Chair.
The First International Workshop on Dynamic Aspects in Dependability Models for Fault-Tolerant Systems (DYADEM-FTS 2010), Valencia, Spain, PC member.
3rd ACM International Workshop on Reliability, Availability, and Security (WRAS 2010), Zurich, Switzerland, PC member
7th Workshop on Dependability and Fault Tolerance at ARCS 2011, Como, Italy, 2011, PC member
International Workshop on Security Issues for Future Internet Social Networks and Devices: connecting Digital World with Social & Real Life (FISN 2011), Crete, Greece, PC member
2nd International Workshop on Logical Aspects of Fault-Tolerance (LAFT 2011), Toronto, Canada, PC member
6th International Conference on IT Incident Management and IT Forensics (IMF 2011), Stuttgart, Germany, PC member
8th Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA 2011), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, PC member
3rd International ICST Conference on Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime (ICDF2C 2011), Dublin, Ireland, PC member
13th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2011), Genoble, France, Security Track, PC member
The Seventh European Conference on Computer Network Defense (EC2ND) 2011, Gothenburg, Sweden, PC member
Sicherheit – Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (SICHERHEIT 2012), Darmstadt, Germany, PC member and member of organizing committee
The Eigth European Conference on Computer Network Defense (EC2ND) 2012, Bristol, UK, PC member
The 26th International Symposium on Distributed Computing (DISC 2012), Salvador, Brazil, PC member
The 4th International ICST Conference on Security and Privacy in Mobile Information and Communication Szstems (MobiSec 2012), Frankfurt, Germany, PC member
The 14th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2012), Toronto, Cloud Computing Track, PC member, and Safety and Security track, Track Chair
The 2nd International Workshop on Trustworthy Embedded Devices (TrustED 2012), San Franscisco, PC member
The 2012 ADFSL Conference on Digital Forensics, Security and Law, Richmond, VA, USA, PC member
First International Baltic Conference on Network Security & Forensics (NeSeFo 2012), Tartu, Estonia, PC member
9th Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA 2012), Heraklion, Greece, PC member
The 15th Information Security Conference (ISC 2012), Passau, Germany, PC Co-Chair
The 7th International Conference on IT Incident Management and IT Forensics (IMF 2013), Nürnberg, Germany, General Chair and PC member
The International Conference on Privacy and Security in Mobile Systems (PRISMS) 2013, Atlantic City, USA, PC member
Risikokommunikation im Kontext von IT-Sicherheit (RiskKom), Workshop at INFORMATIK 2013, Koblenz, PC member
D.A.CH Security 2013, Nürnberg, Germany, PC member
First International Workshop on Emerging Cyberthreats and Countermeasures (ECTCM), Workshop at ARES 2013, Regensburg, Germany, PC member
The 5th International Conference on Digital Forensics and Cybercrime (ICDF2C 2013), Moskow, PC member
Sicherheit: Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (SICHERHEIT 2014), Vienna, Austria, PC member
The 8th International Conference on IT Security Incident Management & IT Forensics (IMF 2014), Münster, Germany, PC co-chair
Digital Forensics Research Conference EU (DFRWS EU 2014), Amsterdam, Netherlands, PC member
The 16th International Symposium on Stabilization, Safety, and Security of Distributed Systems (SSS 2014), Paderborn, Germany, PC member
12th International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik 2015 (WI 2015), Track “Datenschutz und Sicherheit”, Münster, Germany, PC member
Digital Forensics Research Conference EU (DFRWS EU 2015), Dublin, Ireland, PC co-chair
30th IFIP TC-11 SEC 2015 International Information Security and Privacy Conference, Hamburg, Germany, PC member
Studierendenkonferenz Informatik 2015 (SKILL 2015), Cottbus, Germany, PC member
12th International Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA 2015), Milano, Italy, PC member
20th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS 2015), Vienna, Austria, PC member
IFIP WG 11.4 Workshop – iNetSec 2015 – Open Research Problems in Network Security, Zurich, Switzerland, PC member
Digital Forensics Research Conference (Europe) 2016 (DFRWS EU), Lausanne, Switzerland, PC member
Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik 2016 (MKWI 2016), Ilmenau, Germany, PC member
Sicherheit: Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (SICHERHEIT 2016), Bonn, Germany, PC member
Digital Forensic Research Conference (Europe) 2017 (DFRWS EU 2017) and 10th International Conference on IT Security Incident Management & IT Forensics (IMF 2017), Lake Constance, Germany, Conference Chair and PC member
Sicherheit und Zuverlässigkeit für automobile Informationstechnik (Automotive 2017), Stuttgart, Germany, PC member
2nd International Workshop on Online Safety, Trust and Fraud Prevention (ONST17), Aberdeen, UK, PC member
International Symposium on Cyber Security, Cryptography and Machine Learning (CSCML 2017), Be’er Sheva, Israel, PC member
Digital Forensic Research Conference (Europe) 2018 (DFRWS EU 2018), Florence, Italy, PC member
Sicherheit: Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit (SICHERHEIT 2018) und SICHERHEIT 2018 Doktorandenforum, Konstanz, Germany, PC member
17th IEEE International Conference On Trust, Security And Privacy In Computing And Communications (IEEE TrustCom-18), forensics and analytics track, New York, USA, PC member
OSFC 2018: Open Source Firmware Conference, Erlangen, Germany, Conference Chair
33rd IFIP TC-11 SEC 2018 International Conference on Information Security and Privacy Protection (SEC 2018), Poznań, Poland, PC member
11th International Conference on IT Security Incident Management & IT Forensics (IMF 2018), Hamburg, Germany, PC member
Studierendenkonferenz Informatik (SKILL 2018), Berlin, Germany, PC member
IEEE TrustCom 2019 (The 18th IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications), Privacy Track, Rotura, New Zealand, PC member
Digital Forensic Research Conference (Europe) 2019 (DFRWS EU 2019), Oslo, Norway, PC member
SICHERHEIT 2020 (Sicherheit – Schutz und Zuverlässigkeit 2020), Göttingen, Germany, PC member
Digital Forensic Research Conference (Europe) 2020 (DFRWS EU 2020), Oxford, UK, PC member
Systematic Approaches to Digital Forensic Engineering 2020 (SADFE 2020), City University of New York, USA, PC member
DFRWS APAC 2020, Sydney, Australia, PC member
Systematic Approaches to Digital Forensic Engineering 2021 (SADFE 2021), PC member
Digital Forensics Research Conference (Europe) 2021 (DFRWS EU 2021), cyberspace, PC member
Digital Forensics Research Conference (Europe) 2022 (DFRWS EU 2022), PC member

Academic Administration/Politics/Honorary Positions

2004-2008: Vorstandsmitglied im GI Beirat der Universitätsprofessoren (GIBU)
2006: Member of the expert commission to evaluate the online voting system for the DFG
Sommersemester 2006: Direktor des Instituts für Informatik der Universität Mannheim
May 2007-September 2009: Direktor des Instituts für Informatik der Universität Mannheim
October 2007: Advisor of the German constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in the public hearing on “Online Durchsuchungen”
Sommersemester 2008: Prodekan der Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik der Universität Mannheim
Herbstsemester 2008-November 2010: Dekan der Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik der Universität Mannheim
2008-2018: Organisator des Workshops “Forensik und Internetkriminalität” des Darmstadtädter CAST-Vereins (gemeinsam mit Harald Baier).
June 2009: Advisor of the German constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in the case on “Vorratsdatenspeicherung”
May 2011-April 2016: Mitglied des Senats- und Bewilligungsausschusses für die Graduiertenkollegs der DFG
since July 2011: Mitglied der Masterzulassungskommission der Technischen Fakultät der FAU, seit Oktober 2013 Kommissionsvorsitzender
since October 2011: Mitglied der Studienkommission des Department Informatik der FAU
since July 2012: Vertreter der FAU im Fakultätentag Informatik
since November 2012: Mitglied im wissenschaftlichen Beirat der Firma RedTeam Pentesting GmbH, Aachen
2013/2014: Vorsitzender der Jury des 5. Deutschen IT-Sicherheitspreises der Horst Görtz-Stiftung
since May 2014: member of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on IT Security Incident Management & IT Forensics (IMF)
September 2014-June 2020: Mitglied im Aufsichtsrat der Cryptotec AG, Köln
October 2014-October 2015: Studiendekan 3 der Technischen Fakultät der FAU
since 2015: Mitglied des Nominierungsausschusses für den Dissertationspreis der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.
July 2015: Advisor of the German constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) in the case on “BKAG”
October 2015-September 2019, and since October 2021: gewähltes Mitglied im Fakultätsrat der Technischen Fakultät der FAU
2015/2016: Vorsitzender der Jury des 6. Deutschen IT-Sicherheitspreises der Horst Görtz-Stiftung
since April 2016: gewähltes Mitglied des Fachkollegiums Informatik der DFG, seit Oktober 2020 dessen stellvertretender Sprecher
since August 2017: Mitglied im Steuerkreis im BayWISS Verbundkollegs Digitalisierung (BWD} als Vertreter der FAU
November 2017-September 2019: Sprecher der kollegialen Leitung des Department Informatik der Technischen Fakultät der FAU
2017/2018: Vorsitzender der Jury des 7. Deutschen IT-Sicherheitspreises der Horst Görtz-Stiftung
since 1/2018: Mitglied im Vorstand des Fakultätentags Informatik
seit Juli 2018: Mitglied im Direktorium des Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation an der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.
since 3/2019: member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Research Field “Information” at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
since 9/2019: member of the Advisory Board of National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity (ATHENE, formerly CRISP).
9/2021-7/2026: Mitglied im Expert:innenbeirat der Nachwuchsforschungsgruppe “DiSoJu – Digitale Souveränität Jugendlicher” von Dr. Jane Müller, FAU.

Research Interests

applied computer security, software security, forensic computing, cybercrime

Reviewed PhD and Habilitation Theses

If my name is given as 1st reviewer, I usually also was the student’s advisor. In other cases the advisor if explicitly credited. (in Germany

Matthias Meixner: HADES – Eine hochverfügbare Main-Memory Datenbank für eventbasierte Systeme. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer: Prof. Alejandro Buchmann). Defended December 17, 2004, TU Darmstadt.
Martin Hutle: Failure Detection in Sparse Networks. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer: Prof. Ulrich Schmid). Defended October 4, 2005, TU Wien.
Erik-Oliver Blaß: Sicherer, aggregierender Datentransport in drahtlosen Sensornetzen. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer: Prof. Dr. Martina Zitterbart). Defended April 20, 2007, University of Karlsruhe.
Dr. Guido Schryen: An analysis of anti-spam measures and the conceptual design of a technological and organizational infrastructure framework for tackling spam e-mails. Habilitation thesis, RWTH Aachen, 2007.
Lucia Draque Penso: Distributed Protocols Robust Against Malicious Attacks. (PhD defense committee member with Prof. Maurice Herlihy and Prof. Anna Lysyanskaya). Defended January 30, 2008. Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Mohammad Torabi Dashti: Keeping Fairness Alive. (PhD defense committee member, advisor was Prof. Wan Fokkink). Defended Februrary 27, 2008. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Wei Zhou: Access Control Model and Policies for Collaborative Environments. (PhD thesis, external reviewer, first reviewer: Prof. Christoph Meinel.) Defended April 27, 2009, Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI), Potsdam.
Ionannis Krontiris: Intrusion Prevention and Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Tassos Dimitriou, AIT, Greece). Defended November 13, 2008. University of Mannheim.
Zinaida Benenson: Access Control in Wireless Sensor Networks. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Adrian Perrig, CMU). Defended Dec. 19, 2008. University of Mannheim.
Oliver Steffen Weiß: A model to quantitavely assess the security of organizations. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Dr. K. Meyer-Wegener, Univ. Erlangen). Defended Feb 20, 2009. Univ. Erlangen.
Thorsten Holz: Tracking and Mitigation of Malicious Remote Control Networks. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Christopher Kruegel, UCSB). Defended April 30, 2009. University of Mannheim.
Frank Werner: Applied Formal Methods in Wireless Sensor Networks. (2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Dr. P. H. Schmitt, Univ. of Karlsruhe). Defended July 22, 2009. Univ. of Karlsruhe.
Timo Warns: Structural Failure Models for Fault-Tolerant Distributed Computing. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st and 2nd reviewers Prof. Dr. Oliver Theel, University of Oldenburg, Prof. Dr. Willi Hasselbring, University of Kiel). Defended Sept, 28, 2009. University of Oldenburg.
Michael Becher: Security of Smartphones at the Dawn of Their Ubiquitousness. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Dr. Ulrike Meyer, RWTH Aachen). Defended October 9, 2009. University of Mannheim.
Martin Mink: Vergleich von Lehransätzen für die Ausbildung in IT-Sicherheit. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Dr. Simone Fischer-Hübner, Karlstad University, Sweden). Defended Dec 11, 2009. University of Mannheim.
Moritz Martens: Properties of Interaction Systems. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Dr. Mila Majster-Cederbaum, University of Mannheim). Defended Dec 18, 2009. University of Mannheim.
Roberto Cortinas: Failure Detectors and Communication Efficiency in the Crash and General Omission Failure Models. (Member of PhD defense committee, advisors: Prof. Alberto Laufente, Prof. Iratxe Soraluze, University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain) Defended April 4, 2011. University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian, Spain.
Jan Gerrit Göbel: Large-Scale Detection and Measurement of Malicious Content. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Christopher Krügel, UCSB) Defended April 27, 2011. University of Mannheim.
Michael Müter: Embedded Security Concepts for In-Verhicle Systems. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Frank Kargl, University of Twente) Defended May 27, 2011. University of Mannheim.
Tobias Limmer: Efficient Network Monitoring for Attack Detection. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Falko Dressler, University of Innsbruck, Austria) Defended June 20, 2011. University of Erlangen.
Philipp Trinius: Musterbasiertes Filtern von Schadprogrammen und Spam. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Guido Schryen, University of Regensburg) Defended October 21, 2011. University of Mannheim.
Sebastian Schinzel: Unintentional and hidden information leaks in networked software applications. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Jörg Schwenk, Ruhr-University Bochum) Defended April 23, 2012. University of Erlangen.
Amir Alsbih: Technische Sicherheitsaspekte bei Kabelnetzbetreibern. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Christian Schindelhauer, University of Freiburg) Defended May 8, 2012. University of Freiburg.
Juliane Blechinger: Ein Metadatenrepositorium zum Datenqualitätsmonitoring im Concurrent Engineering. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Richard Lenz, University of Erlangen) Defended July 6, 2012. University of Erlangen.
Zhang Fu: Multifaceted Defense Against Distributed Denial of Service Attacks: Prevention, Detection, Mitigation. (PhD thesis, faculty opponent, advisors Marina Papatriantafilou and Philippas Tsigas, Chalmers University of Technology) Defended September 19, 2012. Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
Andreas Dewald: Formalisierung digitaler Spuren und ihre Einbettung in die forensische Informatik. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Guido Schryen, University of Regensburg) Defended November 12, 2012. University of Erlangen.
Michael Spreitzenbarth: Dissecting the Droid: Forensic Analysis of Android and its Malicious Applications. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Michael Meier, University of Bonn) Defended March 11, 2013. University of Erlangen.
Christian Jörn Dietrich: Identification and Recognition of Remote-Controlled Malware. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Christopher Krügel, UCSB) Defended March 28, 2013. University of Mannheim.
Joshua Isaac James: Automated Human Inference in Digital Forensic Investigations Using Hypothesis Reduction. (PhD thesis, external examiner, advisor Dr. Pavel Gladyshev, University College Dublin) Defended April 26, 2013. University College Dublin, Ireland.
Ralf Hund: Analysis and Retrofitting of Security Properties for Proprietary Software Systems. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Thorsten Holz, Ruhr-Universiy Bochum) Defended April 29, 2013. Ruhr-University Bochum.
Carsten Willems: Instrumenting Existing System Componente for Dynamic Analysis of Malicious Software. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Thorsten Holz, Ruhr-University Bochum) Defended April 29, 2013. Ruhr-University Bochum.
Christian Gorecki: Dilution – A novel Approach in Preserving Privacy. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Thorsten Strufe, TU Darmstadt) Defended April 30, 2013. University of Mannheim.
Steffen Wendzel: Novel Approaches for Network Covert Storage Channels. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Jörg Keller, FernUniversität Hagen) Defended May 7, 2013. FernUniversität Hagen.
Johannes Barnickel: Authentication and Identity Privacy in the Wireless Domain. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Ulrike Meyer, RWTH Aachen) Defended June 4, 2013. RWTH Aachen.
Tilo Müller: On the security of full disk encryption. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Wolfgang Schröder-Prekschat, FAU) Defended June 5, 2013. FAU
Marek Jawurek: Privacy in Smart Grids. (PhD thesis, 1st rewiewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Günter Müller, University of Freiburg, advisor: Florian Kerschbaum) Defended July 17, 2013. FAU
Markus Engelberth: Social Malcode – Benutzerabhängige Schadprogramme. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Thorsten Holz, Ruhr-University Bochum) Defended September 11, 2013. University of Mannheim.
Raul Schmidlin Fajardo Silva: Contract Testing for Reliable Embedded Systems. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Reinhard Männer, Universität Heidelberg) Defended November 18, 2013. University of Heidelberg.
Stefan Vömel: Forensic Acquisition and Analysis of Volatile Data in Memory. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Dr. Pavel Gladyshev, University College Dublin) Defended December 18, 2013. FAU.
Christopher Meyer: 20 Years of SSL/TLS Research – An Analysis of the Internet’s Security Foundation. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Jörg Schwenk, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Defended February 7, 2014, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Tobias Distler: Resource-efficient Fault and Intrusion Tolerance. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer: Prof. Wolfgang Schröder-Preikschat, 2nd reviewer: Prof. Rüdiger Kapitza, TU Braunschweig) Defended June 24, 2014. FAU.
Frank Breitinger: On the utility of bytewise approximate matching in computer science with a special focus on digital forensics investigations. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer: Prof. Stefan Katzenbeisser, TU Darmstadt, 2nd reviewer: Prof. Harald Baier, Hochschule Darmstadt) Defended June 30, 2014. TU Darmstadt.
Johannes Hoffmann: From Mobile to Security – Towards Secure Smartphones. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Thorsten Holz, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Defended August 28, 2014. Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Tobias Hoppe: Prävention, Detektion und Reaktion gegen drei Ausprägungsformen automotiver Malware. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Jana Dittmann, Otto von Guericke Universität Magdeburg) Defended December 10, 2014. Otto von Guericke Universität Magdeburg.
Christian Moch: Automatisierte Erstellung von Übungsaufgaben in der digitalen Forensik. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Jana Dittmann, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg) Defended January 30, 2015. FAU
Hans-Georg Eßer: Design, Implementation and Evaluation of the ULIX Teaching Operating System. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer PD Daniel Lohmann, FAU) Defended March 23, 2015. FAU
Nadina Hintz: Der Einfluss des menschlichen Verhaltens auf die IT-Sicherheit und den Datenschutz. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Simone Fischer-Hübner, Karlstad University, Sweden, advisor: Zinaida Benenson) Defended April 1, 2015. FAU
Johannes Stüttgen: On the Viability of Memory Forensics in Compromised Environments. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Michael Meier, University of Bonn) Defended May 28,2015. FAU
Matthäus Wander: The Impact of DNSSEC on the Internet Landscape. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Torben Weis, Universität Duisburg-Essen) Defended June 19, 2015. University of Duisburg-Essen
Michael Riecker: Lightweight Intrusion Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Matthias Hollick, TU Darmstadt) Defended June 22, 2015. TU Darmstadt
Benjamin Stock: Untangling the Web of Client-Side Cross-Site Scripting. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Michael Backes, Saarland University) Defended August 31, 2015. FAU
Matthias Stefan Meitner: Quantitative Bewertung der Softwarezuverlässigkeit unter Berücksichtigung der Komponenteninteraktionen. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer: Prof. Francesca Saglietti, FAU) Defended September 17, 2015. FAU
Andreas Kurtz: Dynamic Analysis and Privacy Implications of Apple iOS Apps. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer: Prof. Hannes Federrath, Universität Hamburg) Defended March 14, 2016. FAU
Johannes Formann: Kryptographische Insel zur Realisierung von Angreifertoleranz in redundanten Systemen. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Klaus Echtle, Universität Duisburg-Essen) Defended April 22, 2016. Universität Duisburg-Essen
Tobias Wüchner: Behavior-based Malware Detection with Quantitative Data Flow Analysis. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Alexander Pretschner, TU München) Defended July 5, 2016. TU München
Carlo Schäfer: Mail Infrastructure Traffic Analyzer – Erkennung kompromittierter E-Mail-Accounts. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Eberhard Zehendner, FSU Jena) Defended October 12, 2016. FSU Jena
Dr. Ingmar Baumgart: Dezentrale Systeme zum Schutz der Privatsphäre. Habilitation thesis, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), 2016.
Michael Gruhn: Forensically Sound Data Acquisition in the Age of Anti-Forensic Innocence. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Zeno Geradts, University of Amsterdam) Defended November, 24, 2016. FAU
Johannes Bauer: On Inexpensive Methods for Improving Security of Embedded Systems. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Falko Dressler, University of Paderborn) Defended November 25, 2016. FAU
Sven Schindler: Honeypot Architectures for IPv6 Networks. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Bettina Schnor, University of Potsdam) Defended November, 28, 2016. University of Potsdam
Aleksandar Milenkoski: Evaluation of Intrusion Detection Systems in Virtualized Environments. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Samuel Kounev, University of Würzburg), Defended between November 28 and December 2, 2016. University of Würzburg
Stefan Meier: Digitale Forensik in Unternehmen. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Günther Pernul, University of Regensburg) Defended December, 2, 2016. University of Regensburg
Yi-Ching Liao: Process Tracking for Forensic Readiness. (PhD thesis, 1st opponent, 2nd opponent Prof. Delphine Reinhardt, University of Bonn, advisor: Prof. Hanno Langweg, HTW Konstanz and NTNU) Defended December, 16, 2016. NTNU in Gjovik, Norway.
Mykolai Protsenko: Securing the Android App Ecosystem: Obfuscation, Tamperproofing, and Malware detection. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Claudia Eckert, TU München, advisor: Tilo Müller) Defended April 12, 2017. FAU
Marian Kühnel: Detection of Traffic Initiated by Mobile Malware – Targeting Android Devices in 3GPP Networks. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Ulrike Meyer, RWTH Aachen University) Defended May 24, 2017. RWTH Aachen University
Thomas Hupperich: On the Feasibility and Impact of Digital Fingerprinting for System Recognition. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Thorsten Holz, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Defended June 30, 2017. Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Vladislav Mladenov: On the Security of Single Sign-On. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Jörg Schwenk, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Defended June 30, 2017. Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Janis Danisevskis: Accelerated Secure GUI for Virtualized Mobile Handsets. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Jean-Pierre Seifert, TU Berlin, 2nd reviewer Prof. Konrad Rieck, TU Braunschweig) Defended August 15, 2017. TU Berlin
Yan Zhuang: Methods for Improving the Quality of Software Obfuscation for Android Applications. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Jingqiang Lin, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PR China) Defended September 26, 2017. FAU
Xiaobing He: Threat Assessment for Multistage Cyber Attacks in Smart Grid Communication Networks. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Hermann de Meer, University of Passau, 2nd reviewer Prof. Stefan Rass, University of Klagenfurt, Austria) Defended October 2, 2017. University of Passau
Sven Kälber: Automatic Forensic Event Reconstruction based (not only) on File System Metadata. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Konrad Rieck, TU Braunschweig) Defended November 10, 2017. FAU
Rene Rietz: Optimization of Network Intrusion Detection Processes. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Hartmut König, BTU Cottbus, 2nd reviewer Prof. Falko Dressler, Universität Paderborn) Defended November 17, 2017. BTU Cottbus
Fatih Kilic: Security Investigation in Encrypted Environment. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Claudia Eckert, TU München) Defended November 24, 2017. TU München
Johannes Götzfried: Trusted Systems in Untrusted Environments: Protecting Against Strong Attackers. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Ingrid Verbauwhede, KU Leuven, Belgium, advisor: Tilo Müller) Defended December 7, 2017. FAU
Thomas Schreck: Incident Response: Current State, Emerging Problems, and New Approaches. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Michael Meier, Universität Bonn) Defended December 18, 2017. FAU
Konstantin Sack: Selektion in der Digitalen Forensik. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Michael Meier, Universität Bonn) Defended December 18, 2017. FAU
Marc Spisländer: Strukturelle Testverfahren zur Verifikation existentieller temporallogischer Formeln in erweiterten endlichen Zustandsautomaten. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Francesca Saglietti, FAU) Defended November 5, 2018. FAU
Norman Hänsch: Understanding Expert and End User Behavior in IT Security. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Günther Pernul, Universität Regensburg, advisor: Zinaida Benenson) Defended Feb 11, 2019. FAU
Babak Habibnia: Redesigning Digital Forensics as a Computer-Assisted Human Activity: A Computer Aided Diagnostics of Digital Evidence Tampering (CADDET). (PhD thesis, external examiner, advisor Dr. Pavel Gladyshev, University College Dublin) Defended March 1, 2019. University College Dublin, Ireland.
Hugo Gascon Polanco: Defending Against Targeted Attacks with Pattern Recognition. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Konrad Rieck, TU Braunschweig) Defended April 2, 2019. TU Braunschweig.
Philipp Morgner: Security and Privacy in the Internet of Things: Technical and Economic Perspectives. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Christina Pöpper, NYU, Abu Dhabi, advisor Zinaida Benenson) Defended May 31, 2019. FAU
Felix Erlacher: Efficient Intrusion Detection in High-Speed Networks. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Falko Dressler, Universität Paderborn) Defended June 27, 2019. Universität Paderborn
Lena Reinfelder: User Interaction with Smartphone Security and Privacy Mechanisms. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Freimut Bodendorf, FAU, advisor Zinaida Benenson) Defended July 2, 2019. FAU
Konstantin Böttinger: Fuzzing with Stochastic Feedback Processes. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Claudia Eckert, TU München) Defended July 8, 2019. TU München
Vincent Haupert: Sicherheit mobiler Bankgeschäfte zwischen Innovation und Regulierung. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Dominik Herrmann, Universität Bamberg, advisor Tilo Müller) Defended July 22, 2019. FAU
Dennis Felsch: Security of Access and Usage of Cloud Infrastructures. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Jörg Schwenk, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) Defended August 27, 2019. Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Pieter Maene: Lightweight Roots of Trust for Modern Systems-on-Chip. (PhD thesis, member of the examination committee, advisor Prof. Ingrid Verbauwhede, KU Leuven) Defended privately on August 20, 2019, and publicly October 21, 2019. KU Leuven
Andreas Dhein: Absicherung der analytischen Interpretation von Geolokalisierungsdaten in der Mobilfunkforensik. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Prof. Rüdiger Grimm, Universität Koblenz-Landau, 3rd reviewer Prof. Utz Rödig, University College Cork) Defended October 25, 2019. Universität Koblenz-Landau.
Edita Bajramovic: Secure Logging in operational Instrumentation and Control Systems. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. Christoph Ruland, Universität Siegen) Defended November 21, 2019. FAU.
Johannes Pohl: Automatic Security testing of the Wireless IoT. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Prof. David Oswald, University of Birmingham, 3rd reviewer Prof. Andreas Noack, Hochschule Stralsund, advisor Prof. Andreas Noack, Hochschule Stralsund) Defended May 15, 2020. FAU.
Benjamin Taubmann: Improving Digital Forensics and Incident Analysis in Production Environments by Using Virtual Machine Introspection. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer without having to write a review, 1st reviewer Professor Hans Reiser, Universität Passau) Defended June 26,2020. Universität Passau.
Michael Spranger: Text Mining als Werkzeug im repressiven und präventiven Ermittlungsprozess. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer Professor Michael Schroeder, TU Dresden, 2nd reviewer Professor Dirk Labudde, Hochschule Mittweida) Defended July 8, 2020. TU Dresden.
Anatoli Kalysch: Android Application Hardening: Attack Surface Reduction and IP Protection Mechanisms. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Professor Andre Gregio, Federal University of Parana (UFPR), advisor Dr. Tilo Müller, FAU) Defended July 9, 2020. FAU.
Florian Menges: Cyber Threat Intelligence Exchange. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Professor Günther Pernul, Universität Regensburg) Defended July 23, 2020. Universität Regensburg.
Marcel Busch: On the Security of ARM TrustZone-Based Trusted Execution Environments. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Professor Rüdiger Kapitza, TU Braunschweig, advisor Dr. Tilo Müller, FAU) Defended October 8, 2020. FAU.
Robert Altschaffel: Computer Forensics in Cyber-Physical Systems – Applying Existing Forensic Knowledge and Procedures from Classical IT to Automation and Automotive. (PhD thesis, 2nd reviewer, 1st reviewer Professor Jana Dittmann, Universität Magdeburg, 3rd reviewer Professor Stefan Katzenbeisser, Universität Passau) Defended October 12, 2020. Universität Magdeburg.
Patrick Murmann: Information at your Fingertips – Facilitating Usable Transparency via Privacy Notifications. (PhD thesis, examination committee member with Dr. Sebastian Pape, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt and Professor Ingrid Schaumüller-Bichl, FH Oberösterreich, opponent Professor Anna Ståhlbröst, Lund University, advisors Professor Simone Fischer-Hübner, Karlstad University, Professor Delphine Reinhardt, Universität Göttingen) Defended October 28, 2020. Karlstadt University, Sweden.
Patrick Mullan: Digital Cues in Multimedia Forensics. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Professor Zeno Geradts, University of Amsterdam, 3rd reviewer and advisor Dr. Christian Riess, FAU) Defended November 6, 2020. FAU.
Katja Auernhammer: Mask-based Black-box Attacks on Safety-Critical Systems that Use Machine Learning. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer and advisor Professor Ramin Tavakoli, TH Nürnberg, 3rd reviewer Professor Dominique Schröder, FAU) Defended June 28, 2021. FAU.
Tobias Latzo: All your System Memory are belong to us: From Low-Level Memory Acquisition to High-Level Forensic Event Reconstruction. (PhD thesis, 1st reviewer, 2nd reviewer Professor Hans Reiser, Universität Passau) Defended July 9, 2021. FAU.
Markus Zoppelt: Software Security Design for Cyber-Physical Systems. (PhD thesis, 3rd reviewer, 1st reviewer Professor Ramin Tavakoli, TH Nürnberg, 2nd reviewer Professor Dominique Schröder, FAU) Defended October 6, 2021, FAU.

Collection of famous citations

“Neuinstallieren skaliert nicht.” (Thorsten Holz, June 18, 2008)

“People have said that computing is a fast moving subject and what they mean is that the wheel of re-incarnation goes faster.”
(Roger Needham in a SIGSOFT interview)

“Der Browser ist ein dreckiges Objekt mit vielen unangenehmen Eigenschaften.” (Martin Johns, March 8, 2012)

My GPG Public Key

Statistics

My Erdös number is at most 3 (the path is via Matthias Kirchner and Pete Winkler). If you work(ed) in fault-tolerant distributed computing and want to know your Erdös number, check your collaboration distance to (for example) Shay Kutten, Shlomo Moran, Nicola Santoro or Gerard Tel; all have Erdös number 2.

As of September 2021, my h-index is at least 46 (using Harzing’s PoP application). My ha-index is 77.

My most often cited paper is the 2007 IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine article with Willems and Holz on “Toward automated dynamic malware analysis using CWsandbox” (until 2021 around 930 citations).

Images of Felix Freiling

Here are some images of Felix Freiling to upset Google image search. One of the following images shows me. I encourage you to set up a website with a picture of a person and the name “Felix Freiling” associated to it. If you inform me, I will link to such pages from here (to increase the page rank), examples are here (from an interview for Motherboard) and here. Here are further (and somewhat strange) examples (first and second)