Christoph Striecks

I am a senior scientist specialising in secure communication and cryptography, with a focus on key exchange, encryption, data access control and authentication. Specifically, I have been involved in the development of quantum-safe hybrid cryptography techniques to create communication systems with long-term security (see my recent publications, talks, and current projects below for further details).

Moreover, I have been or am currently engaged in standardisation activities, including my past involvement in ETSI STF 529 on standardising Attribute-Based Encryption and my current involvement in ETSI STF 684 on standardising quantum-safe Hybrid Authenticated Key Exchange.

Prior to joining the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology — Austria’s largest research and technology organisation — in 2016, I held a postdoctoral position at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany.

In 2015, I received my PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in cryptography from KIT under the supervision of Prof. Dennis Hofheinz (now at ETH Zurich) on advanced cryptographic building blocks with strong security guarantees. Main teaching activities included Algorithms I (lab, 2015) and IT security (lab, 2013), encompassed by several seminars and further labs.

In 2010, I received my Diploma in Computer Science from the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany with a major in cryptography and software engineering. I worked as a software-development intern for Siemens USA in Princeton, New Jersey, from March to September 2008.

News and activities:

Selected publications (alphabetical ordering of authors if not stated differently by asterisk):
      1. Versatile Quantum-Safe Hybrid Key Exchange and Its Application to MACsec
        *Jaime S. Buruaga, Augustine Bugler, Juan P. Brito, Vicente Martin, and Christoph Striecks.
        EPJ Quantum Technologies 12, Article number: 84 (2025)
      2. Muckle+: End-to-End Hybrid Authenticated Key Exchanges
        Sonja Bruckner, Sebastian Ramacher, and Christoph Striecks.
        Post-Quantum Cryptography - 14th International Workshop, PQCrypto 2023, College Park, MD, USA, August 16-18, 2023, Proceedings
      3. Bloom Filter Encryption and Applications to Efficient Forward-Secret 0-RTT Key Exchange
        David Derler, Tibor Jager, Daniel Slamanig, and Christoph Striecks.
        Advances in Cryptology - EUROCRYPT 2018 - 37th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, Tel Aviv, Israel, April 29 - May 3, 2018 Proceedings, Part III

    Organizing activities:

    Current projects:

    • QSCS (ETSI 2025-2027)
    • QSNP (HORIZON-RIA 2023-2026)
    • QCI-CAT (Digital European Program, 2022-2025)
    • PETRUS (Digital European Program, 2022-2025)
    • EDOCC (European Defence Fund, 2022-2025)

    Completed projects:

    Research visits:

    Teaching & supervision:

    • Teaching: Advanced Public-Key Encryption (invited lecture, WT 2020, TU Vienna), Advanced Public-Key Encryption (invited lecture, WT 2019, TU Vienna), Algorithms I (TA, ST 2015, KIT), Gems of Theoretical Computer Science (ST 2014, KIT), IT security (TA, ST 2013, KIT), Software Development (WTs 2010-2012, KIT), Traitor Tracing (WT 2011, KIT), Identity-Based Encryption (ST 2011, KIT), Practical Cryptography (ST 2011, KIT), Lattice-Based Cryptography (WT 2010, KIT), TA programming and cryptography/IT security (until WT 09, Braunschweig University of Technology)
    • PhD visitor: Jaime S. Buruaga (Technical University of Madrid, Jul.-Oct. 2024)
    • Students & interns: Augustine Bugler (University of Vienna, Mar. 2025-), Augustine Bugler (University of Vienna, Jul.-Sep. 2024), Kevin Verhaeghe (ETH Zurich, Jul.-Sep. 2024), Alexander Zikulnig (TU Vienna, Aug.-Sep. 2022), Denis Jahic (TU Vienna, Jul.-Sep. 2021), Christian Matt (KIT, 2011), Alexander Mai (KIT, 2014)

    Program committees:

    Selected external reviewing activities: