Christoph Striecks

I am a cryptography and IT security researcher with a professional focus on cryptographic technologies demanded by real-world applications (such as end-to-end security, secure data access control, and authentication). Moreover, I am particularly interested in advanced cryptographic security measures for key exchanges to achieve forward security and hybridization techniques towards quantum-safe systems.

Before joining the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology – Austria’s largest Research and Technology Organization (RTO) – in 2016, I held a post-doc 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 (i.e., identity-based encryption with strong security guarantees). Larger-scale teaching activities included Algorithms I (lab, ST 2015) and IT security (lab, ST 2013), encompassed by several smaller-scale seminars and 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. From March to September 2008, I worked as a software-development intern for Siemens USA in Princeton, New Jersey.

News and activities:

Recent research visits:

Program committees:

  • CANS 2023, 2022
  • Security Standardisation Research Conference 2023
  • ARES Workshops 2023, 2022 & 2020
  • SICHERHEIT 2022 & 2020
  • IMA International Conference on Cryptography and Coding 2019
  • IFIP Summer School on Privacy and Identity Management 2019 & 2018

Selected external reviewing activities:

Current projects:

  • QCI-CAT (Digital European Program, 2022-2025)
  • PETRUS (Digital European Program, 2022-2025)
  • TeamAware (EU HORIZON 2020, 2021-2024)
  • PROFET (FWF, netidee SCIENCE, 2019-2023)
  • QKD4GOV (KIRAS, 2021-2023)

Completed projects:

Selected invited talks and activities:

  • Invited talks on Forward Security (ETH Zurich and FAU Nürnberg-Erlangen, 2022)
  • Invited lecture on Redactable Blockchains (with Daniel Slamanig, TU Vienna, 2021)
  • Invited talk on Attribute-Based Encryption for Strong Access Control (ETSI Security Week, 2020)
  • Invited lectures on Advanced Public-Key Encryption (TU Vienna, 2020 & 2019)
  • Invited talk on Security, Safety, and Privacy-by-Design (Austrian Standards, 2020, press coverage in futurezone and Austrian Standards)
  • Invited talk on Attribute-Based Encryption for strong access control (Graz Security Days for Industry, 2019)
  • Invited talk on Forward Security (Royal Holloway, University of London, 2018)
  • Involvement in ETSI STF 529 (on standardizing Attribute-Based Encryption)

Selected supervision:

  • Diploma theses: Christian Matt (2011), Alexander Mai (2014)
  • Interns: Denis Jahic (Jul.-Sep. 2021), Alexander Zikulnig (Aug.-Sep. 2022)