’This isn’t the time to rest on our laurels.’

By Birgit Baustädter The topic of security is just starting to become truly significant, says researcher Stefan Mangard. He is working on the ERC project Sophia, where he is concentrating on secure computer processors. In 2018, as part of an international team, his working group discovered the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities. He will be responsible for research at the new Cybersecurity Campus Graz from 2019. News+Stories: Is it even possible to make a system secure?. Stefan Mangard: It's easy to feel a sense of resignation at the major flaws that come up time and again. Why should I invest in security when everything is being hacked anyway? Isn't it enough to react quickly and patch up any flaws? No! I don't think that's sufficient.