From the Wild West to data security

Increasing digitalization and networking require a completely new way of thinking about security. By Cornelia Kröpfl BA MA - 30 years ago, data security was a niche topic. Today, researchers at TU Graz are laying the foundations for a completely new way of thinking about security. Including future developments. Not so long ago, the mobile phone was primarily used to store contact data. Today, smartphones know where we are and what media we read. And when we use smart home apps, it's easy to tell when we're at home and when we're not. Data is being collected in more and more areas of our daily life. And not only via smartphones and computers any more. "The more data becomes the most important asset of society, the more important security becomes," says a convinced Stefan Mangard. The expert is head of the Institute of Applied Information Processing and Communications. This area of competence has been growing for over 30 years at Graz University of Technology. "We had security as a field of research when it was still a very exotic subject." By discovering security holes with names such as Meltdown and Spectre, the Graz researchers showed that they are at the forefront of international research. In addition, TU Graz is currently building the Cybersecurity Campus Graz together with SGS, the world's leading company for testing, verification and certification, a research, teaching and certification centre for cybersecurity at TU Graz's Campus Inffeldgasse. Why does a certification company, similar to TÜV , invest in security research?