If you would like to do a praktikum (project), a diploma thesis, please take your time and read this page first. You will understand what we expect and what we can offer you in return.

Goals of SecLab Praktika (Projects) and Theses

1. Impact
2. Security publication at an international conference
3. Fun, fame and profit ;-)

What W3 C4n 0ffer You

We are a small, distributed lab that is interested in state-of-the-art practical security research. We have published the results of our research in top, high-impact international security conferences such as the IEEE Security and Privacy, USENIX Security Symposium, and the World Wide Web Conference. We have good contacts to well-known security labs around the world. We are also working closely with Symantec Research Europe.

As a student, you will be involved in state-of-the art security research and will work on finding solutions to important security problems. You will learn how to write a technical paper and will get a chance to present the results of your work in an international conference once your paper is accepted (of course, we will send you to the conference no matter where it is ;-)).

If you are master's student, we will provide you with harware of your choice and you will get a place in the lab. Once you start delivering good results, we can also start paying you from our projects.

The kind of work you do with us is ideal if you would like to work in a research lab or do a Ph.D. later on.

B3coming a L4b Member

Just like the challenges in InetSec / SecProg 1 and InetSec /SecProg 2, becoming a member of the lab is a sort of a challenge ;-)

We always have new security research topics in the security lab that are waiting to be solved by motivated students. We do not explicitly enter them into a database because things change fast.

Note that we now have certain requirements for candidates who would like to carry out security research with us:

1. We expect you to be motivated and ready to learn new things.
2. We work on interesting, but open problems. Thus, we expect you to also contribute to the research and come up with ideas and solutions.
3. We expect excellent programming knowledge. Furthermore, you should not only be a Java "softie" :), but should also feel confident with lower-level languages such as C and C++. Linux is not a necessarily a major requirement, but if you are solely a Windows user, chances are not good that you will fit in well into our security group. We also do a lot of Windows security research (e.g., spyware), but we prefer our members to be OS- independent. Typically, business informatics students struggle because they do not always have the necessary technical background.
4. If you would like to do a praktikum / project, you should have done the Internet Security or Secure Programming 1 course offered by us. A grade of 1 impresses us. Anything else makes us think "He/she wasn't interested enough". If you do not have a 1 in Internet Security or Secure Programming, you do not fit well into the group so there is only a very slim chance that your application for a praktikum or a master's theses will be accepted.
5. If you wish to do a master's thesis, it is useful if you have done InetSec / SecProg 2. This course will give you a chance to personally get to know us and our interests. Note that if you do not get a good grade in this course, we are not impressed. Getting a good grade is not impossible, it just requires you to take the course seriously and spend some time on it. If you do not have done InetSec / SecProg 2, then you need to explain why you think you are good enough to be a member of the lab.

If you do not fulfil any of these requirements, you are still welcome to contact us. We do make exceptions sometimes... however, there have to be justified reasons.

If you think you are fit for the job, then please contact us. We would be very happy to meet you and see you become a member of our lab ;-)