Team

Dr.-Ing. David Oswald

David studied IT security in the department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Ruhr-University Bochum. In 2009, he completed his studies and started to work at the Chair for Embedded Security, Ruhr-University Bochum. He received his PhD “with distinction” with his thesis “Implementation Attacks: From Theory to Practice” in 2013. His main field of research is the practical security analysis of embedded systems, e.g., commercially employed RFID smartcards. The focus is on attack methods that exploit weaknesses in the physical implementation of mathematically secure cryptographic algorithms. Those techniques include both (passive) side-channel analysis and (active) fault injection. David is experienced in reverse engineering in the embedded domain and implementing cryptographic schemes on microcontrollers and FPGAs. Besides giving lectures at universities, he is regularly speaking on international conferences and workshops, both on academic events and in the industry.

Dr.-Ing. Timo Kasper

Timo has studied electrical engineering and information technology at the Ruhr-University Bochum and at the University of Sheffield, UK. In 2006, his Diploma thesis “Embedded Security Analysis of RFID Devices” was decorated with the first place award for Master theses in German IT security (CAST, Darmstadt). He was research assistant at the Chair for Embedded Security of the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security (HGI) since October 2006. He completed his studies 2011 with a PhD in electrical engineering. In 2012, his PhD thesis was decorated with the first place award for PhD theses in German IT security. Timo’s field of expertise covers the security of embedded cryptographic systems such as smartcards, microcontrollers, and FPGAs, with a focus on RFID and wireless applications. He has profound knowledge concerning security analyses and penetration testing, implementation attacks (side-channel analysis, fault injection), reverse engineering, and system-level approaches. He is skilled in implementing cryptography on embedded systems and efficiently securing them with countermeasures. Timo has several years of experience as a speaker on international conferences, on workhops and seminars in the industry, and as a lecturer at universities.