Join us
Thesis topics, student assistant jobs and PhD positions in the IT Security Engineering team at the Hasso Plattner Institute.
Security is learned best on real systems. In the IT Security Engineering team you work on the questions we research ourselves, together with industry partners and on our own research platforms, so your results are tested on realistic data rather than on toy examples.
What you work on
- Threat detection Detecting attacks in large volumes of security data.
- Threat intelligence Turning threat intelligence into action.
- Offensive security Testing systems the way an attacker would.
- AI in security operations Using AI in security operations without losing sight of the security of the AI systems themselves.
What we offer
- Master’s and bachelor’s theses On the open topics listed below, or on your own idea if it fits one of our research areas.
- Student assistant positions (HiWi) In research projects, in running our lab infrastructure and in teaching, for example in the capture-the-flag seminar and the lab courses.
- PhD and research assistant positions In AI-driven threat detection and security operations, cyber attack and defence, and authentication and secure identities.
- Supervision and infrastructure Close supervision in a small team, access to our research prototypes (threat-intelligence platform, vulnerability database, SIEM and analytics environment) and the chance to publish your results at international conferences.
What you bring
- Security foundations A solid grounding in networks, operating systems and IT security, for example from our lectures and seminars.
- Programming Good programming skills in Python or a comparable language, and an interest in working with large data sets and machine-learning methods.
- Working style Curiosity, the ability to work independently and good English.
How to apply
Send us a short email with the details listed below. If none of the open topics fits, tell us what you would like to work on: many theses start from a student’s own idea. We will get back to you to arrange a first meeting.
- Your CV
- A current transcript of records
- The topic or area you are interested in
- Your preferred starting date
Interested in working with us?
Write to us about a thesis, a student job or a PhD position.
Open topics
These topics are open for master's and bachelor's theses; those marked “PhD / research assistant” are starting points for a doctoral project. Each topic page describes the problem, what you would work on and what you should bring. The topics are not fixed: we adapt them to your background and interests, and your own ideas are welcome.
- Advanced capture-the-flag exercises
- AI-driven threat detection and security operations
- Attack-graph construction using unified data
- Authentication and secure identities
- Cyber attack and defence
- Deep-learning architectures for security analytics
- Deep-learning-based anomaly detection
- DGA detection via proxy and DNS logs
- Graph analytics for threat detection
- High-performance event streaming for security analytics
- Identify and prevent password reuse
- In-stream advanced analytics
- Intrusion detection with machine learning
- Malicious-process anomaly detection in Windows process logs
- Next-generation authentication and secure identity management
- Online signature matching and correlation engines
- Predictive analytics for threat detection
- Security of IoT devices and applications
- Typosquatting detection
- Unified and intuitive serving for next-generation SIEMs
- Virtualisation for security lab generators
- Zero-day vulnerability collection