We covered there the joint MSc. programme in cybersecurity, our research, and the Digital Europe Programme projects Eyvör NCC-IS, the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity in Iceland and Defend Iceland, including the European network of NCCs and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC).
The coalition agreement of the new Government that is forming aims at more digital surveillance (e.g. data retention in telecommunication, face and number plate recognition). While this is not good for privacy, at least IT security gets legal certainty:
The new coalition agreement covers cybersecurity at some places in an abstract manner and also includes the above legislative change:
Cyberstrafrecht, Deepfakes, Strafbarkeit Plattformbetreiber und Hackerparagraph
Wir reformieren das Cyberstrafrecht und schließen Strafbarkeitslücken, zum Beispiel bei bildbasierter sexualisierter Gewalt. Dabei erfassen wir auch Deep Fakes und schließen Lücken bei deren Zugänglichmachung gegenüber Dritten. Wir verschärfen die Sanktionsmöglichkeiten gegenüber Plattformen, insbesondere bei systemischen Mängeln bei der Entfernung strafbarer Inhalte. Wir werden im Computerstrafrecht Rechtssicherheit für IT-Sicherheitsforschung schaffen, wobei wir Missbrauchsmöglichkeiten verhindern.
Research trip/Vísindaferð is a visit to learn about companies (also as future employers) and to learn about the science behind the products that they develop. Often, these are organised by student associations as a social event.
This time, our student association Nörd visited not a company, but their teachers at the Computer Science department to learn about the research done there -- to get an idea of topics that they could do later as M.Sc. students.
Marcel Aach defended yesterday successfully his PhD thesis on Parallel and Scalable Hyperparameter Optimization for Distributed Deep Learning Methods on High-Performance Computing Systems.
An example is LAMEC (Load AI Modules, Environments and Containers) that generates High-Performance Computing (HPC) job scripts. While job scripts are not rocket science, they are different for each HPC system and, in particular for newcomers, cumbersome to create. Therefore, LAMEC eases this with a few mouse-clicks using a web UI.
Brynjólfur Stefánsson, Ásta Guðrún Helgadóttir, Martin Nizon-Deladoeuille, Helmut Neukirchen, Thomas Welsh: Understanding Trust in Authentication Methods for Icelandic Digital Public Services. IEEE SNAMS 2024: The 11th IEEE International Conference on Social Networks Analysis, Management and Security, IEEE, to appear 2024 or 2025. Preprint DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2501.17548
Martin Nizon-Deladoeuille, Brynjólfur Stefánsson, Helmut Neukirchen, Thomas Welsh. Towards Supporting Penetration Testing Education with Large Language Models: an Evaluation and Comparison. IEEE SNAMS 2024: The 11th IEEE International Conference on Social Networks Analysis, Management and Security, IEEE, to appear 2024 or 2025. Preprint DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2501.17539
The program lists only paper titles -- not authors nor presenters. Our student Brynjólfur Stefánsson presented both papers at the conference.
Has my user info (in the worst case: my password) been leaked? Look up who else owns your login data: https://haveibeenpwned.com
Note: if your data shows up there to have been leaked, then this is not your fault, but the fault of the website that was storing your data in an insecure manner and you should change your password at that website (also check whether the password has been leaked or only, e.g., your email adress). However, it is your fault if you use the same password for multiple websites: should your password leak from one website, criminals will try that password on other websites and will have success if you use the same password there. Use different passwords for different services. Even better: use multifactor authentication, i.e. not just a password (that can be easily leaked), but in addition something that can be less easily stolen, such as your phone: an authenticator app running on it, an SMS sent to your phone number, or the Icelandic digital ID on your SIM card.
An online quiz on how good you are at identifying phishing emails, i.e. emails trying to trick you into providing information, e.g. passwords: https://cybersecuritymonth.eu/quiz (Note: solutions not provided online -- you need to visit us to get hints where you were wrong and where you were right!)
A LEGO model of Iceland representing critical infrastructure that is subject to attacks. Each time, a service on our Internet-connected computer is attacked via the Internet from anywhere in the world, a light goes off. So when all Iceland turns dark in our Lego model, then you know that all of our services are currently being attacked at the same time. We use just a dummy sample server, but in fact, it could be your computer or a power plant that is attacked. True Blinkenlights - next time, we should do it using the lights in the glass front of Harpa concert hall.
A 3D scanner that scans the shape of your ear: used in CoE RAISE in order to find with AI out how the shape of your ear influences how you hear from different directions.
Quantum computing: a new piece to show, therefore no photos yet -- you really need to come and see!
We presented there the Cybersecurity research and education that is jointly done at University of Iceland and Reykjavik University. I gave the presentation on our Cybersecurity M.Sc. programmes.
Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science
Deputy head of faculty (Autumn 2024-Spring 2026)
University of Iceland
Department of Computer Science
Gróska building, 3rd floor (stairway A or B), room 306
Bjargargata 1
102 Reykjavik
Iceland
E-Mail: helmut at hi. is
(Encrypted e-mail welcome: my public PGP key, also available at key servers -- X.509 based S/MIME encryption possible on request.)