IT Mischief in the Service of Science

Massive data breaches at Yahoo, Facebook, or more recently at Ticketmaster, repeatedly highlight how critical the topic of cybersecurity is—and how closely it is tied to real-world applications. This practical relevance is precisely what fascinates Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Roth about the field. "I’m not a theorist; I prefer to work in a practical and application-focused manner," says the new junior professor at the University of Bayreuth. This preference extends beyond his professional life into his free time, where he regularly participates in Capture the Flag (CTF) hacking competitions. In these events, teams strive to protect their own virtual servers as effectively as possible over several hours while simultaneously attacking the servers of other teams. Roth discovered his passion for this during his studies at Saarland University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity and a master’s degree in Computer Science, followed by a PhD. His doctoral research focused on implementing security mechanisms online. Beyond his academic education, Roth has gained valuable hands-on experience through CTF events. "It would be fantastic if I could inspire students through exciting research projects and quality teaching to engage in similar mischief with IT security systems in their free time—of course, strictly within the context of a CTF," Roth explains.

During his PhD studies in Saarland, his primary research areas were web security and usable security—that is, designing user-friendly security mechanisms. He later expanded his expertise during a postdoctoral stint at TU Wien, focusing on mobile security. Since the start of the year, Roth has been a junior professor at the University of Bayreuth and is particularly enthusiastic about collaborating with other disciplines. "Computer science is a highly interdisciplinary field: for instance, you need electrical engineers for embedded systems and legal experts for legal informatics. One of the defining features of the University of Bayreuth is its interdisciplinarity, which is a big plus for me," says Roth. He also values the university's outreach initiatives, such as the "Stadtgespräche" (town talks) in Bayreuth and Kulmbach, as well as the public lecture series.