Physics and Security

Over the last decades, cryptography and computer security have gained central importance for the safety and prosperity of our open digital societies. Among others, they are essential for protecting critical public infrastructures; the privacy of citizens; our political institutions and their elected representatives; corporate and private intellectual property; the existing internet and the imminent internet of things; the worldwide financial system; international borders and travels; safety-critical commercial products, including pharmaceuticals; and the global supply chain.

The CAS Research Focus “Physics and Security” carefully investigates how physical methods can complement the currently prevailing, but often vulnerable digital security solutions in the above sectors. Its aim is to enable strongly improved or even completely new security features via the explicit involvement of physics. To name three illustrating examples, the Research Focus exploits quantum phenomena to realize cryptographic encryption that provably cannot be broken. If quantum mechanics is correct, the encryption will remain secure forever, regardless of any future progress in algorithms or computing power. Secondly, it studies disordered optical nanostructures as highly unforgeable “labels” or “tags” for arbitrary objects of value. Contrary to RFID-tags, these new labels do not contain or store digital secret keys; they thus avoid costly key-protecting measures, combining maximal security with cost-effectiveness. As a final example, the Research Focus investigates how novel analog circuits and photonic devices can implement trustworthy communication nodes in the internet of things, despite the potentially non-trustworthy global manufacturers fabricating them.

The outlined, highly transformative research necessitates inherently interdisciplinary efforts. To this end, LMU scientists from four different departments (computer science, physics, mathematics, and chemistry) take part in the Research Focuses’ working group. They are joined by various leading international colleagues in the scientific advisory council and as external fellows.

• Prof. Dr. Georg Düsberg (Physics, Universität der Bundeswehr, Neubiberg)
• Prof. Dr. Jochen Feldmann (Physics, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Gitta Kutyniok (Mathematics, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Tim Liedl (Physics, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Claudia Linnhoff-Popien (Computer Science, LMU)
• PD Dr. Theobald Lohmüller (Physics, LMU)
• Dr. Jasmin Meinecke (Physics, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Philip Tinnefeld (Chemistry, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Harald Weinfurter (Physics, LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Thomas Weitz (Physics, Universität Göttingen)

• Prof. Ross Anderson, PhD (Cambridge)
• Prof. Jörg Bewersdorf, PhD (Yale)
• Prof. Srini Devadas, PhD (MIT)
• Prof. Dr. Friedel Gerfers (TU Berlin)
• Prof. Stephan Hofmann, PhD (Cambridge)
• Prof. Farinaz Koushanfar, PhD (UC San Diego)
• Prof. Ruby Lee, PhD (Princeton)
• Prof. Dr. Ueli Maurer (ETH Zürich)
• Prof. Dr. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi (TU Darmstadt)
• Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schollwöck (LMU)
• Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Seifert (TU Berlin)
• Prof. Dr. Francois-Xavier Standaert (UC Louvain)
• Prof. Mark M. Tehranipoor, PhD (University of Florida)
• Prof. Dr. Roland Thewes (TU Berlin)
• Prof. Dr. Stefan Wolf (University of Lugano)
• Prof. Dr. Hugo Zbinden (Université de Genève)

• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Srini Devadas, PhD (MIT): "Hardware Acceleration of Cryptographic Primitives and Protocols" (11. Mai 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Hui Cao, PhD (Yale): "Harnessing Physical Disorder for Photonic Security Applications"
  (25. Mai 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.)
• Vortrag von Prof. Gilles Brassard, FRS (Université de Montréal): "Probability and Consequences of Living inside a Computer Simulation"
  (27. Juni 2022, 18 Uhr s.t.)
• Vortrag von Prof. Gilles Brassard, FRS (Université de Montréal): "Could Einstein Have Been Right after All?"
  (30. Juni 2022, 18.30 Uhr)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Ueli Maurer (ETH Zürich): "Constructive Cryptography"
  (14. September 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Jörg Bewersdorf (Yale): "All-Optical Super-Resolution Imaging of Molecules in their Nanoscale Cellular Context"
  (26. Oktober 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Hugo Zbinden, Ph.D. (Genf): "Quantum Physics for Codemakers and Codebreakers"
  (2. November 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Fengnian Xia, Ph.D. (Yale): "Intelligent Sensing Enabled by Tunable Moiré Quantum Geometry"
  (23. November 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Ross Anderson, Ph.D. (Cambridge/Edinburgh): "If It’s Provably Secure, It Probably Isn’t"
  (7. Dezember 2022, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Farinaz Koushanfar, Ph.D. (UC San Diego): "Hardware/Software/Algorithm Co-Design for Robust Deep and Federated Learning"
  (1. Februar 2023, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Ruby Lee, Ph.D. (Princeton): "Attacks on Modern Microprocessors and Hardware Defense Strategies"
  (08. März 2023, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Prof. Boris Murmann, Ph.D. (Stanford): "Analog is Dead, Long Live Analog!"
  (12. April 2023, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)
• Online-Vortrag von Dr. Michael Tagscherer: "From Seashells to Apple Pay – the Science behind Secure Money and Payments"
  (3. Mai 2023, 17 Uhr s.t.) | (Wintersemester 2022/23)