I am a professor of information security and computer networks at Worms University of Applied Sciences (founder of the network security research group and deputy scientific head of the centre of technology and transfer) and also affiliated with Fraunhofer FKIE (where I was head of a security research team for three years). I received my Ph.D. from the University of Hagen in 2013.Aged 17, I started writing books (sold 65,000 printed+electronic copies so far and counted 110,000+ downloads of my (older) editions). A list of my 140+ publications can be found here. My publications appeared in high-quality journals/conference such as
- ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR),
- Communications of the ACM (CACM),
- Elsevier Future Generation Computer Systems (FGCS),
- IEEE ACCESS,
- IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII),
- IEEE Security & Privacy,
- IEEE Local Computer Networks (LCN),
- IFIP Information Security and Privacy Protection Conf. (SEC),
- Springer Scientometrics,
- Wiley Security and Communication Networks (SCN),
- Springer Annals of Telecommunications and
- Journal of Universal Computer Science (J.UCS).
My research focuses on network information hiding (network covert channels and network steganography), science of security (SoC), IoT/smart buildings/homes, security of embedded communication protocols, and information security terminology/taxonomy.
Some of my key publications are on the fundamentals (SoC) of network information hiding: taxonomy/patterns/fundamentals [1,2], creativity evaluation of research paper submissions [3] and scientific methodology of information hiding [4]. Some of my other key contributions are focusing on traffic normalization and active wardens [5, 6] and covert channel optimization [7,8].
I am a member of several steering committees, initiatives, program and organizing committees (cf. details). I am (or was) lecturing and supervising at Augsburg University of Applied Sciences, Bonn University and Hagen University. A list of my projects, both funded and spare-time software projects, is also available.
In addition to information security, I am interested in university history, campus novels, and retro computing – in particular: operating system history and historic network protocols. I own a small collection of rather historic books on these retro computing topics. Since about five years, I am also a mid-distance runner (5km to half-marathon).
Find (information about) me here: Twitter, Google Scholar and ResearchGate.
Contact: steffen (at) wendzel (dot) de (PGP pub key: FD701BD1).
Recent News (Selection):
Jul-30-2020:
- I wrote a review of the book Future automation: changes to lives and to businesses by Timothy Carone. The review was published by ACM Computing Reviews, cf. here (requires access; e-mail me for a pre-print).
- I updated my covert channel tools page on GitHub.
- Just realized my books count more than 110,000 downloads! Thanks, readers!
- I started an open online class on network information hiding.
- My project proposal ACCAEL (Anti Cyber-crime Actions on the European Level) was granted (21.750 EUR).
- Check out the Call for Papers for EICC'2020.
Jan-22-2020:
- I am co-chairing this year's European Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Conference (EICC) in Rennes, France. In previous editions, this conference was called Central European Cybersecurity Conference (CECC).
- Good news: We will organize the 2nd International Workshop on Information Security Methodology and Replication Studies (IWSMR) under the umbrella of ARES 2020 in Dublin. See here: https://www.ares-conference.eu/workshops/iwsmr-2020/
- We organize a new special issue for MDPI Computers on Information Hiding, Steganography and Covert Channels, see https://www.mdpi.com/journal/computers/special_issues/InformationHiding_NetworkSteganography_CovertChannels. Also check our other active SIs for Elsevier FGCS and J.UCS.
- I submitted my habilitation thesis one week ago - yey!
Nov-05-2019:
The early-access version (open access) of our paper on MQTT covert channels is now available:
- Aleksandar Velinov, Aleksandra Mileva, Steffen Wendzel, Wojciech Mazurczyk: Covert Channels in MQTT-based Internet of Things, IEEE ACCESS, accepted.
I am proud to say that for the second time, I got a paper accepted in a non-computer science journal, namely Scientometrics (website of the publisher). Yes, our paper has to do with cyber security, somehow, but it is an analysis of citations.
- Steffen Wendzel, Cédric Lévy-Bencheton, Luca Caviglione: Not all Areas are Equal: Analysis of Citations in Information Security Research, Scientometrics, Springer, in press.
