
As part of the FI CODE Annual Conference 2025, Prof. Mark Manulis gave a presentation on “Secure Cloud through Cryptography: Research Approaches to Encryption and Authentication” to an audience of experts from the German Armed Forces, academia, politics and industry. He emphasized that the increasing relocation of sensitive data to cloud environments places new demands on security and user-friendliness. Cryptographic processes are essential for protecting this data. Prof. Manulis presented current research results in the field of asymmetric encryption with a focus on long-term security, in particular key rotation and updateable encryption to ensure forward security. In addition, advanced concepts such as attribute-based encryption and techniques for searching and processing data in an encrypted state were explained. In the second part of his presentation, Prof. Manulis addressed the topic of authentication and presented approaches based on the decentralized WebAuthn standard. These methods not only enable secure and password-free authentication, but also strengthen user privacy. The concepts presented are based on current work by the “Privacy and Applied Cryptography (PACY)” research group and demonstrate practical solutions for how cryptographic innovations can sustainably improve security in cloud infrastructures. Prof. Manulis was also involved as a jury member in the “Cyber/IT 2025 Innovation Conference”, where IT innovations relevant to the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) were identified and evaluated. With his technical expertise, he contributed to the selection of forward-looking technologies that could be used in security-critical areas.