On September 16, 2025, Fachhochschule Dortmund will once again host the heise academy's IT Security Day Dortmund. The conference is aimed at IT security managers, security experts, ethical hackers and IT project managers who want to find out about current challenges and innovative solutions in the field of IT security. The focus is on practical insights and current research.
Three experts from the Faculty of Computer Science at Fachhochschule Dortmund will be sharing their knowledge at IT Security Day 2025. Under the title "Hacking out of the victim role", Prof. Dr. Daniel Hamburg, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, and his colleagues Prof. Dr. Daniel Spiekermann and Prof. Dr. Holger Schmidt will present a "real-life play for a responsible person, a security expert and a forensic scientist". What happens after a successful IT attack? What does it really feel like when the police are sitting at the conference table and company data suddenly appears on the black market? How do you explain to your family that you spend nights with log files instead of preparing lectures? And as an IT security expert, how do you help colleagues to redesign the network in a secure way without jeopardizing ongoing operations? The presentation describes a journey in the search for solutions and provides answers - albeit not always conclusive - to these pressing questions.
Hidden communication channels
In the afternoon, Prof. Dr. Daniel Spiekermann will give an individual lecture entitled "Covert Channels" on hidden communication channels that use legitimate data traffic as a cover and can thus bypass security solutions such as firewalls, IDS or DLP systems. The focus will be on steganography in network data: Header bits and payloads are manipulated to transport confidential information. Physical conditions can also be exploited to transmit data secretly. After an introduction to the basics, various storage and timing channels in modern protocols such as IPv6, OSPF and OpenFlow will be presented. The lecture will also present real-world implementations and current research topics, as well as approaches for detecting covert channels.
"With the IT Security Day, we not only want to impart knowledge, but also make it possible to experience how complex and emotional IT security can be in an emergency," says Prof. Dr. Daniel Hamburg. "The interactive and practical contributions from our speakers offer a unique insight into the everyday life of IT security managers."
The IT Security Day Dortmund will take place on the Emil-Figge-Straße campus in the kostBar (Building 40). The complete program is available at www.it-sicherheitstage.de/dortmund(Opens in a new tab)