Teaching at the Professorship of Cyber Trust

Information Technologies and Society (IN0025)

Course Instructor: Prof. Jens Grossklags, Ph.D.

The lecture offers an overview regarding the role of IT in society. Particular emphasis is given to the complex interactions between modern information and data analytics technologies and individual and societal privacy, and the safety and security of data of individuals and organizations. In addition, the economic impact of IT and the regulation of the impact of IT will be discussed (on concrete cases).

The lecture will primarily consist of a presentation. Opportunities for discussion and questions will be provided. The practice session will be used to further deepen the understanding of the lecture contents and will offer additional opportunities for discussion.

Note: There will be no lecture or exercise sessions in the lecture halls until further notice! Information and materials will be made available via Moodle.

TUM Online: Course Description

Information Management for Digital Business Models (IN8024)

Course Instructors: Prof. Jens Grossklags, Ph.D., Tibor Pósa

The lecture covers a diverse range of topics to address challenges in the area of information management for digital business models. We will further address issues related to organizing and leading Information management, and practical aspects of information management in companies and organizations.

The module consists of lectures and accompanying exercises. Key content is delivered in presentations during the lecture and partly during exercise sessions. Exercises address specific questions and engage students with different types of learning activities including studying specialist literature and researching reference materials. As part of the exercises, participation in module-relevant empirical research projects may be offered.

Lecture with integrated exercises: Online on Moodle

Note: There will be no lecture or exercise sessions in the lecture halls until further notice! Information and materials will be made available via Moodle.

TUM Online: Course Description

Seminar: Security and Privacy Economics (IN0014, IN2107, IN4892)

Course Instructor: Tibor Pósa

The seminar explores the nascent and growing field of the economics of privacy and cyber security and related security/risk governance aspects. Many security failures have economic causes. Systems are vulnerable when their defenders do not have sufficient incentives to invest in security technologies, for example, because they do not suffer the full consequences of their actions. Applying existing security/risk governance approaches and measurement or ROI (return on investment) calculation techniques can make a difference between consequence scenarios. At the same time, users’ personal and financial information has played a critical role in the monetization of attacks, including attacks through social engineering tactics. But personal information has also become a commercial good for legitimate companies. Data is collected for countless purposes. Targeted advertisements, personalization, price discrimination as well as the creation and sale of background reports are enabled by the automated wholesale accumulation of users’ trail online and offline. In this seminar, we will investigate the economic incentives for security attacks and appropriate security defenses and related risk governance approaches. A further objective is a better understanding of the current and future marketplace for personal information and the behavioral foundations of user privacy. We will discuss methods from the economic and behavioral sciences to contribute to a rigorous comprehension of the challenges and solution approaches for current privacy and security challenges.

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Seminar: The Value of Privacy (IN0014, IN2107, IN4933)

Course Instructor: Severin Engelmann

What does privacy mean? What values do we address when we speak of privacy? How do these different values relate to each other? Is there a commercial value of privacy? Are privacy and security trade-offs? Overall, how can we protect the right to privacy in a digitalized society? Recently, in light of several global data breach scandals, such questions have become the subject of intense debate in the public, in academia, industry, and law. The aim of this seminar is to first explore the different conceptualizations of privacy from literature in law, sociology, philosophy, policy, and privacy enhancing technology. Second, students will review how current digital technologies, in particular, machine learning and big data methods in social media, online behavioural advertising, or intelligent personal assistants (and others) influence and shape our understanding of privacy. In order to complete the seminar successfully, students are required to prepare a presentation and, if desired, hand in an 8-10-page report.

TUM Online: Course Description

Seminar: Usable Security and Privacy (IN0014, IN2107, IN4932)

Course Instructor: Felix Fischer

During recent years, the requirement for secure and privacy preserving computer systems is reaching higher and higher priority. Luckily, a variety of technologies already exist, specifically designed to meet these requirements. However, most technologies were not designed keeping usability in mind. Consequently, important questions arise when integrating and applying these technologies: What are the implications on usability of computer systems? And vice versa, does usability have an impact on security and privacy? Are security and privacy requirements conflicting with (mostly more important) functional requirements? Do these conflicts lead to users rejecting secure systems? Is security and privacy versus usability an unavoidable trade-off? Currently, this trade-off tends to be either over-biased towards functionality and usability, or security and privacy. This seminar explores this problem and investigates state-of-the-art research on how to rebalance the trade-off. Moreover, based on related work, students will identify new problems, formulate research questions and justify their relevance. Students with exceptional and interesting ideas will be considered for theses or internships.

TUM Online: Course Description

Seminar: Behavioral Insights in the Age of Big Data (IN0014, IN2107, IN4424)

Course Instructor: Mo Chen, Ph.D.

Behavioral insights are “an inductive approach to policy-making combining fundamental insights from psychology, cognitive science, and social science with empirically-tested results to discover how humans actually make choices” (by OECD). There is a trend of governments and organizations applying behavioral insights to public policy to shape and influence behavior. At the same time, the past decade witnessed a global interest in digital tools to influence behavior. Tools driven by the rapidly advancing technology development around big data as well as artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly integrated in social governance. As a result, behavioral insights can now function as a policy-making tool to utilize the insights generated by big data, and the relationship between behavioral insights and big data is growing ever closer.

A particular case incorporating both the trend of behavioral insights application in public policy and the trend of big data in social governance is the global emerging trend towards “smart cities”. The smart city strategies aim at making city infrastructure and services more intelligent, interconnected and efficient with the assistance of information and communication technology. In the seminar, we will deepen our understanding of behavioral insights in public policy making from an interdisciplinary point of view. We will pay special attention to smart cities to understand how behavioral insights and big data are integrated and applied.

Course objectives:

Understand behavioral insights in public policy making from an interdisciplinary point of view.
Learn about the smart city strategy and its potential challenges and impacts.
Become familiar with different smart cities in the world and explore them from a comparative perspective.

Prepare and write a scientific paper (English; 8-10 pages)
Conduct a presentation of your topic (English; 15 minutes + 10 minutes discussion)

Requirement:
Strong interest in interdisciplinary work.

Note: The seminar will take place during a timeslot of 10:00-16:00, Mo-Thu. Kick-off meeting is in the week of April 19 – 23, 2021.

TUM Online: Course Description