Professor Zitterbart is the head of the
Institute for Telematics at KIT.
Her research interests lie in the field of
networked systems. The research work deals with architectures, protocols and
algorithms for Internet-based systems as well as for mobile and ubiquitous
systems including wireless sensor-actuator networks. Among other things,
aspects of network security and the provision of private sphere services are
examined.
In 1991, she was awarded the prize by the
GI Division KuVS (Communication and Distributed Systems) for the best doctoral
thesis in the field of "Communication and Distributed Systems" in
Germany. In 2002, she was awarded the Alcatel SEL Research Prize for Technical
Communication.
In KASTEL, Prof. Zitterbart's research
group is investigating several open questions at the interface between
communication and security. These relate to miniature devices equipped with
sensors that enable innovative services in smart environments, but whose
limited resources require new concepts for guaranteeing confidentiality and
authenticity. In the context of the Internet of Everything, the protection of
privacy continues to be a central object of investigation. Prof. Zitterbart's
research group is working on protocols for private-sphere smart metering and
building blocks for private-sphere smart-traffic services. When drafting
measures to increase privacy, care is taken to ensure that they do not depend
on the trustworthiness of individual third parties or service providers. In the
context of Industry 4.0, the working group is researching SDN- and
NFV-supported security concepts and transparency-creating measures for secure cloud
use.
Another central focus is the exploration of
block-chain networks. On the one hand, methods are being investigated and
developed to increase privacy in block-chain-based currency systems such as
bitcoin. On the other hand, it will be investigated to what extent the
decentralized consistency achieved by blockchain networks can be used as a
basic service for further application contexts, e. g. by implementing Smart
Contracts. In this context, work is planned on the distributed determination
and persistence of attributes with the aim of creating and securing a flexible,
cross-context identity.