The protection of computer systems and the information they store have gained massive importance in our modern society. Over the last years, we have worked in the area of hardware accelerated cryptographic attacks. In particular, we have studied how so-called Cold-Boot Attacks can be accelerated with the help of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The full source code of our work is now available online.
The German Council for Science and Humanities has issued a funding recommendation with the highest ranking for the proposal of Paderborn University for a new high-performance computer.
Wires just four atoms wide that change from being insulators to electrical conductors when struck by a laser pulse have been studied by researchers from Paderborn and Duisburg. The team has shown that the phase transition can occur as fast as quantum mechanics allows, something that was not previously thought possible. The technique could prove useful, e.g., for ultrafast detectors.
