Katja Assaf
Contact
Phone: +49 331 5509-575
E-Mail: katja.assaf ... hpi.de
Room: C-1.6
Research Interests
- Cybersecurity and Cryptography
- Cybersecurity in Railway Systems
- Digital and Anonymous Credentials
Publications
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Katja Assaf, Timo Ramsdorf, Dirk Friedenberger, Lukas Pirl, Birgit Milius, and Andreas Polze.
Use Case Analysis of Quantum Key Distribution in Railway Systems.
In Proceedings of the 2026 European Safety and Reliability Conference. Braga, Portugal, 2026.
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PDF |
]
×
@inproceedings{assaf2026use,
author = "Assaf, Katja and Ramsdorf, Timo and Friedenberger, Dirk and Pirl, Lukas and Milius, Birgit and Polze, Andreas",
title = "{Use Case Analysis of Quantum Key Distribution in Railway Systems}",
tags = "katja.assaf,timo.ramsdorf,dirk.friedenberger,lukas.pirl,birgit.milius,andreas.polze,rail",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2026 European Safety and Reliability Conference",
address = "Braga, Portugal",
year = "2026",
pdf = "https://cmsweb.com.sg/rps2prod/esrel2026/epro/pdf/esrel26-p26139.pdf"
} -
Katrin Vollhardt, Katja Assaf, and Andreas Polze.
Old Tracks, New Threats — The State of Maturity and Reproducibility of Railway Cybersecurity Research.
In Proceedings of the 9th Scientific Railway Signaling Symposium. Berlin, Germany, 2026.
×
@inproceedings{vollhardt2026old,
author = "Vollhardt, Katrin and Assaf, Katja and Polze, Andreas",
title = "{Old Tracks, New Threats --- The State of Maturity and Reproducibility of Railway Cybersecurity Research}",
tags = "katrin.vollhardt,katja.assaf,andreas.polze,rail",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 9th Scientific Railway Signaling Symposium",
address = "Berlin, Germany",
year = "2026"
} -
Katja Assaf, Takumi Otsuka, Ken Watanabe, and Kazue Sako.
Towards Practical Anonymous Credential Systems: Mapping Research Gaps.
Poster presented at the 2025 International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security (CANS), 2025.
×
@misc{assaf2025towards,
author = "Assaf, Katja and Otsuka, Takumi and Watanabe, Ken and Sako, Kazue",
title = "{Towards Practical Anonymous Credential Systems: Mapping Research Gaps}",
tags = "katja.assaf",
year = "2025",
howpublished = "Poster presented at the 2025 International Conference on Cryptology and Network Security (CANS)"
} -
Tarek Galal, Valeria Tisch, Katja Assaf, and Andreas Polze.
From Paper Trails to Trust on Tracks: Adding Public Transparency to Railways via zk-SNARKs.
In ZKDAPPS Workshop of the International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). IEEE, 2025.
×
@inproceedings{galal2025,
author = "Galal, Tarek and Tisch, Valeria and Assaf, Katja and Polze, Andreas",
title = "{From Paper Trails to Trust on Tracks: Adding Public Transparency to Railways via zk-SNARKs}",
booktitle = "ZKDAPPS Workshop of the International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC)",
pages = "",
year = "2025",
organization = "IEEE",
tags = "katja.assaf,andreas.polze,rail"
} -
Clemens Tiedt, Katja Assaf, Robert Schmid, Lukas Pirl, and Andreas Polze.
A Safety-Critical Object Controller With Inherited Trust.
In 2025 28th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC), 1–10. 2025.
doi:10.1109/ISORC65339.2025.00018.
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@inproceedings{tiedt2025simplex,
author = "Tiedt, Clemens and Assaf, Katja and Schmid, Robert and Pirl, Lukas and Polze, Andreas",
title = "{A Safety-Critical Object Controller With Inherited Trust}",
booktitle = "2025 28th International Symposium on Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC)",
year = "2025",
pages = "1-10",
doi = "10.1109/ISORC65339.2025.00018",
tags = "clemens.tiedt,katja.assaf,robert.schmid,lukas.pirl,andreas.polze,rail",
pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lukas-Pirl-2/publication/395991632\_A\_Safety-Critical\_Object\_Controller\_With\_Inherited\_Trust/links/69007c13a2b691617b6678e4/A-Safety-Critical-Object-Controller-With-Inherited-Trust.pdf"
} -
Robert Schmid, Katja Assaf, Clemens Tiedt, Frederic Reiter, Dirk Friedenberger, and Andreas Polze.
Managing Complexity in Safety-critical Railway Signaling Systems using Simplex Architectures.
In ISORC 2024. May 2024.
×
@inproceedings{schmid2024simplex,
author = "Schmid, Robert and Assaf, Katja and Tiedt, Clemens and Reiter, Frederic and Friedenberger, Dirk and Polze, Andreas",
title = "{Managing Complexity in Safety-critical Railway Signaling Systems using Simplex Architectures}",
booktitle = "ISORC 2024",
month = "May",
year = "2024",
tags = "katja.assaf,robert.schmid,clemens.tiedt,frederic.reiter,dirk.friedenberger,andreas.polze,rail"
} -
Katja Assaf.
Anonymous Credentials And Self-Sovereign Identity - An Initial Assessment.
In Workshop of the International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (WAINA). Springer, 2024.
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@inproceedings{assaf2024acandssi,
author = "Assaf, Katja",
title = "{Anonymous Credentials And Self-Sovereign Identity - An Initial Assessment}",
booktitle = "Workshop of the International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (WAINA)",
pages = "",
year = "2024",
organization = "Springer",
tags = "katja.assaf"
} -
Katja Assaf, Alexander Mühle, Daniel Köhler, and Christoph Meinel.
Prison Break: From Proprietary Data Sources to SSI Verifiable Credentials.
In International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA), 355–366. Springer, 2023.
[
PDF |
]
×
@inproceedings{assaf2023prison,
author = {Assaf, Katja and M{\"u}hle, Alexander and K{\"o}hler, Daniel and Meinel, Christoph},
title = "{Prison Break: From Proprietary Data Sources to SSI Verifiable Credentials}",
booktitle = "International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications (AINA)",
pages = "355--366",
year = "2023",
organization = "Springer",
pdf = "https://osm.hpi.de/publications/downloads/assaf2023prisonbreak.pdf",
tags = "katja.assaf"
} -
Alexander Mühle, Katja Assaf, Daniel Köhler, and Christoph Meinel.
Requirements of a Digital Education Credential System.
In 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 1–10. IEEE, 2023.
×
@inproceedings{muhle2023requirements,
author = {M{\"u}hle, Alexander and Assaf, Katja and K{\"o}hler, Daniel and Meinel, Christoph},
title = "{Requirements of a Digital Education Credential System}",
booktitle = "2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)",
pages = "1--10",
year = "2023",
organization = "IEEE",
tags = "katja.assaf"
} -
Alexander Mühle, Katja Assaf, and Christoph Meinel.
One to Bind Them: Binding Verifiable Credentials to User Attributes.
In International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT). 2023.
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PDF |
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@inproceedings{Mhle2023OneTB,
author = {M{\"u}hle, Alexander and Assaf, Katja and Meinel, Christoph},
title = "{One to Bind Them: Binding Verifiable Credentials to User Attributes}",
booktitle = "International Conference on Security and Cryptography (SECRYPT)",
year = "2023",
pdf = "https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372348771\_One\_to\_Bind\_Them\_Binding\_Verifiable\_Credentials\_to\_User\_Attributes\#fullTextFileContent",
tags = "katja.assaf"
} -
Francisco Daza Pastrana, Francois Hausman, and Katja Stumpp.
Railway Cybersecurity: Comprehensive and Standardized Approach to Security Risk Assessment.
In Proceedings of the 8th Transport Research Arena (TRA). 04 2020.
×
@inproceedings{inproceedings,
author = "Daza Pastrana, Francisco and Hausman, Francois and Stumpp, Katja",
year = "2020",
month = "04",
pages = "",
title = "{Railway Cybersecurity: Comprehensive and Standardized Approach to Security Risk Assessment}",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 8th Transport Research Arena (TRA)",
tags = "katja.assaf,rail"
}
Selected Talks
- Why Railway Is Safe But Not Secure at 37c3 (Hamburg, 2023) 1
- Digital Credentials in 2028 - A reflection about the challenges we had to solve at eMadrid, UC3M (Madrid, 2023) 2
- Ich bin |<47j4 - mehr müssen Sie nicht wissen (German) at Science Slam im Waschhaus (Potsdam, 2023) and at 1. Brandenburger Science Slam (Oranienburg, 2022) 3
- Herausforderungen bei der Umsetzung Digitaler Bildungsnachweise im Hochschulbereich (German) at openHPI-Forum (Potsdam, 2021) 4
- 1.
- ^ https://media.ccc.de/v/37c3-11717-why_railway_is_safe_but_not_secure
- 2.
- ^ https://emadridnet.uc3m.es/en/2023/01/02/credenciales-digitales-en-2028-una-reflexion-sobre-los-retos-que-teniamos-que-resolver/
- 3.
- ^ https://youtu.be/NbmOACq4Das?si=cYR-dBpV1ucW7Wqy&t=3731
- 4.
- ^ https://www.tele-task.de/lecture/video/8857/
Co-Supervised Theses
- Safety-Security-Interaction in Railway Signaling Systems: A Comparison of Different Architectures (M.Sc., 2025)
- Insecure but Safe? - Analysis of an Online Door Locking System (B.Sc., 2025)
- Security of Legacy Systems through Box Security – Definition and Analysis (M.Sc., 2025)
- The Simplex Architecture in Practice – Runtime Assurance for Safety-Critical Railway Systems (M.Sc., 2024)
Teaching Activities
- WS25/26
- Trends in OSM (Master Seminar)
- Verteilte Verlässliche Eingebettete Systeme: Railway Security
- SS25
- Digital Rail Summer School
- WS24/25
- Trends in OSM (Master Seminar)
- SS24
- Trends in OSM: Railway Security (Master Seminar)
- WS23/24
- Trends in OSM (Master Seminar)
- Verteilte Verlässliche Eingebettete Systeme
- SS23
- Anonymous Credentials (Master Seminar)
- Zusatzqualifikation Cybersecurity (openHPI)
- WS22/23
- Mathe I
- Tatort Internet (openHPI)
- WS21/22
- Mathe I
- User Authentication for a Digital Credential System (Master Project)
- Hot Topics in Secure Identity Research (Master Seminar)
- Malware (openHPI)
Biographical Sketch
- since 2021: PhD Student / Researcher at Hasso Plattner Institute, University of Potsdam - 2025: Research Stay at Waseda University, Tokio
- 2017 - 2021: Product Solution Security Expert (PSSE) & Product Manager for an Identity and Access Management System (IAM)
- until 2017: M.Sc. Mathematics at TU Berlin