Yekta IT at the Nationale Konferenz IT-Sicherheitsforschung 2025
Cybersecurity for the mobility of the future. From 17 to 19 March 2025 we were at the Nationale Konferenz IT-Sicherheitsforschung in Berlin, where around 450 people from research, industry and politics came together under the heading "Cybersecurity and democracy".
Cybersecurity for the mobility of the future
From 17 to 19 March 2025 we were at the Nationale Konferenz IT-Sicherheitsforschung in Berlin. Around 450 people from research, industry and politics came together under the heading "Cybersecurity and democracy". We invest heavily in research and development, so being there and presenting our results was a given.
The FINESSE project: our contribution to vehicle security
We are a partner in FINESSE, funded by the BMFTR, which develops unified protection systems for vehicles and infrastructure on road and rail. The aim: detect attacks early, respond quickly, and design IT systems to be resilient.
Our automotive security demonstrator
At the FINESSE stand we showed our automotive security demonstrator, which makes the threats in the automotive domain tangible. It runs live attacks against widely used automotive protocols such as CAN, UDS and keyless entry, and shows how a modern intrusion detection system picks them up in real time.
Making an abstract subject concrete matters to us, because the risk is real even when it is not visible. Alongside our demonstrator, other project partners showed their work on connected vehicle systems and on security for rail.
Erfindergeist Slam: hacking on stage
One personal highlight was the Erfindergeist Slam on the evening before the conference. Our co-founder and Head of Cybersecurity, Ali Recai Yekta, gave a talk on "Hacking in vehicle security".
He cleared out the Hollywood clichés: no, vehicles are not hacked in seconds. Real attacks on vehicles are highly complex and take systematic analysis and often months of groundwork. With worked examples and live demonstrations he got the audience interested in how these systems actually fit together.
Keynotes
The programme had several talks worth noting:
State Secretary Dr Karl Eugen Huthmacher (BMBF) on the place of cybersecurity research in Germany’s digital future, and on cybersecurity as a key technology.
Claudia Plattner (President of the BSI) on current problems, with one point in particular: "What matters most is the transfer of technology from research into secure IT products."
Prof. Dr Michael Waidner (ATHENE/Fraunhofer SIT) with an overview of the opportunities and the obstacles: "In digitisation we are middling, but we are still in the founding years. That can still be made up."
What we took away
The conference made one thing clear: cybersecurity is a precondition for protecting democracy and critical infrastructure. Beyond the formal programme, it was a good place to talk to researchers, industrial partners and policymakers.
We will keep working on security in the mobility sector, in FINESSE and beyond, so that tomorrow’s mobility is not only connected and intelligent but secure.
Our thanks to the organisers.
The project: FINESSE, attack detection for road and rail