HGI-Alumni of the Month August

More than 20 years ago, the IT Security program at Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) was the first of its kind in Germany. Since then, many students have successfully graduated, some of them even earning a doctorate in Bochum to start their careers from here. We present some of these graduates in our new series "Alumni of the Month". They will tell us what they learned in Bochum and how they have progressed since then.

HGI-Alumni of the month August:
Dr. Max Hoffmann

Then and Now

• 2015: Bachelor IT-Sicherheit
• 2017: Master IT-Sicherheit
• 2020: Doctorate at the chair EmSec
• 2020: Associated Researcher, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy
• 2022: Senior Security Architect, ETAS GmbH

Living in Bochum

Work history

• 2021 – now: Senior Security Architect, ETAS GmbH (former ESCRYPT)
• 2020 – 2021: System Engineer, ESCRYPT GmbH
• 2016 – 2020: Research Assistant, RUB – Chair EmSec

Lessons Learned

• In my studies: IT security is a hell of a lot of maths... but still a lot of fun :)
• In professional life: You only really notice the academic bubble in which we move throughout our studies afterwards. Industry is exactly the right place to pass on our knowledge.

Bochum is a great place because...
...the city is just the right size. It's big enough to have everything on site and yet not overwhelming like a big city. And then IT security is also uniquely concentrated here: a true paradise for our department!

IT Security made in Bochum - Alumni Network at LinkedIn

In our alumni network "IT SECURITY made in BOCHUM" former students, doctoral candidates and researchers with a connection to IT security at RUB are invited to connect and discuss. All alumni of the study programs IT Security (Bachelor/Master) as well as all former employees (PhD students, researchers and administrators) of the Horst Görtz Institute for IT Security (HGI) at the RUB are welcome in our network, as well as alumni of related study programs like Computer Science or Applied Computer Science.

We welcome all new members of the constantly growing community!

General note: In case of using gender-assigning attributes we include all those who consider themselves in this gender regardless of their own biological sex.