René Mayrhofer

René Mayrhofer

Professor of Networks and Security & Director of Engineering at Android Platform Security; pacifist, privacy fan, recovering hypocrite; generally here to question and learn

Johannes Kepler University

Google

Biography

I am a computer scientist with additional interest in physics, philosophy, and politics. At the moment, my main focus is secure communication, digital identity, and fighting against (governmental or corporate) mass surveillance - mostly by demonstrating through research prototypes that decentralized, privacy-first secure digital identity or network privacy are possible, through technical mitigations against all kinds of threats including insider attacks, and open letters and talks to educate against #ChatControl. I hold a Professorship at Johannes Kepler University Linz and act as the head of the Institute for Networks and Security as well as Director of Android Platform Security at Google. Occasionally, I act also as security consultant. Previously, I was head of the Josef Ressel Center for User-friendly Secure Mobile Environments and held Professorships in Mobile Computing at Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences, at University of Vienna, AT, and before that a Marie Curie Fellowship at the University of Lancaster, UK. I received Dipl.-Ing. (MSc) and Dr. techn. (PhD, Promotio sub auspiciis Praesidentis rei publicae) degrees from Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria and my Venia Docendi for Applied Computer Science from University of Vienna, Austria.

This is my personal web page, and I update it only irregularly as I work on private projects. More content might be added within the next few weeks, months, or eons. My email inbox is often swamped, so please be patient when waiting for replies. Although I used to be able to respond to every email, this is unfortunately no longer possibly. I typically read most emails, though (unless they look like Spam to my filter or me or are in any way abusive).

For my University web page, please go here. I am also active on Mastodon instead of the old centralized site now. Old posts are online at my personal archival site.

Interests
  • Usable Security
  • Networking
  • Mobile Computing
  • Ethics in Computer Science
  • Sustainability of Computing Technology
  • Digital Identity
Education
  • Venia docendi (Habilitation) in Applied Computer Science, 2009

    University of Vienna, Austria

  • Dr.techn. (PhD) in Computer Science, 2004

    Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

  • Dipl.Ing. (MSc) in Computer Science, 2002

    Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Contact me