Secure home networking of tomorrow

For their innovative idea for "automatic network isolation of IoT devices", Osman, who is doing his doctorate in the "IT Security" research group under Professor Thorsten Strufe, and his Dresden colleague received the first prize of 150,000 euros in the "Development Stream". The software and edge cloud architecture they developed automatically identifies all IoT devices in a network, their corresponding security vulnerabilities and groups them into fully isolated segments. This protects them from Mirai-like malware infections as well as malicious IoT devices. The two demonstrated the viability of the idea in a proof of concept (PoC).

With the Telekom Challenge, T-Labs, Telekom's research and development unit, launched its international science competition this year. This first edition met with great interest worldwide. Around 180 concepts from 35 countries and five continents were proposed. "I am delighted with the high quality of the ideas submitted. This did not make the jury's decision easy. We received the applications mainly from academic staff or students at relevant universities, but also from startups. This proves the attractiveness of the Telekom Challenge; and the good networking of Deutsche Telekom. As Deutsche Telekom, we will continue to pursue some of the approaches and test their practical suitability," explains Claudia Nemat, Member of the Board of Management for Technology and Innovation at Deutsche Telekom.

The second edition of the Telekom Challenge will start in mid-October. It will focus on questions relating to XR, i.e. the possibilities of augmented reality. It is also aimed specifically at the brightest minds in the national and international research community, whether at universities, research centers or in the corporate and startup environment.

More information about the Telekom Challenge is available at telekom-challenge.com.