RESEARCH
Jan Tobias joined the ULB Cybersecurity Research Center in 2023 as a professor for Embedded Systems Security. He researches topics involving privacy, safety and security of information and communication systems, with particular interest in dependable embedded systems and secure critical ICT infrastructures, and in interdisciplinary research on questions around the responsible and sustainable development and use of ICTs. Jan Tobias is specifically interested in societal aspects of security and privacy in dependable systems, in trusted execution environments, and in security architectures for safety-critical embedded systems.
Before joining ULB, Jan Tobias worked as a research manager at KU Leuven (BE), a researcher at the University of Bamberg (DE), obtained a Ph.D. from the University of York (UK) and worked as a researcher at the University of Applied Sciences in Brandenburg (DE), where he also acquired his Master’s degree in Computer Science.
Personal website: https://www.beetzsee.de/
Social media: https://mastodon.online/@jtmuehlberg
OFFICE HOURS
Please check https://www.beetzsee.de/agenda.html (calendar is embedded below and you can also subscribe to the ICS) for my consultation hours at ULB (S.UA5), or get in touch by email.
PUBLICATIONS
Key publications at academic venues:
- Gülmez, M., Englund, H., Mühlberg, J. T., & Nyman, T. (2025). “Mon CHÉRI: Mitigating Uninitialized Memory Access with Conditional Capabilities.” In 2025 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) (pp. 791–809). Los Alamitos, CA, USA: IEEE Computer Society. doi:10.1109/SP61157.2025.00133
- Sas, M., Denoo, M., & Mühlberg, J. T. (2023). “Informing Children about Privacy: A Review and Assessment of Age-Appropriate Information Designs in Kids-Oriented F2P Video Games.” Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (PACMHCI): Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY 2023). doi:10.1145/3611036
- Alder, F., Van Bulck, J., Piessens, F., & Mühlberg, J. T. (2021). “Aion: Enabling Open Systems through Strong Availability Guarantees for Enclaves.” In CCS ’21. New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/3460120.3484782
- Van Bulck, J., Mühlberg, J. T., & Piessens, F. (2017). “VulCAN: Efficient Component Authentication and Software Isolation for Automotive Control Networks.” In ACSAC ’17 (pp. 225–237). New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi:10.1145/3134600.3134623
- Noorman, J., Van Bulck, J., Mühlberg, J. T., Piessens, F., Maene, P., Preneel, B., Verbauwhede, I., et al. (2017). “Sancus 2.0: A Low-Cost Security Architecture for IoT Devices.” ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security (TOPS), 20(3), 7:1–7:33. doi:10.1145/3079763
This post at the IEEE Software Blog gives a good overview of what embedded Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) can provide to secure critical control systems:
- Mühlberg, J. T., Bulck, J. V., Maene, P., Noorman, J., Preneel, B., Verbauwhede, I., & Piessens, F. (2019). “Architectural Security for Embedded Control Systems.” Software Blog. Retrieved from http://blog.ieeesoftware.org/2019/05/architectural-security-for-embedded.html
- Scopelliti, G., Pouyanrad, S., Noorman, J., Alder, F., Baumann, C., Piessens, F., & Mühlberg, J. T. (2023). “End-to-End Security for Distributed Event-Driven Enclave Applications on Heterogeneous TEEs.” ACM Transactions on Privacy and Security. doi:10.1145/3592607
I’m more and more working o topics that center aspects of sustainability and the protection of vulnerable communities:
- Knowles, B., Hanson, V., Becker, C., Berners-Lee, M., Chien, A. A., Combemale, B., Coroama, V., et al. (2025). “Climate Change: What is Computing’s Responsibility? (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25122).” Dagstuhl Manifestos, 11(1), 1–18. doi:10.4230/DagMan.11.1.1
- Ben Guirat, I., & Mühlberg, J. T. (2025). “Resistance Technologies: Moving Beyond Alternative Designs.” In Proceeding of the 11th Workshop on Computing within Limits (LIMITS 2025). doi:10.48550/arXiv.2507.19070
- Sas, M., & Mühlberg, J. T. (2024). “Trustworthy Age Assurance? A risk-based evaluation of available and upcoming age assurance technologies from a fundamental rights perspective.” Retrieved from https://www.greens-efa.eu/en/article/document/trustworthy-age-assurance
Full list of publications: https://www.beetzsee.de/publications.html
CONTACT INFO
Email: jan.tobias.muehlberg@ulb.be
PGP Key ID: 0xB229F089D7ED3DF4
Post Address: Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB, CP 165/56, Campus Solbosch, 50 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
Office: Université libre de Bruxelles – ULB, Campus Solbosch, 50 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, Office UA5.218, 1050 Brussels, Belgium (building U, entrance A, same as “Muséum de Zoologie et d’Anthropologie de l’ULB” but on the 5th floor)