Fiona Johanna Weber
Cryptographer and Computer Scientist
I’m a Cryptographer with a specialisation on designing and analysing security protocols, in particular post-quantum key-exchanges. My background lies in computer science, a profession I chose after teaching myself C++ end learned to love programming. I care deeply about code-quality and will often go to significant lengths to express complex algorithms in the simplest and most straightforward terms possible, believing that readability is essential.
On the less technical side of things, I am an open minded and social person who enjoys working in teams and loves sharing knowledge, be it in the form of teaching, speaking at conferences, or providing advice as a consultant.
Personal Details
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Fiona Johanna Weber |
| Address | ⟨redacted⟩ ⟨redacted⟩ Eindhoven the Netherlands |
| Phone | ⟨redacted⟩ |
| ⟨redacted⟩ | |
| Signal | ⟨redacted⟩ |
| Nationality | German |
| Birthday | |
| Website | fiona.onl |
| Codeberg | codeberg.org/FJW/ |
| Gitlab | gitlab.com/FJW/ |
| Github | github.com/Fiona-J-W |
Employment
2019 - 2025: PhD Candidate at the Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e),
supervised by Andreas Hülsing and Tanja Lange. This was primarily a research position in which I was working on provable secure post-quantum protocol design, including Post-quantum WireGuard, Post Quantum Noise and, as contractor for the European Space Agency, a Key-Update Mechanism for the Space Data Link Security Protocol.Secondarily it was also a teaching position, which in exchange for an additional year came with an increased involvement in higher education, which included designing and giving my own lectures in a course on applied cryptography.
2014: Tutor for “Algorithms 1” at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Part-time job next to my Bachelor-studies.
Hard Skills
- Design and Analysis of Cryptographic Protocols using Security Proofs
- Formalizing Security Requirements
- Programming
- Technical Writing
- Public Speaking
- Teaching in Higher Education
Soft Skills
- Communication
- In my roles as both a publishing research and a puniversity teacher I learned to communicating in clearly and direct language was always a necessity.
- Teamwork
- Most of modern science is performed as teamwork and my publication record demonstrates that my work is no exception there; collaboration has in fact always been one of the things I enjoyed the most.
- Critical Thinking
- As a security researcher critical thinking was a hard necessity when writing and analysing proofs and on the numerous times I worked as a peer reviewer.
Education
| Time | Degree |
|---|---|
| 2019 - 2025 | PhD in Cryptography at TU/e |
| 2016 - 2019 | Master of Science in Computer Science at KIT |
| 2012 - 2016 | Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at KIT |
| 2011 - 2012 | Bachelor-studies (uncompleted) of Applied Biology at KIT |
| 2011 | Abitur at Robert-Mayer-Gymnasium Heilbronn |
Languages
| Language | Level |
|---|---|
| German | Native |
| English | Near Native |
| Dutch | Conversational |
Programming
| Language | Experience |
|---|---|
| C++ | Proficient (≈ 10 years) |
| Python | Intermediate (≈ 3 years) |
| Typescript | Beginner (≈ 1 year) |
| Java | Beginner (≈ 1 year) |
Technologies
- Bash
- CSS
- CMake
- Git
- Html
- LaTeX
- Linux
- Make
- Neovim
- Nushell
- GPG/PGP
- SSH
- Zsh
Conference Talks (Selection)
| Date | Talk |
|---|---|
| May 2024 | Key-Update Mechanism for SDLSP at Security for Space Systems 2024 (invited talk) |
| March 2024 | Post Quantum Noise at Real World Crypto 2023 |
| December 2018 | Provable Security with Lukas Beeck at the 35th Chaos Communication Congress |
Academic Publications
- Cryptographic Protocols in a Post-Quantum World,
Doctoral Thesis. - An Asymmetric-based Post-Quantum Cryptographic Protocol for Space Missions,
Technical Report for the European Space Agency.
(Joined work with Andreas Hülsing and Tanja Lange) - Epochal Signatures for Deniable Group Chats,
accepted by the 42nd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P 2021).
(Joined work with Andreas Hülsing.) - Post-quantum WireGuard,
accepted by the 42nd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P 2021).
(Joined work with Andreas Hülsing, Kai-Chun Ning, Peter Schwabe and Phil Zimmermann.) - Post Quantum Noise,
accepted at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2022).
(Joined work with Yawning Angel, Benjamin Dowling, Andreas Hülsing and Peter Schwabe.) - A Critical Analysis of Deployed Use Cases for Quantum Key Distribution and Comparison with Post-Quantum Cryptography,
accepted by EPJ Quantum Technology.
(Joined work with Nick Aquina, Bruno Cimoli, Soumya Das, Kathrin Hövelmanns, Chigo Okonkwo, Simon Rommel, Boris Škorić, Idelfonso Tafur Monroy, and Sebastian Verschoor) - Two C++ libraries for counting trees on a phylogenetic terrace,
accepted by “Bioinformatics”
(Joined work with Rudolf Biczok, Peter Bozsoky, Peter Eisenmann, Johannes Ernst, Tobias Ribizel, Fedor Scholz, Axel Trefzer, Michael Hamann and Alexandros Stamatakis.) - Semantic Object-Oriented Programming (SOOP),
accepted by the “Jahrestagung der Gesselschaft für Informatik” and published in its proceedings „Informatik 2016“
(Joined work with Andreas Bihlmaier and Heinz Wörn)