Ruben Baecker

I am currently pursuing my PhD in cryptography at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, under the supervision of Dominique Schröder, which I began in late 2023. Before starting my PhD, I completed both my Bachelor of Science (B.Sc., 2022) and Master of Science (M.Sc., 2023) in Computer Science at the same university. My research focuses on protocols that balance strong security with real-world usability. Currently, I work on password-based authentication schemes, where users rely on low-entropy secrets, requiring careful design to resist brute-force attacks without compromising user experience. I also work on other cryptographic primitives used in practice, such as threshold signatures and defenses against spam in privacy-preserving messaging protocols. My broader goal is to develop cryptographic tools that are not only provably secure but also practical and widely adoptable.