On 20 November 2025, the University of Regensburg and OTH Regensburg hosted IT Security Day at OTH Regensburg – an event that was taking place for the third time. It offered the more than 150 participants a platform to highlight current challenges and developments in IT security.
The focus was particularly on the new risks arising from the use of artificial intelligence – from deepfakes to automated phishing attacks, prompt injection attacks and the fact that cybercrime is now considered the ‘third largest economy’ in the world.
After a welcome address by Klaus Schmidt, IT security officer at the University of Regensburg, Prof. Dr. Christoph Skornia, Vice President of OTH Regensburg, and Prof. Dr. Susanne Leist, Vice President of the University of Regensburg, opened the event. Both emphasised the importance of joint efforts for a secure digital future.
Impulses from practice and research
In his keynote speech ‘What really happens during a cybersecurity incident?’, Patrick Schraut, NTT, made it clear: ‘No one is safe from an attack; a good plan and a fast restore system help – and everyone can contribute to making the IT world more secure.’
In his presentation ‘AI and Cybersecurity,’ Kai Weeber (HITS-IS) impressively demonstrated how deepfakes work and used a concrete example to show how easy it is to create a fake social media identity from publicly available information with the help of AI – and how quickly people can be deceived by it. His tip: ‘Share information sparingly, exercise healthy scepticism and only grant rights in a targeted manner.’
Dr Jonathan Mendl (University of Regensburg) shed light on the psychological background of phishing emails and warned: ‘The problem of phishing is growing because of AI; humans are the biggest weak point – prevention can only succeed through education.’
Klaus Schmidt added vivid examples of current fake emails at the university and showed how deceptively real they have become. Even IT security professionals have to check more and more carefully to avoid falling for such attacks.
Finally, Michael Diener (City of Regensburg) gave practical tips for everyday life in his ‘Basic Guide to IT Security.’
Hands-on technology
One highlight was a tour of the Cybertruck – a mobile emergency data centre from NTT. Vice President Christoph Skornia and the heads of the data centre and IT centre, Dr. Christoph Bauer, University of Regensburg, and Dr. Christian Broser, OTH Regensburg, joined employees from the University of Regensburg and OTH Regensburg for a demonstration of the technology.
Conclusion
IT Security Day showed that IT security is teamwork. With knowledge, caution and good preparation, we can all contribute to making the digital world safer.
