Dr. Steven Arzt

Dr.-Ing. Steven Arzt heads the “Secure Software Engineering” research department at Fraunhofer SIT and serves as coordinator of the “Automatic Vulnerability Scanning and Verification (AVSV)” research area at the National Research Center for Applied Cybersecurity (ATHENE).

He studied computer science and IT security at the Technical University of Darmstadt and earned a master’s degree in both fields. In 2016, he earned his Ph.D. with a dissertation titled “Static Data Flow Analysis for Android Applications.” In his dissertation, he focused on methods for the automated analysis of data flows in Android applications. The goal was to make it transparent how apps handle sensitive user data and what information they share with third parties. For this work, he received the 2018 Dissertation Award from the Ernst Denert Foundation.

His research focuses on the development and evaluation of secure software as well as the automated detection of security vulnerabilities. This includes static and dynamic program analysis, the security of mobile applications, and the development of analysis tools. He is involved in the further development of the open-source tools FlowDroid and Soot, which are used in scientific research on software analysis. He also developed the software scanner VUSC (Vulnerability Scanner) and brought it to market readiness. 

Steven Arzt has also been conducting research into the use of artificial intelligence for software security since 2013. His work focuses on the offensive and defensive use of AI, as well as the security of AI-supported development processes.

Together with his team, he advises SMEs, large corporations, and government agencies on a wide range of issues related to the entire software lifecycle. The spectrum ranges from the design of secure software architectures and risk assessment, through penetration testing and code reviews, to the implementation of secure update procedures and the establishment of Product Security Incident Response Teams (PSIRTs) that handle and coordinate security vulnerabilities in software products.

Dr. Steven Arzt regularly publishes scientific articles on the automated detection of security vulnerabilities and the analysis of software security. His research combines the development of new scientific methods with their practical application to real-world software products.