Martin Plattner
- Lead Cyber Security Consultant@Axians ICT Austria GmbH
- Freelance Consultant & Software Engineer@mplattner.at
# About me
Hi. My name is Martin Plattner. I am an information security professional, software engineer, and consultant based in Innsbruck, Austria. I thrive to work at the intersection of {security, data, people} and develop efficient solutions in this area. I’m passionate about learning new things and teaching them to others.
In my role as lead cyber security consultant at Axians ICT Austria I am responsible for developing and executing our security consulting portfolio, which includes services such as auditing and hardening of large-scale IT infrastructures, simulated phishing, incident response, and other services. I also coordinate our international pentesting and audit team within the Axians Group.
I run a freelance consulting and software engineering business since 2011, where I focus on information security consulting and the creation of custom applications that efficiently solve business problems. I have successfully worked with 70+ clients throughout my career and always aim for close cooperation to deliver high-quality results. More about my services and a selection of previous projects can be found below.
I studied Computer Science with a focus on information security at the Universities of Innsbruck, Vienna, and Stockholm. I was working as project research staff in the Security and Privacy Lab of Rainer Böhme, where I studied cross-blockchain data analysis using BlockSci. I received two awards for my master thesis and published my novel address clustering technique at the 29th USENIX Security Symposium 2020.
I was a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) participant in summer 2020. I worked for the security research organization The Honeynet Project and added new features to the network analysis tool mitmproxy.
If you want to get in touch don’t hesitate to send me a mail.
Interests. infosec, software development, data analysis, homelabbing, automation, graphic design
# Services
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– Information SecurityCyber security has been my passion for many years. I have in-depth expertise of system-, software-, and network-security, digital forensics, cryptography, and many other security-related areas. I can audit and secure your IT infrastructure and applications, train your employees, and consult you to professionally manage risks and challenges related to cyber security.
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– Software EngineeringI create modern software that efficiently solves the given problem efficiently and in a user-friendly way. I am most experienced in creating custom web applications. My approach covers all phases of an application: understanding the idea and its requirements, creation of a prototype, development, testing, deployment, and the following maintenance. My security background ensures that the result is secure and reliable.
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– Data AnalysisI have deep knowledge of information retrieval (especially web crawling), databases (SQL, NoSQL, in-memory), and data warehouse systems. My preferred platform for analyses is Python with its SciPy stack and I like to use Tableau for data visalization. I am also experienced with blockchain data analysis.
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– IT ConsultingI offer consulting on a wide range of IT-related topics such as governance, infrastructure, and security. I enjoy identifying inefficiencies and optimizing the underlying business processes. This often includes finding appropriate software for the problem, or creating a custom application if no solution can be found.
# Selected Freelance Works
Please note that most of my security-related projects are subject to an NDA and can not be shown here.
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– Web Application: Panel Survey ManagementApplication to manage consumer panels for market research. The application uses and integrates Limesurvey, a professional survey software. The backend allows to manage panels, participants, surveys, user credits, and related data. The app is highly customizable and supports full internationalization. Continuous integration (CI) is used to automatically deploy the application to multiple environments.
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– Web Application: Business Run Event ManagementApplication that supports all phases of running events. Key features include participant management, an online shop with custom invoicing and payment processing, a Dropbox-integrated document management system, a barcode-based starter packet pick-up interface, and sending timekeeping results to participant’s phones. A wiki system is used to onboard and train on-site staff.
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– Web Application: Workforce SchedulingApplication to schedule staff in a large Austrian hospital. The application is highly customizable (rooms, positions, required staff), provides schedule versioning, and implements role-based access control. The absence management module allows users to request time off and track their absences.
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– Website: Physiotherapist Carmen VeiderWordpress-based website for a local physiotherapist including customized icons and SEO.
# Academic Works
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– Conference paper: BlockSci – Design and applications of a blockchain analysis platform[PDF] [Publisher] [Video] [Slides]We present BlockSci, an open-source software platform for blockchain analysis. BlockSci is versatile in its support for different blockchains and analysis tasks. It incorporates an in-memory, analytical database, making it orders of magnitudes faster than using general-purpose graph databases. We describe BlockSci’s design and present four analyses that illustrate its capabilities, shedding light on the security, privacy, and economics of cryptocurrencies.
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– Master Thesis: Generalizing BlockSci to Cross-Chain Analyses of Forked Ledgers[PDF] [Video] [Slides] [Code]BlockSci is a high-performance in-memory blockchain analysis platform developed at Princeton University. I added a multi-chain mode to BlockSci that improves the support for forked ledgers like Bitcoin Cash. This new mode enables novel cross-chain analyses that include data from multiple chains. I implemented cross-chain address clustering which improves the established single-chain approach to cluster addresses that are owned by the same users. My thesis received the “Best Master Thesis of the Institute 2020“ award from the University of Innsbruck and the “OCG Incentive Award 2022“ from the Austrian Computer Society (OCG).
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– Bachelor Thesis: Evaluation of Responsive Images Solutions for the Web[PDF] [Proof of concept]In this work I reviewed six responsive images solutions against a custom evaluation framework. The native HTML5 responsive images solution outperformed all the other methods. It was used in a case-example to create the travel catalogue destinat.io which uses responsive fullscreen images.
# Talks
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– Cyber Incident Response for Critical InfrastructureCyber incidents in critical infrastructure can have severe consequences. In this talk I present how we handled an incident response case in the logistics sector, what tools we used, and what lessons we learned.
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– Cyberattack First-Hand: Insights into a real incident[Event webpage]Cyber incidents cause a lot of stress, chaos, and damage. In this talk I give insights into a real incident response scenario. I show how we tackled the incident, what tools we used, and what lessons we learned.
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– Be Prepared When It Hits: Ransomware Readiness.[Event webpage]Ransomware attacks pose one of the largest threats when it comes to cyber risks. Being prepared for a major incident is crucial to successfully handle the situation. In this talk I give insights on what aspects are relevant to professionally tackle an incident response project.
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– Simulated Phishing Campaigns – Done right.[Conference recap video]Many cyber incidents start with a successful phishing attack. Thus, we need to raise awareness and educate users. In this talk I present our custom phishing service based on open source tools. I show a live demo of a full campaign. This includes setting up the infrastructure, which is fully automated using Terraform.
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– Automating Security Report Generation using Python[Conference recap video]Writing reports is no fun. Thus, I’ve automated the report generation for our security audits at Axians using Python. In this talk I interactively present our approach and toolchain with many live demos.
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– Generalizing BlockSci to Cross-Chain Analyses of Forked Ledgers[Slides] [Video] [Event website]In this talk I give an overview of my thesis. I won the “Best Master Thesis of the Institute 2020” award of the Computer Science Institute at the University of Innsbruck. The talk was part of the award ceremony at the institute’s virtual “Inday Students 2020” event. Thanks to Gloria Dzida for helping me with the recording.
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– Workshop: BlockSci's Architecture and Bitcoin Blockchain Data Analysis (German)[Slides] [Video] [Course website]Workshop on BlockSci with an in-depth coverage of its architecture and hand-on data analysis exercises on the Bitcoin blockchain. The workshop was part of our “Principles of Blockchain Systems” lecture that was held remotely in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
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– Training: Blockchain Data Analysis with BlockSci (German)[Slides] [Demo I] [Demo II] [Event website]Introduction to blockchain data analysis with BlockSci at a cryptocurrency forensics training for Austrian law enforcement officers, regulators, and tax officers.