Martin Plattner
- Information Security Consultant@Axians ICT Austria GmbH
- Freelance Consultant & Software Engineer@mplattner.at
# About me
Hello. My name is Martin Plattner. I am an information security professional, software engineer, and IT consultant based in Innsbruck, Austria, a beautiful town in the alps.
In my role as an information security consultant at Axians ICT Austria I am responsible for developing and executing Axians’ security consulting portfolio, which includes services such as penetration testing, auditing and hardening of large-scale IT infrastructures, phishing campaigns, and other consulting services.
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 cover all stages of a project and aim for close cooperation with the client 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 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.
Interests. Information Security, Software Development, Data Analysis, Graphic Design
# Services
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– Information SecurityCyber security has been my passion for many years. I have strong knowledge of system-, software-, and network-security, digital forensics, cryptography, and many other security-related topics. I can secure your applications and IT infrastructure, train your employees, and consult you to professionally manage risks and challenges related to cybersecurity.
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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 Analysis & Information RetrievalI 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, but I also like to use Tableau for data visalization. I am also experienced with blockchain data analysis, especially with cross-chain analyses of Bitcoin and its forks.
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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 a role-based access control system. A separate absence management module allows users to request time off and track 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 won the “Best Master Thesis of the Institute” award of the Computer Science Institute at the University of Innsbruck.
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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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– Automating Security Report Generation using PythonWriting 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” 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.