KIBERLAB Offices Officially Opened
The faculty and student researchers of the ELTE–OTP KIBERLAB can now work in a modern environment as they pursue the research topics of the second semester of the current academic year, following the official handover of the lab’s renovated offices. Established in November 2023 in partnership with OTP Bank, the ELTE–OTP KIBERLAB focuses on researching risks arising from the digital world; its primary objectives are to explore prevention strategies against financial fraud and to develop OTP Group’s own defensive solutions. As an inspiring workplace, our bank places great importance on passing on high-level professional knowledge to the younger generation, and this initiative is one of the pillars of that commitment. The renovation of the laboratory’s offices at Eötvös Loránd University’s Faculty of Informatics — established in December 2023 — was completed in early March.
“The importance of cybersecurity cannot be overstated. Identifying and managing cyber risks has become one of the most critical tasks for organisations, so it is no longer solely an IT security matter — it must form an integral part of an organisation’s business strategy. The external exposure, vulnerabilities, and weak points of IT systems supporting business and operational functions must be continuously examined. For OTP Group, protecting the data and assets entrusted to the bank by its customers, and ensuring resilience against threats from cyberspace, are of paramount importance. That is precisely why we considered it essential to involve the youngest generation of developers in researching these areas and to incorporate the findings into our developments,” said Gábor Bucsek, Executive Director of OTP Bank’s Security Directorate.
Starting from the 2023/2024 academic year at the Faculty of Informatics, computer science students can join the research as a credit-bearing course and gain insight into banking infrastructure and the challenges facing financial IT. OTP Bank has also offered scholarships to the most talented students as part of the collaboration.
“Eötvös Loránd University is the custodian of outstanding research university traditions in Hungarian higher education, and has been able to grow and develop successfully over several centuries because it has always been capable of renewal and open to social needs and innovation. The collaboration between ELTE and OTP Bank is yet another fine example of this — not only because it brings industry demands into education and research, but also because KIBERLAB harnesses the innovative potential inherent in interdisciplinary cooperation between the university’s faculties through the participation of the Faculty of Informatics and the Faculty of Law. Cybersecurity and the security of financial systems are rapidly evolving and challenging fields today, where the application of university knowledge — from fundamental research through applied research to IT development — is indispensable if we are all to live in a safer and more predictable world,” stated Prof. Dr. László Borhy, Rector of Eötvös Loránd University, in his opening remarks.
Within the framework of the cooperation, OTP Bank experts also deliver guest lectures at the university on topics related to banking and cybersecurity. In the second semester of the academic year, 18 students are working in the research lab on 11 research topics, which include, among others, the development and validation of cybersecurity methods for detecting phishing attacks, the examination of the security aspects of AI/LLM systems, and the field of post-quantum cryptography.