Potsdam. Security researchers at Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering (HPI) have tracked down a further eleven million stolen pieces of identity data that have been made public in special Internet forums. HPI scientists have integrated their findings in the so-called HPI Identity Leak Checker: https://sec.hpi.de. Since May of this year, all Internet users are invited to check their e-mail address and find out if their associated identity data is circulating freely on the Internet where it could be subject to further misuse.

The account data of almost five million owners of Google email accounts is involved. Also affected are users of the Russian search engine Yandex.ru (1.2 million) and the e-mail provider Mail.ru. (4.5 million). HPI can now conduct the check based on nearly 182 million pieces of such kinds of different identity information.

Due to a sharp rise of interest in Internet security problems, Hasso Plattner Institute is offering a six-week free online course starting on October 27th. The course, entitled “Internet Security,” is open to everyone.  Already 4,000 have signed up to take part at: https://open.hpi.de/courses/intsec2014.

A few weeks before the start of this course, HPI is also launching a new Internet educational platform at openHPI on September 22. This will be the first attempt to introduce pupils to programming in a fun way in a “Massive Open Online Course” (MOOC). Nearly 3000 young people have already enrolled in the course at https://open.hpi.de/courses/intsec2014.

The Hasso Plattner Institute for Software Systems Engineering GmbH (https://hpi.de) at the University of Potsdam is Germany’s university excellence center for IT Systems Engineering. It is the only university institution in Germany offering the bachelor and master program in “IT Systems Engineering” – a practical and engineering-oriented study program in computer science, in which 470 students are presently enrolled. The HPI School of Design Thinking is Europe’s first innovation school and modeled on the Stanford University d.school. It offers 240 places yearly for a supplementary study.

There are a total of ten HPI professors and over 50 guest professors, lecturers and contracted teachers at the Institute. HPI carries out research noted for its high standard of excellence in its nine topic areas, as well as at the HPI Research School for PhD candidates, with its further branches in Cape Town, Haifa and Nanjing. HPI teaching and research focuses on the foundation and application of large-scale, highly complex and networked IT systems. The development and exploration of user-driven innovations for all areas of life is an additional field of importance. HPI always earns the highest positions in the CHE university ranking. Since the beginning of September 2012, HPI has offered openhpi.de, an interactive Internet educational platform. Its free online courses are open to everyone.