Our Team
Who we are
We are a small team of computer scientists, mathematicians and software engineers passionate about computer science, mathematics and physics, and their application to information security. We specialize in classical/(post-)quantum cryptography, applied logic, software security, artificial intelligence and cyber-physical system security.
Arash Atashpendar
Founder – CTO
CTO
Arash, CTO at itrust Abstractions Lab, is a research scientist and software engineer specialized in cryptography, information theory, quantum computing, provable information security, mathematical optimization, mathematical modelling and mathematical software, with 12 years of experience in academic research in theoretical computer science and mathematics and 20 years of experience in programming and software engineering.
Arash holds a PhD in computer science, specialized in quantum-safe cryptography and information theory.
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Itzel Vazquez Sandoval
Founder – R&D Scientist
R&D scientist
Itzel is a research scientist and software engineer specialized in computational logic and applied cryptography. Her focus at ALab is on the research and development of robust, secure and innovative information security solutions in diverse domains, including security analysis of cryptographic protocols and systems, cyber threat intelligence, and PQC migration.
Itzel has a PhD in computer science and around a decade of experience in industrial software engineering; she likes to engage in science dissemination and outreach activities.
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Peter Y. A. Ryan
Founder – Principal Scientific Investigator | Professor Emeritus
Principal Scientific Investigator | Professor Emeritus
Peter Ryan joined Abstractions Lab in November 2025.
Peter Ryan is Professor of Applied Security at the University of Luxembourg since Feb 2009 (Emeritus since July 2025). He has over 30 years of experience in cryptography, information assurance and formal verification. He pioneered the application of process calculi to modelling and analysis of secure systems, in particular presenting the first process algebraic characterization of non-interference taking account of non-determinism (CSFW 1990). While at the Defense Research Agency, he initiated and led the “Modelling and Analysis of Security Protocols” project that pioneered the application of process algebra (CSP) and model-checking tools (FDR) to the analysis of security protocols.
He has published extensively on cryptography, cryptographic protocols, security policies, mathematical models of computer security and, most recently, voter-verifiable election systems. He is the creator of: Prêt à Voter and Selene, with V. Teague, Pretty Good Democracy, and with Mark Ryan et al the Caveat Coercitor verifiable voting schemes. He was also co-designer of the vVote system, based on Prêt à Voter that was used successfully in Victoria State in November 2015. With Feng Hao, he also developed the OpenVote boardroom-voting scheme and the J-PAKE password based authenticated key establishment protocol. Recently he co-authored the “Remark!” scheme for secure, anonymous marking of exams and has been working on Quantum Authenticated Key Establishment Protocols.
Previously, he held a Chair in CS at the University of Newcastle. Before that he worked at the Government Communications HQ, the Defense Research Agency Malvern, the Stanford Research Institute, Cambridge UK and the SEI, CMU Pittsburgh. He is a Visiting Professor at the ENS Paris and the University of Surrey.
He was awarded a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of London. Peter Ryan sits/sat on the program committees of numerous, prestigious security conferences, notably: IEEE Security and Privacy, IEEE Computer Security Foundations (CSF), the European Symposium on Research in Computer Security (ESORICS). He was (co-)chair of WITS’04 and ESORICS’04 and 2015, Frontiers of Electronic Elections (FEE) 2005, Workshop on Trustworthy Elections (WOTE) 2007,VoteId 2009. From 1999 to 2007 he was the President of the ESORICS Steering Committee. In 2013 he was awarded the ESORICS Outstanding Contributions Award.
Publications (selected)
P Y A Ryan, A CSP Formulation of Non-interference and Unwinding, Presented at CSFW’90 and published in Cipher, Winter 1990/91. Also available on the IEEE Press cd of the complete proceedings of CSFW 1988-2002.
P Y A Ryan, S A Schneider, A W Roscoe, G Lowe and M H Goldsmith Modelling and Analysis of Security Protocols. Pearson Education 2000.
P Y A Ryan, S A Schneider: Process Algebra and Non-interference, Proceedings of the Computer Security Foundations Workshop 1999, IEEE Press. Extended version. Journal of Computer Security 9(1/2): 75-103 (2001)
David Chaum, Peter Y.A. Ryan and Steve A. Schneider. A Practical, Voter-verifiable Election Scheme. Proc. 10th European Symposium on Research in Computer Security – ESORICS. Springer Verlag (2005).
P Y A Ryan, Peter B. Rønne, and Vincenzo Iovino. “Selene: Voting with transparent verifiability and coercion-mitigation.” International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2016.
Carlo Harpes
Founder – CEO
CEO
Carlo is an expert in information and computer security, with 32 years of experience in consulting, research, education, and standardization. He is the founder (in 2007) and managing director of itrust consulting, and managing director and cofounder of itrust Abstractions Lab (2022). Prior to this, he had been Managing Director and Head of Security, Audit, and Governance of Security at Telindus PSF (3 years), and before, during 8 years, he had been CISO and head of Risk management at CETREL S.C., the electronic payment operator in Luxembourg.
Carlo holds a PhD in information techniques and cryptography, as well as an electrical engineering diploma from EPF Zurich. He was PKI expert registered at ILNAS, External 27001 lead auditor, and assistant professor associated to the University of Luxembourg. Furthermore, he is one of the founding members of CLUSIL and national representative of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC27 for almost 20 years.
Ensuifudine Omar
Founder – CIO
CIO
Ensuifudine has been analyst developer at itrust consulting and itrust Abstractions Lab since 2012 and 2023, respectively. He holds a Master’s degree in ‘IHM’ Human Machine Interface, Informatics from the University Paul Verlaine Metz.
He works in software development and develops tools such as TRICK Service, Software Checker, Vulnerability Management System (a tool developed for the TREsPASS and ATENA project), and on a pseudo anonymization project for Centre de gestion informatique de l’éducation (CGIE).
In 2020 he was promoted to ICT Manager, Head of Department Software Development and took over the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO).
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Agnese gini
R&D Specialist
R&D Specialist at ALab (Nov. 2023 – Dec. 2024)
Agnese joined itrust Abstractions Lab in November 2023 as security R&D specialist.
She holds a PhD in computer science, specialized in cryptography, which she received from the University of Luxembourg. She was part of the group of Prof. Jean-Sébastien Coron and affiliated to the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) research center. Agnese also holds a master’s degree in mathematics specialized in computer algebra and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics with exams in computer science.
As a doctoral researcher she developed algorithms for cryptanalysis via lattices, multivariate polynomial systems and statistical learning-based techniques. Her work contributed to solving a twenty-year-old open question, with impact in theoretical computer science, secure efficient computation, and privacy in federate learning. As a postdoctoral researcher she also investigated security properties of Boolean functions with application in hybrid homomorphic encryption.
During her time at the University of Luxembourg she served as instructor in security and programming courses and supervised several student projects. She took part in training about blockchain, machine learning and high-performance computing, as well as the Euraxess Luxembourg 2getthere programme. She also joined the Women4Cyber European Mentorship 2023 programme.
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Camar Houssein
ICT admin & developer
ICT administrator and developer at ALab (Aug. 2023 – Dec. 2024)
Camar joined itrust Abstractions Lab in August 2023 as ICT administrator and developer. Since 2003, Camar holds a Bachelor´s Degree in Public and Administrative Law awarded from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. In 2021, he successfully completed a one-year Security Operations (SecOps) oriented cybersecurity training at Technobel (Ciney, Belgium) where he acquired wide-ranging skills in SIEM solutions (Splunk, IBM Qradar), log analysis, incident handling (NIST), mgt. of firewalls and IPS/IDS (Cisco ASA, Firepower), and vulnerability assessment (Nessus).
Camar worked as an IT technician and trainer in Belgium, providing computer hardware/software/network support, developed and provided thematic workshops (i.e. social engineering, and secure digital usage of banking assets). In 2022, he participated as external consultant in a multi-site migration project (Paris, Luxembourg, and Brussels) supporting CANDRIAM Investment Funds in Luxembourg in migrating IT infrastructure to new OS version, managing user devices, installing software and security certificates, and handling log reports.
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