The simplicity project: easing the burden of using complex and heterogeneous ICT devices and services

As of today, to exploit the variety of different "services", users need to configure each of their devices by using different procedures and need to explicitly select among heterogeneous access technologies and protocols. In addition to that, users are authenticated and charged by different means. The lack of implicit human computer interaction, context-awareness and standardisation places an enormous burden of complexity on the shoulders of the final users. The IST-Simplicity project aims at leveraging such problems by: i) automatically creating and customizing a user communication space; ii) adapting services to user terminal characteristics and to users preferences; iii) orchestrating network capabilities. The aim of this paper is to present the technical framework of the IST-Simplicity project. This paper is a thorough analysis and qualitative evaluation of the different technologies, standards and works presented in the literature related to the Simplicity system to be developed

Mobile qualified electronic signatures and certification on demand

Despite a legal framework being in place for several years, the market share of qualified electronic signatures is disappointingly low. Mobile Signatures provide a new and promising opportunity for the deployment of an infrastructure for qualified electronic signatures. We analyzed two possible signing approaches (server based and client based signatures) and conclude that SIM-based signatures are the most secure and convenient solution. However, using the SIM-card as a secure signature creation device (SSCD) raises new challenges, because it would contain the user’s private key as well as the subscriber identification. Combining both functions in one card raises the question who will have the control over the keys and certificates. We propose a protocol called Certification on Demand (COD) that separates certification services from subscriber identification information and allows consumers to choose their appropriate certification services and service providers based on their needs. We also present some of the constraints that still have to be addressed before qualified mobile signatures are possible

Keys in the Clouds: Auditable Multi-device Access to Cryptographic Credentials

Personal cryptographic keys are the foundation of many secure services, but storing these keys securely is a challenge, especially if they are used from multiple devices. Storing keys in a centralized location, like an Internet-accessible server, raises serious security concerns (e.g. server compromise). Hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) are a well-known solution for protecting sensitive data in untrusted environments, and are now becoming available on commodity server platforms. Although the idea of protecting keys using a server-side TEE is straight-forward, in this paper we validate this approach and show that it enables new desirable functionality. We describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of a TEE-based Cloud Key Store (CKS), an online service for securely generating, storing, and using personal cryptographic keys. Using remote attestation, users receive strong assurance about the behaviour of the CKS, and can authenticate themselves using passwords while avoiding typical risks of password-based authentication like password theft or phishing. In addition, this design allows users to i) define policy-based access controls for keys; ii) delegate keys to other CKS users for a specified time and/or a limited number of uses; and iii) audit all key usages via a secure audit log. We have implemented a proof of concept CKS using Intel SGX and integrated this into GnuPG on Linux and OpenKeychain on Android. Our CKS implementation performs approximately 6,000 signature operations per second on a single desktop PC. The latency is in the same order of magnitude as using locally-stored keys, and 20x faster than smart cards.Comment: Extended version of a paper to appear in the 3rd Workshop on Security, Privacy, and Identity Management in the Cloud (SECPID) 201

TechNews digests: Jan - Nov 2008

TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month

Ubiquitous healthcare profile management applying smart card technology

Nowadays, the patient-centric healthcare approach is focused on ubiquitous healthcare services. Furthermore, the adoption of cloud computing technology leads to more efficient ubiquitous healthcare systems. Moreover, the personalization of the delivery of ubiquitous healthcare services is enabled with the introduction of user profiles. In this paper, we propose five generic healthcare profile structures corresponding to the main categories of the participating entities included in a typical ubiquitous healthcare system in a cloud computing environment. In addition, we propose a profile management system incorporating smart card technology to increase its efficiency and the quality of the provided services of the ubiquitous healthcare system

ITERL: A Wireless Adaptive System for Efficient Road Lighting

This work presents the development and construction of an adaptive street lighting system that improves safety at intersections, which is the result of applying low-power Internet of Things (IoT) techniques to intelligent transportation systems. A set of wireless sensor nodes using the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard with additional internet protocol (IP) connectivity measures both ambient conditions and vehicle transit. These measurements are sent to a coordinator node that collects and passes them to a local controller, which then makes decisions leading to the streetlight being turned on and its illumination level controlled. Streetlights are autonomous, powered by photovoltaic energy, and wirelessly connected, achieving a high degree of energy efficiency. Relevant data are also sent to the highway conservation center, allowing it to maintain up-to-date information for the system, enabling preventive maintenance.Consejería de Fomento y Vivienda Junta de Andalucía G-GI3002 / IDIOFondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional G-GI3002 / IDI

Citizen Electronic Identities using TPM 2.0

Electronic Identification (eID) is becoming commonplace in several European countries. eID is typically used to authenticate to government e-services, but is also used for other services, such as public transit, e-banking, and physical security access control. Typical eID tokens take the form of physical smart cards, but successes in merging eID into phone operator SIM cards show that eID tokens integrated into a personal device can offer better usability compared to standalone tokens. At the same time, trusted hardware that enables secure storage and isolated processing of sensitive data have become commonplace both on PC platforms as well as mobile devices. Some time ago, the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) released the version 2.0 of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) specification. We propose an eID architecture based on the new, rich authorization model introduced in the TCGs TPM 2.0. The goal of the design is to improve the overall security and usability compared to traditional smart card-based solutions. We also provide, to the best our knowledge, the first accessible description of the TPM 2.0 authorization model.Comment: This work is based on an earlier work: Citizen Electronic Identities using TPM 2.0, to appear in the Proceedings of the 4th international workshop on Trustworthy embedded devices, TrustED'14, November 3, 2014, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2666141.266614