Privacy in the Smart City - Applications, Technologies, Challenges and Solutions

Many modern cities strive to integrate information technology into every aspect of city life to create so-called smart cities. Smart cities rely on a large number of application areas and technologies to realize complex interactions between citizens, third parties, and city departments. This overwhelming complexity is one reason why holistic privacy protection only rarely enters the picture. A lack of privacy can result in discrimination and social sorting, creating a fundamentally unequal society. To prevent this, we believe that a better understanding of smart cities and their privacy implications is needed. We therefore systematize the application areas, enabling technologies, privacy types, attackers and data sources for the attacks, giving structure to the fuzzy term “smart city”. Based on our taxonomies, we describe existing privacy-enhancing technologies, review the state of the art in real cities around the world, and discuss promising future research directions. Our survey can serve as a reference guide, contributing to the development of privacy-friendly smart cities

Techniques, Taxonomy, and Challenges of Privacy Protection in the Smart Grid

As the ease with which any data are collected and transmitted increases, more privacy concerns arise leading to an increasing need to protect and preserve it. Much of the recent high-profile coverage of data mishandling and public mis- leadings about various aspects of privacy exasperates the severity. The Smart Grid (SG) is no exception with its key characteristics aimed at supporting bi-directional information flow between the consumer of electricity and the utility provider. What makes the SG privacy even more challenging and intriguing is the fact that the very success of the initiative depends on the expanded data generation, sharing, and pro- cessing. In particular, the deployment of smart meters whereby energy consumption information can easily be collected leads to major public hesitations about the tech- nology. Thus, to successfully transition from the traditional Power Grid to the SG of the future, public concerns about their privacy must be explicitly addressed and fears must be allayed. Along these lines, this chapter introduces some of the privacy issues and problems in the domain of the SG, develops a unique taxonomy of some of the recently proposed privacy protecting solutions as well as some if the future privacy challenges that must be addressed in the future.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/111644/1/Uludag2015SG-privacy_book-chapter.pd

Analysing the Design of Privacy-Preserving Data-Sharing Architecture

Privacy has become an essential software quality to consider in a software system. Privacy practices should be adopted from the early stages of the system design to safeguard personal data from privacy violations. Privacy patterns are proposed in industry and academia as reusable design solutions to address different privacy issues. However, the diverse types and granularity of the patterns lead to difficulty for the practitioner to select and adopt them in the architecture. First, the fragmented information about the system actors in the patterns does not align with the regulatory entities and interactions between them. Second, these privacy patterns lack architectural perspectives that could help weave patterns into concrete software designs. Third, the consequences of applying the patterns have not covered the impacts on software quality attributes. This thesis aims to provide guidance to software architects and practitioners for considering and applying privacy patterns in their design, by adding new perspectives to the existing patterns. First, the research provides an analysis of the relationships between regulatory entities and their responsibility in adopting the patterns in a software design. Then, the research reports studies that were conducted using architectural-level modelling-based approaches, to analyse the architectural views of privacy patterns. The analyses aim to improve understanding of how privacy patterns are applied in software designs and how such a design affects software quality attributes, including privacy, performance, and modifiability. Finally, in an effort to harmonise and unite the extended view of privacy patterns that have a close relation to system architecture, this research proposes an enhanced pattern catalogue and a systematic privacy-by-design (PbD) pattern-selection model that aims to aid and guide software architects in pattern selection during software design. The enhanced pattern catalogue offers consolidated information on the extended view of privacy patterns. The selection model provides a structured way for the practitioner to know when and how to use the pattern catalogue in the system-design process. Two industry case studies are used to evaluate the proposed pattern catalogue and selection model. The findings demonstrate how the proposed frameworks are applicable to different types of data-sharing software systems and their usability in supporting pattern selection decisions in the privacy design

Algebraic Curves and Cryptographic Protocols for the e-society

Amb l'augment permanent de l'adopció de sistemes intel·ligents de tot tipus en la societat actual apareixen nous reptes. Avui en dia quasi tothom en la societat moderna porta a sobre almenys un telèfon intel·ligent, si no és que porta encara més dispositius capaços d'obtenir dades personals, com podria ser un smartwatch per exemple. De manera similar, pràcticament totes les cases tindran un comptador intel·ligent en el futur pròxim per a fer un seguiment del consum d'energia. També s'espera que molts més dispositius del Internet de les Coses siguin instal·lats de manera ubiqua, recol·lectant informació dels seus voltants i/o realitzant accions, com per exemple en sistemes d'automatització de la llar, estacions meteorològiques o dispositius per la ciutat intel·ligent en general. Tots aquests dispositius i sistemes necessiten enviar dades de manera segura i confidencial, les quals poden contindre informació sensible o de caire privat. A més a més, donat el seu ràpid creixement, amb més de nou mil milions de dispositius en tot el món actualment, s'ha de tenir en compte la quantitat de dades que cal transmetre. En aquesta tesi mostrem la utilitat de les corbes algebraiques sobre cossos finits en criptosistemes de clau pública, en particular la de les corbes de gènere 2, ja que ofereixen la mida de clau més petita per a un nivell de seguretat donat i això redueix de manera significativa el cost total de comunicacions d'un sistema, a la vegada que manté un rendiment raonable. Analitzem com la valoració 2-àdica del cardinal de la Jacobiana augmenta en successives extensions quadràtiques, considerant corbes de gènere 2 en cossos de característica senar, incloent les supersingulars. A més, millorem els algoritmes actuals per a computar la meitat d'un divisor d'una corba de gènere 2 sobre un cos binari, cosa que pot ser útil en la multiplicació escalar, que és l'operació principal en criptografia de clau pública amb corbes. Pel que fa a la privacitat, presentem un sistema de pagament d'aparcament per mòbil que permet als conductors pagar per aparcar mantenint la seva privacitat, i per tant impedint que el proveïdor del servei o un atacant obtinguin un perfil de conducta d'aparcament. Finalment, oferim protocols de smart metering millorats, especialment pel que fa a la privacitat i evitant l'ús de terceres parts de confiança.Con el aumento permanente de la adopción de sistemas inteligentes de todo tipo en la sociedad actual aparecen nuevos retos. Hoy en día prácticamente todos en la sociedad moderna llevamos encima al menos un teléfono inteligente, si no es que llevamos más dispositivos capaces de obtener datos personales, como podría ser un smartwatch por ejemplo. De manera similar, en el futuro cercano la mayoría de las casas tendrán un contador inteligente para hacer un seguimiento del consumo de energía. También se espera que muchos más dispositivos del Internet de las Cosas sean instalados de manera ubicua, recolectando información de sus alrededores y/o realizando acciones, como por ejemplo en sistemas de automatización del hogar, estaciones meteorológicas o dispositivos para la ciudad inteligente en general. Todos estos dispositivos y sistemas necesitan enviar datos de manera segura y confidencial, los cuales pueden contener información sensible o de ámbito personal. Además, dado su rápido crecimiento, con más de nueve mil millones de dispositivos en todo el mundo actualmente, hay que tener en cuenta la cantidad de datos a transmitir. En esta tesis mostreamos la utilidad de las curvas algebraicas sobre cuerpos finitos en criptosistemas de clave pública, en particular la de las curvas de género 2, ya que ofrecen el tamaño de clave más pequeño para un nivel de seguridad dado y esto disminuye de manera significativa el coste total de comunicaciones del sistema, a la vez que mantiene un rendimiento razonable. Analizamos como la valoración 2-ádica del cardinal de la Jacobiana aumenta en sucesivas extensiones cuadráticas, considerando curvas de género 2 en cuerpos de característica importa, incluyendo las supersingulares. Además, mejoramos los algoritmos actuales para computar la mitad de un divisor de una curva de género 2 sobre un cuerpo binario, lo cual puede ser útil en la multiplicación escalar, que es la operación principal en criptografía de clave pública con curvas. Respecto a la privacidad, presentamos un sistema de pago de aparcamiento por móvil que permite a los conductores pagar para aparcar manteniendo su privacidad, y por lo tanto impidiendo que el proveedor del servicio o un atacante obtengan un perfil de conducta de aparcamiento. Finalmente, ofrecemos protocolos de smart metering mejorados, especialmente en lo relativo a la privacidad y evitando el uso de terceras partes de confianza.With the ever increasing adoption of smart systems of every kind throughout society, new challenges arise. Nowadays, almost everyone in modern societies carries a smartphone at least, if not even more devices than can also gather personal data, like a smartwatch or a fitness wristband for example. Similarly, practically all homes will have a smart meter in the near future for billing and energy consumption monitoring, and many other Internet of Things devices are expected to be installed ubiquitously, obtaining information of their surroundings and/or performing some action, like for example, home automation systems, weather detection stations or devices for the smart city in general. All these devices and systems need to securely and privately transmit some data, which can be sensitive and personal information. Moreover, with a rapid increase of their number, with already more than nine billion devices worldwide, the amount of data to be transmitted has to be considered. In this thesis we show the utility of algebraic curves over finite fields in public key cryptosystems, specially genus 2 curves, since they offer the minimum key size for a given security level and that significantly reduces the total communication costs of a system, while maintaining a reasonable performance. We analyze how the 2-adic valuation of the cardinality of the Jacobian increases in successive quadratic extensions, considering genus 2 curves with odd characteristic fields, including supersingular curves. In addition, we improve the current algorithms for computing the halving of a divisor of a genus 2 curve over binary fields, which can be useful in scalar multiplication, the main operation in public key cryptography using curves. As regards to privacy, we present a pay-by-phone parking system which enables drivers to pay for public parking while preserving their privacy, and thus impeding the service provider or an attacker to obtain a profile of parking behaviors. Finally, we offer better protocols for smart metering, especially regarding privacy and the avoidance of trusted third parties

Foundations, Properties, and Security Applications of Puzzles: A Survey

Cryptographic algorithms have been used not only to create robust ciphertexts but also to generate cryptograms that, contrary to the classic goal of cryptography, are meant to be broken. These cryptograms, generally called puzzles, require the use of a certain amount of resources to be solved, hence introducing a cost that is often regarded as a time delay---though it could involve other metrics as well, such as bandwidth. These powerful features have made puzzles the core of many security protocols, acquiring increasing importance in the IT security landscape. The concept of a puzzle has subsequently been extended to other types of schemes that do not use cryptographic functions, such as CAPTCHAs, which are used to discriminate humans from machines. Overall, puzzles have experienced a renewed interest with the advent of Bitcoin, which uses a CPU-intensive puzzle as proof of work. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of the most important puzzle construction schemes available in the literature, categorizing them according to several attributes, such as resource type, verification type, and applications. We have redefined the term puzzle by collecting and integrating the scattered notions used in different works, to cover all the existing applications. Moreover, we provide an overview of the possible applications, identifying key requirements and different design approaches. Finally, we highlight the features and limitations of each approach, providing a useful guide for the future development of new puzzle schemes.Comment: This article has been accepted for publication in ACM Computing Survey