Patient privacy protection using anonymous access control techniques

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a solution to preserve security and privacy in a healthcare environment where health-sensitive information will be accessed by many parties and stored in various distributed databases. The solution should maintain anonymous medical records and it should be able to link anonymous medical information in distributed databases into a single patient medical record with the patient identity. Methods: In this paper we present a protocol that can be used to authenticate and authorize patients to healthcare services without providing the patient identification. Healthcare service can identify the patient using separate temporary identities in each identification session and medical records are linked to these temporary identities. Temporary identities can be used to enable record linkage and reverse track real patient identity in critical medical situations. Results: The proposed protocol provides main security and privacy services such as user anonymity, message privacy, message confidentiality, user authentication, user authorization and message replay attacks. The medical environment validates the patient at the healthcare service as a real and registered patient for the medical services. Using the proposed protocol, the patient anonymous medical records at different healthcare services can be linked into one single report and it is possible to securely reverse track anonymous patient into the real identity. Conclusion: The protocol protects the patient privacy with a secure anonymous authentication to healthcare services and medical record registries according to the European and the UK legislations, where the patient real identity is not disclosed with the distributed patient medical records

HandiVote: simple, anonymous, and auditable electronic voting

We suggest a set of procedures utilising a range of technologies by which a major democratic deficit of modern society can be addressed. The mechanism, whilst it makes limited use of cryptographic techniques in the background, is based around objects and procedures with which voters are currently familiar. We believe that this holds considerable potential for the extension of democratic participation and control

Pendekatan konstruktif dalam inovasi pengajaran dan pembelajaran Bahasa Melayu di Kolej Vokasional

Pendekatan konstruktif adalah pendekatan pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang berpusatkan pelajar manakala inovasi pengajaran pula dikaitkan dengan kaedah pengajaran yang terbaru demi mengukuhkan pemahaman pelajar. Pembelajaran berasaskan pendekatan konstruktif merupakan elemen yang penting dan perlu difahami oleh guru-guru bagi memantapkan proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran sesuai dengan peredaran masa dan menjayakan proses tranformasi pendidikan negara. Objektif kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenal pasti pemahaman guru-guru bahasa Melayu berkaitan inovasi, mengenal pasti perbezaan yang wujud antara guru lelaki dan guru perempuan dalam mengamalkan inovasi, pengkaji juga melihat adakah wujud perbezaan antara guru baru dan guru yang sudah berpengalaman dalam aspek mengaplikasikan inovasi serta mengenal pasti kekangan-kekangan yang dialami oleh para guru untuk mengaplikasikan inovasi di sekolah. Seramai 63 orang guru bahasa Melayu dari lapan buah kolej vokasional telah dipilih sebagai responden dalam kajian ini. Data dianalisis menggunakan perisian Winsteps 3.69.1.11 dengan pendekatan Model Pengukuran Rasch. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahawa guru�guru bahasa Melayu memahami kepentingan inovasi dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Hasil kajian juga menunjukkan guru-guru perempuan lebih banyak menerapkan unsur inovasi dalam pengajaran berbanding guru lelaki. Walaupun begitu, aspek pengalaman tidak menunjukkan perbezaan dari segi pengamalan inovasi sama ada guru baru ataupun guru yang sudah berpengalaman. Pengkaji juga mengenal pasti beberapa kekangan yang dialami oleh guru-guru untuk mengamalkan inovasi ini. Sebagai langkah untuk menangani masalah berkenaan, beberapa cadangan telah dikemukakan oleh pengkaji bagi memastikan guru-guru dapat merealisasikan proses pengajaran berkesan dengan penerapan inovasi mengikut model pendekatan konstruktif. Pengkaji berharap, kajian ini dapat dijadikan sebagai satu panduan kepada pelaksana kurikulum bagi memastikan budaya inovasi sentiasa menjadi amalan dalam kalangan guru demi mengangkat profesionalisme guru di Malaysia

Mobile qualified electronic signatures for secure mobile brokerage

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 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. This infrastructure could be used to enable secure mobile brokerage services that can ommit the necessity of TAN lists and therefore allow a better integration of information and transaction services

Implications of Mandatory Registration of Mobile Phone Users in Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa ranks among the top regions in terms of growth in the number of mobile phone users. The success of mobile telephony is attributed to the opening of markets for private players and lenient regulatory policy. However, markets may be increasingly saturated and new regulations introduced across Africa could also have a negative impact on future growth. Since 2006, the majority of countries in the region have introduced mandatory registration of users of prepaid SIM cards with their personal identity details. This potentially increases the costs of using mobile telephony. I present a fixed effects model for the estimation of the impact of mandatory registration on mobile penetration growth, which is based upon a panel dataset of 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa for the years 2000 to 2010. The results show that the introduction of mandatory registration depresses growth in mobile penetration.Telecommunication, government policy, consumer protection, privacy