ODCSSS gain

"Odysseus students should gain strength from their numbers both prior, during and after this internship program. We hope these students will form connections with their peers and mentors that will last well beyond the 12 weeks with us"

Project 2806-dcu: privacy enhanced identity management

Today's Internet is neither secure nor private. Unless special precautions are taken, users must assume that any information they divulge will be recorded, stored, and may be linked with other information provided elsewhere. This project concerns itself with the selective disclosure of information in such a way that information cannot be used in ways other than as intended by the user.

This project will continue the development of the PEIM libraries. They facilitate Privacy Enhanced Identity Management, and build upon libraries developed over the last six months. Having achieved the initial aim of implementing core concepts such as zero knowledge (ZK) proofs, bit commitment and other relevant properties, this second phase would concentrate on developing adapted signature schemes.

An example of what we require from such an adapted signature scheme will allow a user is selective disclosure of certified data. That is, a user is issued a certificate which has multiple items of personal data certified on it, but allows him to disseminate only the information he deems relevant. For example, when renting a car he need only show he has a drivers license and credit card but not his age or home address, or any other personal information contained within his certificate. This ability to control personal data is more desirable now than ever. As privacy and protection of personal information is an ever increasing area of import, the development of open source libraries to enable use of cryptographic primitives is necessary.

This project will require a student, familiar with C/C++ programming, and preferably an interest in security and privacy. The student will expand on their programming skills, as this project is based on OpenSSL libraries. Additionally, they will be exposed to cryptographic protocols and primitives.

Relevance of Project to the Host Laboratories:

This project work will form part of IDMAN, an SFI funded basic research project on identity management. It will build upon efforts to develop an open, portable library of functions for securely managing identity.

Supervisors:

Dr. Stephen Blott (Computing, DCU)

 

Keywords:

Identity management; computer networks; security protocols.