(5763) Privacy Supporting Identity Systems - Theory Meets Practice

Jazoon Cutting-Edge

Tuesday, 2008-06-24, 19:00 - 20:30, Arena 8

Thomas Heydt-Benjamin - IBM Research Zurich (speaker)

Topics

• Experimenting
• Security

Abstract

In this talk we will explore the motivation for and implementation of privacy 
enhancing technologies in modern large scale systems. We will examine use cases 

in which existing technology is insufficient, exposing users and systems to 
risk. In this examination we will consider the privacy vulnerabilities of some 
current identity technologies, and the resultant social backlash against 
electronic identity technology. We will then consider what additional uses of 
electronic id would become possible with better privacy technology. We will show 

that such technology provides many benefits to both governments and businesses. 

In the second section of the talk we will consider an overview of the privacy 
technology framework requisite for a system of secure, yet privacy supporting 
electronic id.  We will then explore the various potential features of such a 
system, discuss which features have known cryptographic solutions, and consider 

some of the remaining open research problems in the area. Throughout, we will 
draw examples from our java language proof of concept implementation of a 
scalable identity management system.