P1

P1 event:

1st Luxembourg Day on Security and Reliability (February 10, 2009)

A strategic priority of the University of Luxembourg

Today, information technology encompasses most facets of our daily lives—at work, at school, at home for leisure or learning, and on the move—and it is reaching ever-widening segments of our society. The Internet, e-mails, mobile phones, etc. have become standard channels for the information society to communicate, gain access to new multimedia services, do business, or learn new skills. The recent digital revolution and widespread access to high capacity telecommunication networks have enabled the emergence of e-commerce, e-government, and e-science.

This proliferation of digital communication and the transition of social interactions into cyberspace have raised new concerns in terms of security and reliability, like: confidentiality, privacy and anonymity; data integrity; protection of intellectual property and digital rights management; identity theft; threats of corporate espionage, and surveillance system (such as Echelon); the dependability of complex network systems, the trustworthiness and quality of information sources and services, etc. These issues are interdisciplinary in their essence, drawing from several fields.

There is a broad concensus that security and reliability is a priority of the university as well as of the country. The idea of having a priority in security and reliability has been around for some time, starting in the late 90's.

Security and reliability are essential features of most systems, and therefore security and reliability are strategically important areas of research. The importance of security and reliability has recently been acknowledged again by the industrial participants of the FNR foresight exercise. For example, banking industry within Luxembourg needs to secure electronic transactions, to comply with all the norms or security rules. Telecom industry must secure its mobile communications. Credit card companies have to secure credit transactions. The government wants to protect new id cards and e-passports.
A major research challenge in security is to develop protocols to replace physical actions by simple electronic actions. For example, we would like to have electronic voting, electronic auctions, electronic signatures, and so on. These security needs require dependable systems and networks which can intelligently react to abnormal situations and ensure the quality of the relevant information.