Multiagent systems for security (MASSEC)

Led by Prof. Dr. Leon Van Der Torre
Project duration: 01.01.2008 - 01.01.2011
Funding source(s): FNR AFR

Partners (external):

• University of Torino, Italy (prof Guido Boella)

The main objective of the project consists in giving a contribution to reverse negative expectations on IT outsourcing, by enhancing trust in DRM systems. Outsourcing is a significant investment of cost and time for an organization that implies not only risks, but also numerous opportunities in terms of minimizing the management of supply chain software, eliminating faults in the IT infrastructure, cutting costs. Thanks to the development of effective technologies, the prospective impact of e-business outsourcing could import a real networked business framework which facilitate inter-firm collaboration, generate higher benefits in terms of value enhancement than IT applications focused on internal use.
Moreover, the project will help to re-consider then the role of DRM technologies despite the criticism in the current debate on consumer law because of the limitation of usability, and the concern over DRM systems, in terms of lack of interoperability and trade secrets, arisen in countries that with the major number of outsourcing countries.
Many theories and applications of multiagent systems such as electronic commerce, virtual communities, theories of fraud and deception, of trust dynamics and reputation, secure knowledge management, et cetera, have fruitfully employed the notion of a normative system regulating an agent society. Now, the question is how to apply those notions in such a currently relevant question as the outsourcing one. This question will disclose a number of sub-questions (such as how to represent interesting norms, how to deal with open systems, and so on), each of which deserves much attention.
The project will start by one side from the current state of the research about normative multi-agent systems, by another side from the knowledge of currently used DRM technologies.
The expected results of the project consist in obtaining a formal analysis and a conceptual model of distributed business and of the outsourcing problem, mainly from a computer science point of view. The main objective is to build the basis for the development of effective technologies for e-business outsourcing.
The thesis co-supervision involves the University of Luxembourg (Computer Science and Communication Research Unit) and the University of Turin (Computer Science Department). The work will be carried out in turn within both the two institutions. The research will be also carried out in collaboration with some researchers of the Law faculty of the University of Turin.