Information Security Research for the Move from "Need to Know" to "Need to Share"

When?

Friday 19 February 2010, 10:00 to 12:00

Where?

24AA04

Open to:

Staff, Students

The trend in information systems is towards a convergence of computing and communications infrastructures. The broadest visions would see applications, systems and users seamlessly and securely connected to each other as required, with machine support and information filtering to ensure that each person has exactly the right information, at the right time to fulfil their requirements. Clearly, however, such widespread and open access to information must be controlled according to the security rules that apply to the information. In other words, information should only be visible to those who are authorised to see it. This creates a potential conflict, which is of concern both in the commercial and, particularly acutely, in the defence worlds. Traditional security measures in such environments include "need to know" access to data and physical separation of applications. In this talk, we give a brief history of approaches to this problem. We then discuss the security issues and potential solutions when trying to implement greater interconnectedness and flexibility for applications in these environments.

Dr. Adrian Waller received a PhD in Pure Mathematics (Royal Holloway, University of London) 1996. Adrian joined Thales Research & Technology (UK) in 1997. He is a Technical Consultant responsible for providing cryptography and information security expertise, and his current research interests include security for Wireless Sensor Networks as well as security and accreditation issues for adaptable and dynamic systems-of-systems. Adrian qualified as a CISSP in 2003 and is an Associate of the Institute of Information Security Professionals