Identity and trust management in distributed systems – a novel approach
Abstract
Distributed systems such as Web 1.0; 2.0, et al., have become a prominent part of modern lifestyles. Social Networking sites (SNSs) and Virtual Worlds (VW) are arguably the most widely used applications, on a daily basis, across the world. Web 1.0, 2.0+ technologies and platforms have rapidly evolved to provide a revolution in the ways they are used. Service providers offer users feature-rich platforms to build E-identities and online communities to bring people with similar interests together, to keep them online for as many hours as possible on a daily basis. This is achieved by providing services with a frictionless registration process, and platforms that are easily and constantly accessible. However, this is at the expense of the users' confidentiality and potentially the integrity of the platform itself. This asymmetry in the fundamental principles of security has opened up lucrative possibilities for cyber-criminals to carry out attacks of various kinds such as identity theft, identity cloning, cyberstalking and cyberbully amongst others. This research aims to investigate how users of SNSs and VWs can suitably verify and seek to establish an acceptable level of trust in E-Systems of all kinds (but most particularly Web 1.0 and 2.0+), based only on the identity attributes supplied by the users themselves. The end product of this research is the production of a novel E-identity and E-Trust Management Framework (that we coin: The “EEMF”) that is primarily aimed at developers seeking to better leverage SNSs and VWs while balancing the platform’s perceived integrity and the security concerns of its users. The EEMF represents a distinctive contribution to the extant literature and is our major contribution to knowledge. A pragmatic guideline that serves to fully illustrate the various processes for identity and trust management, embedded within and intrinsic to our novel EEMF framework are also fully articulated herein as a minor contribution to knowledge. Distributed systems embed heterogeneous sets of applications that either seek to disclose, partially, or fully obfuscate an individual’s identity. These systems range from “role play” VWs, SNSs and include online auctions (e.g. eBay) and B2B platforms. E-trust and E-identity management are inherent phenomena of all forms of Web 1.0; 2.0+ enabling architectures. Three different types of data collections were carried out, to validate the novel EEMF: evidence was gathered via suitably designed test-beds; surveys and card sorts. Thus, an optimal mix of quantitative and qualitative methods are later articulated to fully support the scientific validity of our novel EEMF. All the data gathered were then analysed, using a Grounded Theory (GT) driven methodological approach.Citation
Koshy,L (2018) 'Identity and trust management in distributed systems – a novel approach. PhD thesis. University of Bedfordshire.Publisher
University of BedfordshireType
Thesis or dissertationLanguage
enDescription
"A thesis submitted to the university of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Philosophy".Collections
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