A trust model for cloud computing environment

This paper presents a proposal for a management model based on reliability requirements concerning Cloud Computing (CC). The proposal was based on a literature review focused on the problems, challenges and underway studies related to the safety and reliability of Information Systems (IS) in this technological environment. This literature review examined the existing obstacles and challenges from the point of view of respected authors on the subject. The main issues are addressed and structured as a model, called "Trust Model for Cloud Computing environment". This is a proactive proposal that purposes to organize and discuss management solutions for the CC environment, aiming improved reliability of the IS applications operation, for both providers and their customers. On the other hand and central to trust, one of the CC challenges is the development of models for mutual audit management agreements, so that a formal relationship can be established involving the relevant legal responsibilities. To establish and control the appropriate contractual requirements, it is necessary to adopt technologies that can collect the data needed to inform risk decisions, such as access usage, security controls, location and other references related to the use of the service. In this process, the cloud service providers and consumers themselves must have metrics and controls to support cloud-use management in compliance with the SLAs agreed between the parties. The organization of these studies and its dissemination in the market as a conceptual model that is able to establish parameters to regulate a reliable relation between provider and user of IT services in CC environment is an interesting instrument to guide providers, developers and users in order to provide services and secure and reliable applications.

Evaluation of a volunteered geographical information trust measure in the case of OpenStreetMap

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

A voice for change? Trust relationships between ombudsmen, individuals and public service providers

There has been a debate for years about what the role of the ombudsman is. This article examines a key component of the role, to promote trust in public services and government. To be able to do this, however, an ombudsman needs to be perceived as legitimate and be trusted by a range of stakeholders, including the user. This article argues that three key relationships in a person’s complaint journey can build trust in an institution, and must therefore be understood as a system. The restorative justice framework is adapted to conceptualize this trust model as a novel approach to understanding the institution from the perspective of its users. Taking two public sector ombudsmen as examples, the article finds that voice and trust need to be reinforced through the relationships in a consumer journey to manage individual expectations, prevent disengagement, and thereby promote trust in the institution, in public service providers, and in government.

ADVERTISEMENT ALLOCATION AND TRUST MECHANISMS DESIGN IN SOCIAL NETWORKS

Social network sites (SNS), such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, have attracted hundreds of millions of users daily since their appearance. Within SNS, users connect to each other, express their identity, disseminate information and form cooperation by interacting with their connected peers. The increasing popularity and ubiquity of SNS usage and the invaluable user behaviors and connections give birth to many applications and business models. We look into several important problems within the social network ecosystem. The first one is the SNS advertisement allocation problem. The other two are related to trust mechanisms design in social network setting, including local trust inference and global trust evaluation. In SNS advertising, we study the problem of advertisement allocation from the ad platform's angle, and discuss its differences with the advertising model in the search engine setting. By leveraging the connection between social networks and hyperbolic geometry, we propose to solve the problem via approximation using hyperbolic embedding and convex optimization. A hyperbolic embedding method, \hcm, is designed for the SNS ad allocation problem, and several components are introduced to realize the optimization formulation. We show the advantages of our new approach in solving the problem compared to the baseline integer programming (IP) formulation. In studying the problem of trust mechanisms in social networks, we consider the existence of distrust (i.e. negative trust) relationships, and differentiate between the concept of local trust and global trust in social network setting. In the problem of local trust inference, we propose a 2-D trust model. Based on the model, we develop a semiring-based trust inference framework. In global trust evaluation, we consider a general setting with conflicting opinions, and propose a consensus-based approach to solve the complex problem in signed trust networks.

From trust who to trust what. A fresh perspective on trust in the era of blockchain

In the last few years, a remarkable technological revolution has been taking place around the world. Such a technological revolution is not just a means to the end of improving efficiency, but an important end of social order. In this work, I show that blockchain is one important example. I discuss that the success of a disintermediated transaction is conditioned on the level of trust in the rules-of-code. In what follows, the dissertation is organized in three studies. Study 1 is a theoretical paper where I present and discuss a model of how blockchain-like technologies can automate and algorithmically dictate the nurturing of trust. Based on study 1, study 2 is aimed to develop and validate a quantitative scale to measure each component of the proposed trust model. Lastly, study 3 is intended to investigate how telematic equipment can affect individual trusting behavior under condition of information asymmetry. The introduction of black box in the Italian automobile insurance market is the set of this study. Overall, the dissertation offers some major contributions for theory and practice about the dynamics underlying the development of trust in the rising era of blockchain transactions.

Industrial Demilitarized Zone and Zero Trust cybersecurity models for Industrial Control Systems

Today more than ever, with the recent war in Ukraine and the increasing number of attacks that affect systems of nations and companies every day, the world realizes that cybersecurity can no longer be considered just as a “cost”. It must become a pillar for our infrastructures that involve the security of our nations and the safety of people. Critical infrastructure, like energy, financial services, and healthcare, have become targets of many cyberattacks from several criminal groups, with an increasing number of resources and competencies, putting at risk the security and safety of companies and entire nations. This thesis aims to investigate the state-of-the-art regarding the best practice for securing Industrial control systems. We study the differences between two security frameworks. The first is Industrial Demilitarized Zone (I-DMZ), a perimeter-based security solution. The second one is the Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) which removes the concept of perimeter to offer an entirely new approach to cybersecurity based on the slogan ‘Never Trust, always verify’. Starting from this premise, the Zero Trust model embeds strict Authentication, Authorization, and monitoring controls for any access to any resource. We have defined two architectures according to the State-of-the-art and the cybersecurity experts’ guidelines to compare I-DMZ, and Zero Trust approaches to ICS security. The goal is to demonstrate how a Zero Trust approach dramatically reduces the possibility of an attacker penetrating the network or moving laterally to compromise the entire infrastructure. A third architecture has been defined based on Cloud and fog/edge computing technology. It shows how Cloud solutions can improve the security and reliability of infrastructure and production processes that can benefit from a range of new functionalities, that the Cloud could offer as-a-Service.We have implemented and tested our Zero Trust solution and its ability to block intrusion or attempted attacks.

Mobilie Banking adoption: a novel in the portuguese context

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação

Um modelo de confiança para o ambiente de computação em nuvem

Este artigo apresenta uma proposta de um modelo de gestão contendo requisitos relacionados com a confiabilidade dos sistemas no ambiente de Computação em Nuvem (CN). A proposta teve como base uma revisão da literatura sobre os problemas, desafios e estudos que estão em curso relacionados com a segurança e confiabilidade de aplicações e Sistemas de Informações (SI) neste ambiente tecnológico. Nesta revisão bibliográfica são abordados os entraves e desafios atualmente existentes na visão de conceituados autores sobre o tema. Estas questões foram abordadas e estruturadas na forma de um modelo, denominado de “Modelo de Confiança para o ambiente de Computação em Nuvem”. Trata-se de uma proposta proativa que tem por objetivo organizar e discutir soluções de gestão para o ambiente de CN com uma maior confiabilidade para a operacionalização das aplicações de SI, tanto por parte dos provedores como também dos seus clientes.

Modèle de confiance et ontologie probabiliste pilotés par réseaux bayésiens pour la gestion des accords de services dans l’environnement de services infonuagiques

L’infonuage est un nouveau paradigme de services informatiques disponibles à la demande qui a connu une croissance fulgurante au cours de ces dix dernières années. Le fournisseur du modèle de déploiement public des services infonuagiques décrit le service à fournir, le prix, les pénalités en cas de violation des spécifications à travers un document. Ce document s’appelle le contrat de niveau de service (SLA). La signature de ce contrat par le client et le fournisseur scelle la garantie de la qualité de service à recevoir. Ceci impose au fournisseur de gérer efficacement ses ressources afin de respecter ses engagements. Malheureusement, la violation des spécifications du SLA se révèle courante, généralement en raison de l’incertitude sur le comportement du client qui peut produire un nombre variable de requêtes vu que les ressources lui semblent illimitées. Ce comportement peut, dans un premier temps, avoir un impact direct sur la disponibilité du service. Dans un second temps, des violations à répétition risquent d'influer sur le niveau de confiance du fournisseur et sur sa réputation à respecter ses engagements. Pour faire face à ces problèmes, nous avons proposé un cadre d’applications piloté par réseau bayésien qui permet, premièrement, de classifier les fournisseurs dans un répertoire en fonction de leur niveau de confiance. Celui-ci peut être géré par une entité tierce. Un client va choisir un fournisseur dans ce répertoire avant de commencer à négocier le SLA. Deuxièmement, nous avons développé une ontologie probabiliste basée sur un réseau bayésien à entités multiples pouvant tenir compte de l’incertitude et anticiper les violations par inférence. Cette ontologie permet de faire des prédictions afin de prévenir des violations en se basant sur les données historiques comme base de connaissances. Les résultats obtenus montrent l’efficacité de l’ontologie probabiliste pour la prédiction de violation dans l’ensemble des paramètres SLA appliqués dans un environnement infonuagique.

An Interdomain PKI Model Based on Trust Lists

The penetration of PKI technology in the market is moving slowly due to interoperability concerns. Main causes are not technical but political and social since there is no trust development model that appropriately deals with multidomain PKIs. We propose a new architecture that on one hand considers that trust is not an homogeneous property but tied to a particular relation, and on the other hand, trust management must be performed through specialized entities that can evaluate its risks and threads. The model is based on trust certificate lists that allows users to hold a personalized trust view without having to get involved in technical details. The model dynamically adapts tothe context changes thanks to a new certificate extension, we have called TrustProviderLink (TPL).