At the Frontiers of Digital Identity

With the revision of the European eIDAS regulation on secure electronic identification and the introduction of the European Digital Identity Wallet we are witnessing a paradigm shift with respect to traditional methods of digital identity management. In short, citizens will have more control in the administration of their data but at the same time new challenges will open up in terms of both security and integration with existing systems.

On these very issues, Fondazione Bruno Kessler organized two events held this month at the Auditorium Antonianum in Rome: TDI 2024 and OSW 2024, both coordinated by the Center for Cybersecurity led by Silvio Ranise.

“The main theme that emerged during the work of the two workshops,” Ranise stressed, “is the need to develop robust mechanisms to ensure the reliability of systems for digital identity management in identification, authentication and authorization processes.  This need is imposed as a consequence of the change in architecture, from centralized to decentralized, mandated at the European level to ensure greater security and privacy in accessing Public Administration digital services. The reliability of a new technology solution is crucial to ensure user trust and consequently achieve wide adoption. As digital identity stands as the main enabler for the use of online data and services, its trustworthiness becomes crucial for the reliability of the entire ecosystem it enables access to.  Events such as these become crucial to coordinate the efforts of the various stakeholders involved such as government, standardization bodies, universities, research organizations and companies.”

In particular, the “2nd International Workshop on Trends in Digital Identity” (TDI 2024) was hekd on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, with the aim of discussing the past, present, and future of digital identity management from different perspectives. The program included 12 talks by speakers from different backgrounds, who brought their views on the state of digital identity within four themed sessions: Government and Public Administration; Industry; Research and Innovation; and Specifications and Standards. The research session hosted four studies selected through a peer review process. At the conclusion of the day, the spotlight turned to the panel discussion that delved into the eIDAS 2.0 regulation and its impact on different sectors, providing interesting insights and highlighting the many challenges that will have to be addressed in the near future.

The topics of trust of the different actors involved in the ecosystem and the role of standardization bodies in providing the correct security practices to be adopted were also widely discussed during the events.

“Secure digital identity management,” Ranise concluded, ” is one of the main research topics for FBK. In this context, the Center for Cybersecurity participates in several research and innovation projects. Examples are the collaboration with Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato Italiano (IPZS) on design and security analysis of solutions based on the electronic identity card (CIE 3.0) and the European digital identity wallet, as well as the METAfora project with Namirial on the topic of identity management in the metaverse.”

Local chairs of the events, in addition to Silvio Ranise, were FBK researchers Giada Sciarretta and Marco Pernpruner.