I is another me

The pandemic has inevitably changed our habits and brought the need to implement a series of useful tools to make communication easier but also safer. One of these tools is that linked to digital identity, which is increasingly fundamental in our lives, also as a result of the distancing imposed by Covid-19. As a result, many more services have been digitized, for example the SPID and the electronic identity card, which has allowed secure access to all public administration services.

Silvio Ranise, director of the FBK Cybersecurity Center, summarizes what has happened in this year and a half, but also looks forward to the evolution of these tools. “The next step will be to extend the possibility of using these digital identities also for private services,” he explains. “Remote onboarding is a consequence of the drive to digitize many processes, including those in the financial sector. We are developing a whole series of techniques to manage and minimize the level of risk for this type of business. ”

In terms of IT security, and precisely in the face of the need to automatically find an optimal configuration to minimize the risks associated with digital identity and its use, “the idea of ​​the Cybersecurity Center is to model both the possibilities of attackers and the possible mitigations through the use of algorithmic techniques. ” This phase of modeling the risks and possible mitigations becomes fundamental, and is an important requirement for the correctness and success of the techniques implemented.

“In the context of the Cloud and Continuum Cloud Edge,” adds Ranise, “and especially with the advent of 5G networks and the possibilities this technology offers, a whole host of new possibilities are opening up for using applications and services in real time. In this context, digital identity plays a fundamental role, both for the users who use these applications, and for the devices through which these applications are sold. ”

To overcome this problem, FBK develops techniques and methodologies to carry out the design and therefore the planning in a safe way, so that the onboarding protocols and the techniques used guarantee the properties and sufficient and necessary for this type of applications.

The possibility of using the services with time constraints becomes a priority, especially when it comes to critical applications such as those related to assisted driving of vehicles, and which therefore must be appropriately taken into consideration.