New thesis:

Making insecure information security system more secure

Modern information and communication technology means that we are exposed to new kinds of threats and problems. Experts in IT security have been trying to make information system more secure without solving the problem and getting secure system. Focus has been on computer technology and communication protocols. But many other social factors must be considered. Too little attention is paid to the enemies of information systems and the need for adaption to a changing environment. A new doctoral thesis presented at KTH ICT is providing a framework to make information system more secure.

In his doctoral thesis Jeffy Mwakalinga, KTH proposes a framework for adaptive information security systems that considers both the technical and social aspects of information systems security. Information systems security Is not just a question of computer technology and communication protocols.

“Researchers and designers have not considered culture, traditions, ethics, and other social issues of the people using the systems when designing and developing information security systems,” Jeffy Mwakalinga explains.

Jeffy Mwakalinga thinks that many researcher and designers seem to ignore environments where these systems run, and concentrate on securing parts of the information systems. Little attention is paid to the enemies of information systems and the need for adaption to a changing environment.

“The consequences of this lack of attentions to a number of important factors have given us the information security systems that we have today, which appear to be systemically insecure,” Jeffy Mwakalinga underlines.

Through a number of ministudies the focus of the research was to understand the systems and features required for making information security systems learn to adapt to the changing environments, and a framework was developed. Designing and testing the adaptive framework were the next steps. The results of the mini studies were reported in a number of papers.

“My conclusion is that this adaptive information security system framework can be applied to minimize a number of systemic insecurity problems and warrants more applied research and practical implementations,” Jeffy Mwakalinga concludes.