IDeM: an identity-driven middleware for interoperable and heterogeneous systems

Abstract

In mid-2000s, for the first time in human history, urban cities started to harbor more than half of world's population. The concept of Smart Cities emerged in such context. Smart Cities can be defined as an urban environment where innovative services under an available infrastructure are provided to citizens with the use of information technology (IT). However, even though people use and take advantage of available information, there is a natural resistance to disclosure and expose personal data, which will get known by other citizens and businesses. This generates a sense of insecurity and privacy loss. This thesis explores information security issues related to identity and identifier management and proposes a solution that guarantees the privacy and anonymity of users within interoperable and heterogeneous environments. This thesis proposes a solution based on the creation of a multi identity environment, in which a user has different identities, for different systems using the same identifier, that way it is possible to connect with different services, solutions and others, using the same login but having different representations within each solution, that will guarantee privacy, different level of security and interoperability. The proposed solution is demonstrated through the creation of a middleware within the context of smart cities. Finally, this thesis presents a set of experiments that use the proposed middleware to protect citizens’ sensitive data.