Identity and identification in an information society: Augmenting formal systems of identification with technological artefacts

Abramsom, Will

Abstract

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are transforming society’s information flows. These new interactive environments decouple agents, information and actions from their original contexts and this introduces challenges when evaluating trustworthiness and intelligently placing trust.
This thesis develops methods that can extend institutional trust into digitally enhanced interactive settings. By applying privacy-preserving cryptographic protocols within a technical architecture, this thesis demonstrates how existing human systems of identification that support institutional trust can be augmented with ICT in ways that distribute trust, respect privacy and limit the potential for abuse. Importantly, identification systems are located within a sociologically informed framework of interaction where identity is more than a collection of static attributes.
A synthesis of the evolution and systematisation of cryptographic knowledge is presented and this is juxtaposed against the ideas developed within the digital identity community. The credential mechanism, first conceptualised by David Chaum, has matured into a number of well specified mathematical protocols. This thesis focuses on CL-RSA and BBS+, which are both signature schemes with efficient protocols that can instantiate a credential mechanism with strong privacy-preserving properties.
The processes of managing the identification of healthcare professionals as they navigate their careers within the Scottish Healthcare Ecosystem provide a concrete case study for this work. The proposed architecture mediates the exchange of verifiable, integrity-assured evidence that has been cryptographically signed by relevant healthcare institutions, but is stored, managed and presented by the healthcare professionals to whom the evidence pertains.
An evaluation of the integrity-assured transaction data produced by this architecture demonstrates how it could be integrated into digitally augmented identification processes, increasing the assurance that can be placed in these processes. The technical architecture is shown to be practical through a series of experiments run under realistic production-like settings.
This work demonstrates that designing decentralised, standards-based, privacy-preserving identification systems for trusted professionals within highly assured social contexts can distribute institutionalised trust to trustworthy individuals and empower these individuals to interface with society’s increasingly socio-technical systems.

Citation

Abramsom, W. Identity and identification in an information society: Augmenting formal systems of identification with technological artefacts. (Thesis). Edinburgh Napier University

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Mar 22, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 23, 2023
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17869/enu.2022.3050571
• Award Date: Aug 2, 2022