About

The overall objective of the Security Expert INITiative (SEINIT) project is to ensure a trusted and dependable information security framework, ubiquitous, working across multiple devices, heterogeneous networks, being organisation independent (inter-operable) and centred around an end-user.

SEINIT is exploring new information security models and building the architecture and components to address our nomadic, pervasive, multi-player communicating world. This new solution uses information gathered by ambient intelligence and then deals with the new threats this entails.

Within the scope of these objectives, SEINIT approach is to:

  • Define new trust, security models and security policies that address the current and future threats, and ensure affordable security services, maintaining an adequate security level without infringing a user’s right to privacy;
  • Design and develop the components to be implemented. Integrate existing and new components on security assessment platforms capable of running real life scenarios;
  • Assess the architecture and policy with experimental validation through applications;
  • Disseminate the models and the architecture to the Research community, especially the other FP6 projects, and the appropriate organisations in charge of Security policy;
  • Deliver the results of SEINIT to the ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) and to offer the assistance of the partners for their exploitation towards a new legislative framework;
  • Bring the Security approach closer to real life
    • taking in the InfoSphere approach;
      • Centralised key distribution architecture;
      • End-to-end strong encryption.
    • Efficiency through Always On Security – before, during and after exchanges;
  • Support to IPv6 migration.

The TSSG key role in this project has been in the research of Trust Management. A decision to trust or not trust parties (useful Trust) is based on the result of a computation on a selection of the concepts:

  • Experience;
  • Reputation;
  • Trust a priori;
  • Situation (alerts).

More precisely, the calculation is a weighted sum of the numerical representation of these concepts performed during the security negotiation.

The TSSG has undertaken with its project partners a software and hardware security negotiation implementation that integrates:

  • Environment considerations, linking intrinsic security level covering ambiance (home network, Internet, etc.) and communication type (Ethernet, Wifi, etc.),
  • Changes in the situation with security alerts detected by an Intrustion Detection System,
  • Importance of data and then the evaluation of the reachability of needed technological security infrastructure.

We call this Ambient Intelligence of the network infrastructure which is a kind of trust for the given communication environment (for instance a Security Domain). A change in the situation (due to an attack, etc.) of one communication link within the environment has an influence to the ambiance and then on the intrinsic security level of all communication links located within the same environment.

SEINIT is currently Finished and was funded by the European Union FP6 IST work programme, under Call 1 to a total of €3.9 million euro. The TSSG assigned budget was €354,000 euro. The project started in December of 2003 and finished in March 2006.