Developing secure, equitable digital ecosystems

Cyber systems are much more than computer networks. In his Research Laboratory for Advanced Cyber Systems and Usable Security (ACSUS Lab), Nikolay Ivanov, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science & Research, addresses the place of humans in digital ecosystems, as well as the limits of cyber systems.

“We are trying to keep every individual safe and thriving in this ecosystem that keeps throwing new challenges at us, while exploring ways to prevent massive IT outages that disrupt the world,” Ivanov said. 

In a multipronged project funded by the National Science Foundation, Ivanov aims to improve the usability of self-sovereign digital identities (SSDIs). 

“Each time we ask a digital system to make changes, or transactions, we have to authenticate—to prove we are who we are,” Ivanov said. “This system fails us all the time.” 

As “a completely different paradigm of digital identity,” according to Ivanov, SSDIs allow people to authenticate without dependence on large identity brokers, retaining control over their data. 

While studying sovereign digital identities, Ivanov made surprising discoveries about the complex transactional cyber systems in which they are used. 

“The transition from simple transactional systems to more complicated transactional systems may be the main reason we have massive IT outages,” Ivanov explained, hypothesizing that haphazard over-optimization of these systems may be to blame.  

“If we integrate self-sovereign digital identities and transactional systems and create a way for independent systems to communicate using the same language, or protocol, we could cross-authenticate instead of relying on an inefficient combination of techniques,” he said. 

Ivanov’s studies of cyber systems offer the potential for improvements in security, privacy and digital equity. 

“Laws that protect our privacy can be violated, but math cannot,” Ivanov said. “Protecting our identities by design is a sustainable approach to preventing abuse. We hope that our long-term vision of modern transactional cyber systems with open protocols and self-sovereign digital identities will allow us to solve critical problems the world is experiencing.”