The Faculty of Health, Science and Technology at Karlstad University has appointed three new associate professors in computer science. This was celebrated on 3 November, when Javid Taheri, Leonardo Martucci and Lothar Fritsch held their lectures and received certificates from dean Björn Arvidsson.
Cloud services, data security, integrity and digital identities are parts of the focus areas for the three new associate professors Javid Taheri, Leonardo Martucci and Lothar Fritsch.
Cloud based services
The term cloud-based services has become prominent during recent years and involves making services more internet based. Storage was one of the early cloud-based services; instead of saving files on a hard drive, one can save them on a server accessed through a network. According to Javid Taheri, we have not yet seen the real breakthrough of these kinds of services.
- Cloud-based services are the next IT revolution. According to Gartner, it is one of the five most important technological trends the next four to five years, says Javid Taheri. This involves the virtualisation of network services, for instance.
Data security - a complex issue
Handling data security is a complex issue for users today. Leonardo Martucci’s research focuses on finding solutions that make it easier for users to select the right settings to protect their data. Together with colleagues he has, for example, developed a mathematical method to analyze, measure and compare who is allowed access to certain data in an organiztion.
- To ensure that the mathematical method works correctly, we have compared its results with a user study focusing on the result when a system administrator manually did the same thing. The results were basically identical, but the mathematical method can produce answers in milliseconds, while system administrators take weeks to do it manually.
For a more secure digital presence
It is hard to know for individual users which digital tracks they leave and how their data actually are used. Our increasingly digital existence places higher demands on us as users regarding our own internet security. Digital identities and who has access to which data about us are important issues. Lothar Fritsch researches these issues to create a more secure digital presence for us as users and for the companies and institutions handling personal data. He thinks we have important roles to play.
- Sometimes it seems as if people have stopped being critical, as far as the internet goes. As a user it is important to understand your choices and to know that you can ask questions and make demands regarding your own data, says Lothar Fritsch.
