Book Description

The mechanisms which support secure communication, privacy protection and accountability are crucial parts of most computing systems. Pervasive computing is characterized by the large-scale collection, distribution and aggregation of information related to individuals and their activities. From the outset, the inherent privacy and IT security issues of pervasive computing have been an area of critical focus, and associated unforeseeable consequences for the individual have been mentioned. This book addresses these issues, and seeks to demonstrate that carefully devised protection mechanisms can become enablers for multilaterally acceptable and trustworthy digital interactions and ICT-based cooperations. It explores new facets of privacy protection and accountability for digitally recorded real-world actions as well as novel forms of communication in a descriptive manner.A thorough investigation of main pervasive computing concepts is presented, together with a motivation and elicitation of security requirements within the emergency response application domain; also the state-of-the-art of existing security mechanisms is discussed. The areas covered include: digital pseudonyms and auditing mechanisms, efficient encryption techniques and concepts for end-to-end secure messaging, as well as pervasive computing approaches to first response.The book will be of interest to anybody involved in the design, realization and use of secure and privacy-preserving pervasive computing systems and applications.