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- Ahmadi Mehri, Vida, 1980-
(författare)
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Towards Secure Collaborative AI Service Chains
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- At present, Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have been adopted in many different domains such as healthcare, robotics, automotive, telecommunication systems, security, and finance for integrating intelligence in their services and applications. The intelligent personal assistant such as Siri and Alexa are examples of AI systems making an impact on our daily lives. Since many AI systems are data-driven systems, they require large volumes of data for training and validation, advanced algorithms, computing power and storage in their development process. Collaboration in the AI development process (AI engineering process) will reduce cost and time for the AI applications in the market. However, collaboration introduces the concern of privacy and piracy of intellectual properties, which can be caused by the actors who collaborate in the engineering process. This work investigates the non-functional requirements, such as privacy and security, for enabling collaboration in AI service chains. It proposes an architectural design approach for collaborative AI engineering and explores the concept of the pipeline (service chain) for chaining AI functions. In order to enable controlled collaboration between AI artefacts in a pipeline, this work makes use of virtualisation technology to define and implement Virtual Premises (VPs), which act as protection wrappers for AI pipelines. A VP is a virtual policy enforcement point for a pipeline and requires access permission and authenticity for each element in a pipeline before the pipeline can be used. Furthermore, the proposed architecture is evaluated in use-case approach that enables quick detection of design flaw during the initial stage of implementation. To evaluate the security level and compliance with security requirements, threat modeling was used to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities of the system and analyses their possible effects. The output of threat modeling was used to define countermeasure to threats related to unauthorised access and execution of AI artefacts.
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2. |
- Akil, Mahdi, et al.
(författare)
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Privacy-Preserving Identifiers for IoT : A Systematic Literature Review
- 2020
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Ingår i: IEEE Access. - : IEEE. - 2169-3536. ; 8, s. 168470-168485
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Internet of Things (IoT) paves the way for smart applications such as in E-health, E-homes, transportation, or energy production. However, IoT technologies also pose privacy challenges for their users, as they allow the tracking and monitoring of the users' behavior and context. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) mandates data controller to follow a data protection by design and default approach by implementing for instance pseudonymity for achieving data minimisation. This paper provides a systematic literature review for answering the question of what types of privacy-preserving identifiers are proposed by the literature in IoT environments for implementing pseudonymity. It contributes with classifications and analyses of IoT environments for which privacy-preserving identifiers have been proposed and of the pseudonym types and underlying identity management architectures used. Moreover, it discusses trends and gaps in regard to addressing privacy trade-offs.
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- Alaqra, Ala(a), et al.
(författare)
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Signatures for Privacy, Trust and Accountability in the Cloud : Applications and Requirements
- 2015
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Ingår i: Privacy and Identity Management. Time for a Revolution?. - Cham : Springer Publishing Company. - 9783319417622 ; , s. 79-96
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper summarises the results of a workshop at the IFIP Summer School 2015 introducing the EU Horizon 2020 project PRISMACLOUD, that is, Privacy and Security Maintaining Services in the Cloud. The contributions of this summary are three-fold. Firstly, it provides an overview to the PRISMACLOUD cryptographic tools and use-case scenarios that were presented as part of this workshop. Secondly, it distills the discussion results of parallel focus groups. Thirdly, it summarises a ``Deep Dive on Crypto'' session that offered technical information on the new tools. Overall, the workshop aimed at outlining application scenarios and eliciting end-user requirements for PRISMACLOUD.
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4. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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Enhancing Privacy Controls for Patients via a Selective Authentic Electronic Health Record Exchange Service : Qualitative Study of Perspectives by Medical Professionals and Patients
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Medical Internet Research. - : JMIR Publications. - 1438-8871. ; 20:12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Patients' privacy is regarded as essential for the patient-doctor relationship. One example of a privacy-enhancing technology for user-controlled data minimization on content level is a redactable signature. It enables users to redact personal information from signed documents while preserving the validity of the signature, and thus the authenticity of the document. In this study, we present end users' evaluations of a Cloud-based selective authentic electronic health record (EHR) exchange service (SAE-service) in an electronic health use case. In the use case scenario, patients were given control to redact specified information fields in their EHR, which were signed by their doctors with a redactable signature and transferred to them into a Cloud platform. They can then selectively disclose the remaining information in the EHR, which still bears the valid digital signature, to third parties of their choice. Objective: This study aimed to explore the perceptions, attitudes, and mental models concerning the SAE-service of 2 user roles: signers (medical professionals) and redactors (patients with different technical knowledge) in Germany and Sweden. Another objective was to elicit usability requirements for this service based on the analysis of our investigation. Methods: We chose empirical qualitative methods to address our research objective. Designs of mock-ups for the service were used as part of our user-centered design approach in our studies with test participants from Germany and Sweden. A total of 13 individual walk-throughs or interviews were conducted with medical staff to investigate the EHR signers' perspectives. Moreover, 5 group walk-throughs in focus groups sessions with (N=32) prospective patients with different technical knowledge to investigate redactor's perspective of EHR data redaction control were used. Results: We found that our study participants had correct mental models with regard to the redaction process. Users with some technical models lacked trust in the validity of the doctor's signature on the redacted documents. Main results to be considered are the requirements concerning the accountability of the patients' redactions and the design of redaction templates for guidance and control. Conclusions: For the SAE-service to be means for enhancing patient control and privacy, the diverse usability and trust factors of different user groups should be considered.
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5. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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Machine Learning–Based Analysis of Encrypted Medical Data in the Cloud : Qualitative Study of Expert Stakeholders’ Perspectives
- 2021
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Ingår i: JMIR Human Factors. - : JMIR Publications. - 2292-9495. ; 8:3, s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background:Third-party cloud-based data analysis applications are proliferating in electronic health (eHealth) because of the expertise offered and their monetary advantage. However, privacy and security are critical concerns when handling sensitive medical data in the cloud. Technical advances based on “crypto magic” in privacy-preserving machine learning (ML) enable data analysis in encrypted form for maintaining confidentiality. Such privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) could be counterintuitive to relevant stakeholders in eHealth, which could in turn hinder adoption; thus, more attention is needed on human factors for establishing trust and transparency.Objective:The aim of this study was to analyze eHealth expert stakeholders’ perspectives and the perceived tradeoffs in regard to data analysis on encrypted medical data in the cloud, and to derive user requirements for development of a privacy-preserving data analysis tool.Methods:We used semistructured interviews and report on 14 interviews with individuals having medical, technical, or research expertise in eHealth. We used thematic analysis for analyzing interview data. In addition, we conducted a workshop for eliciting requirements.Results:Our results show differences in the understanding of and in trusting the technology; caution is advised by technical experts, whereas patient safety assurances are required by medical experts. Themes were identified with general perspectives on data privacy and practices (eg, acceptance of using external services), as well as themes highlighting specific perspectives (eg, data protection drawbacks and concerns of the data analysis on encrypted data). The latter themes result in requiring assurances and conformance testing for trusting tools such as the proposed ML-based tool. Communicating privacy, and utility benefits and tradeoffs with stakeholders is essential for trust. Furthermore, stakeholders and their organizations share accountability of patient data. Finally, stakeholders stressed the importance of informing patients about the privacy of their data.Conclusions:Understanding the benefits and risks of using eHealth PETs is crucial, and collaboration among diverse stakeholders is essential. Assurances of the tool’s privacy, accuracy, and patient safety should be in place for establishing trust of ML-based PETs, especially if used in the cloud.
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6. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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Structural and functional explanations for informing lay and expert users: the case of functional encryption
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. - : Privacy Enhancing Technologies Board. - 2299-0984. ; 2023:4, s. 359-380
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Usable explanations of privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) help users make more informed privacy decisions, but the explanations of PETs are generally geared toward individuals with more technical knowledge. To explain functional encryption (FE) to experts and laypersons, we investigate structural and functional explanations and explore users' interests and preferences, as well as how they affect users' comprehension and decisions about sharing data. To this end (with an EU-based population), we conducted four focus groups, in combination with walk-throughs, with 13 participants in the first study, followed by an online survey with 347 experts and 370 laypersons. Both explanations were considered useful in fulfilling the different needs of participants interested in the privacy policy information. Participants, regardless of their expertise, trusted and were more satisfied with the structural explanation. However, functional explanations had a higher contribution to all participants' comprehension. We, therefore, recommend combining both types of explanations for a usable privacy policy.
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7. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah
(författare)
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The Wicked Problem of Privacy : Design Challenge for Crypto-based Solutions
- 2018
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Data privacy has been growing in importance in recent years, especially with the continuous increase of online activity. Researchers study, design, and develop solutions aimed at enhancing users’ data privacy. The wicked problem of data privacy is a continuous challenge that defies straightforward solutions. Since there are many factors involved in data privacy, such as technological, legal, and human aspects, we can only aim at mitigating rather than solving this wicked problem. Our aim was to focus on human aspects for designing usable crypto-based privacy-enhancing solutions. In this thesis, we followed a user centered design method by using empirical qualitative means for investigating user’s perceptions and opinions of our solutions. Most of our work has focused on redactable signatures in the cloud context within the eHealth use-case. Redactable signatures are a privacy enhancing scheme allowing to remove parts of a signed document by a specified party for achieving data minimization without invalidating the respective signature.We mainly used semi-structures interviews and focus groups in our investigations. Our results yielded key HCI considerations as well as guidelines of different means for supporting the design of future solutions.
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8. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah
(författare)
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Tinkering the Wicked Problem of Privacy : Design Challenges and Opportunities for Crypto-based Services
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Data privacy has been growing in importance in recent years, especially with the constant increase of online activity. Consequently, researchers study, design, and develop solutions aimed at enhancing users' data privacy. The wicked problem of data privacy is a dynamic challenge that defies straightforward solutions. Since there are many factors involved in data privacy, such as technological, legal, and human aspects, we can only aim at mitigating rather than solving this wicked problem.Our aim was to explore challenges and opportunities with a focus on human aspects for designing usable crypto-based privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs). Mainly, there were three PETs in the cloud context included in our studies: malleable signatures, secret sharing, and homomorphic encryption. Based on the three PETs, services were developed within European research projects that were the scope of our user studies. We followed a user-centered design approach by using empirical qualitative and quantitative means for collecting study data. Our results and tinkering conveyed (i) analysis of different categories of user's perspectives, mental models, and trade-offs, (ii) user requirements for PET services, and (iii) user interface design guidelines for PET services. In our contributions, we highlight considerations and guidelines for supporting the design of future solutions.
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9. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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Transparency of Privacy Risks Using PIA Visualizations
- 2023
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Ingår i: HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. - Cham : Springer. - 9783031358210 - 9783031358227 ; 14045 LNCS, s. 3-17
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Privacy enhancing technologies allow the minimization of risks to online data. However, the transparency of the minimization process is not so clear to all types of end users. Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) is a standardized tool that identifies and assesses privacy risks associated with the use of a system. In this work, we used the results of the PIA conducted in our use case to visualize privacy risks to end users in the form of User Interface (UI) mock ups. We tested and evaluated the UI mock-ups via walkthroughs to investigate users' interests by observing their clicking behavior, followed by four focus group workshops. There were 13 participants (two expert groups and two lay user groups) in total. Results reveal general interests in the transparency provided by showing the risks reductions. Generally, although participants appreciate the concept of having detailed information provided about risk reductions and the type of risks, the visualization and usability of the PIA UIs require future development. Specifically, it should be tailored to the target group's mental models and background knowledge.
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10. |
- Alaqra, Ala Sarah, et al.
(författare)
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Using PAPAYA for eHealth – Use Case Analysis and Requirements
- 2020
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Ingår i: 2020 IEEE 33rd International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS). - : IEEE. - 9781728194295 ; , s. 437-442
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an eHealth use case basedon a privacy-preserving machine learning platform to detectarrhythmia developed by the PAPAYA project that can run inan untrusted domain. It discusses legal privacy and user requirementsthat we elicited for this use case from the GDPR andvia stakeholder interviews. These include requirements for securepseudonymisation schemes, for allowing also pseudonymous usersto exercise their data subjects rights, for not making diagnosticdecisions fully automatically and for assurance guarantees, conformancewith specified standards and informing clinicians andpatients about the privacy protection. The requirements are notonly relevant for our use case but also for other use cases utilisingprivacy-preserving data analytics to classify medical data.
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