World ICT Priorities and Key Research Areas
ICT Gozo Malta is ushering in a suite of advanced technologies that will enable an international paradigm shift in secure information processing and communications infrastructure. Government agencies and leading industry bodies around the world are calling for fundamental new advances in the way we design, build and manage ICT systems. Collectively, they are calling for internationally/universally trustworthy and dependable infrastructure engineered to uphold and protect the legitimate interests of all stakeholders (everyone) in a multi-stakeholder, mutli-jurisdiction, Internet-scale environment.
Today's systems are not trustworthy or dependable. To quote Debora Plunkett, a Director in the U.S. National Security Agency, "There's no such thing as 'secure' anymore" ... "We have to build our systems on the assumption that adversaries will get in." ... "We have to, again, assume that all the components of our system are not safe, and make sure we're adjusting accordingly." (Dec 2010).
ICT Gozo Malta projects tackle this and many other currently hard security problems that currently undermine the foundations of all information communication technologies, such as the Internet, used today. To do this, the ICT Gozo Malta initiative has taken a wholistic approach to three tightly interrelated technology domains: information security (identification, authentication, confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation, key management), information communications (Future Internet), and information processing (private and public cloud computing). The scope of the ICT Gozo Malta projects has the potential to empower and securely connect every human on earth, the potential to improve the trustworthiness and dependability of the computing systems that bring together our global village.
The Internet and Information Computing Technology (ICT) revolution touches everyone and everything, with billions of applications and systems enabling our quality of life, today as essential as water and electricity. In fact even public utilities such as water, electricity and public transport systems are being transformed into ICT dependent Smart Grids. Smart Cities are now considered essential to support growing populations and the ongoing population shifts to cities. To quote U.S. President Obama's Cyberspace Policy Review - "Our reliance on the Internet is becoming nearly total."
There are three interrelated domains that all ICT relies on: Communications, Computation, and Information Security. Governments and Industry around the world continue to fund massive fundamental research initiatives into these areas. However, we are witnessing the beginnings of a paradigm shift in how we think about computation and communications. To quote the Cyberspace Policy Review - "[Security] Threats to cyberspace pose one of the most serious economic and national security challenges of the 21st Century for the United States and our allies." That is to say, today's ICT infrastructure is not trustworthy and cannot be depended upon.
The emerging paradigm shift goes far beyond simply developing the next generation of enabling ICT; the future is in the design and deployment of reliable, resilient, trustworthy digital infrastructures. One that reflects the reality of our interconnected and interdependent global village and its dependence upon ICT, with global-scale security and high-availability built in.
ICT Gozo Malta has begun to contribute to the next wave in fundamental and enabling information computer technologies (ICT). Specifically, ICT Gozo Malta is ushering in a range of new trustworthy and dependable technologies designed from the onset with the explicit goal of protecting the legitimate interests of all parties in a multi-stakeholder and multi-jurisdiction Internet-scale (global) environment.
ICT Gozo Malta is working in three broad interrelated and interdependent domains:
- Trustworthy and dependable Information security systems that are capable of identifying, authenticating and establishing secure communications between any two people or devices in a global environment.
- Trustworthy and dependable Cloud computing that enables the processing of personally and commercially sensitive data in public cloud computing utilities managed by third party security and ICT experts with controls in place to prevent unauthorised information access/disclosure. The public will access computing power in the same way that they access water and electricity, as an 'on demand' service.
- Trustworthy and dependable Future Internet designs to improve quality of services, network availability, network performance and to ensure all data flowing over the mainstream communications protocols used today can be secured.
Our projects deliberately cross these three core domains in the scope of their design, to synergistically enhance and reinforce each other. This enables new dimensions of functionality and security that are not possible to achieve in projects that do not address the cross domain issues from the beginning.
The new generations in these fundamental enabling technologies that we develop will be ecologically sound, with a smaller footprint, consuming less resources and power. They will enable billions of new applications and systems that in turn have a positive impact on the community and our environment. For example the Future Internet is explicitly designed to enable various forms of high-definition video chat, telecommuting, crowd-sourcing, global interactive education online, and much more. Green approaches that connect the global community together, reduce the amount of travel for work, and reduce our dependence on oil and other non-renewable resources.
In addition to seeking to contribute to the next generation in these fundamental enabling technologies, ICT Gozo Malta also seeks to be amongst the first contribute new applications and solutions that exploit these advances. More information on our projects is available under the "Vision and Projects" menu.
