syssec_red_book

25. The Dutch National Cyber Security Research Agendaidentityprivacymalwarefinancedetection &preventione-commercemonitoringtransport& logisticsforensicssmart gridincidentresponsetrustdomesticlawenforcementNCSRAindustrialcontroldefensedatapolicy mgmtlegislation &regulationmedia &newsriskmanagementcommercialcyber crimee-healthundergroundeconomye-governmentoperationalcyber capacitiessecurityby designFigure 25.1: Application domains and research themes25.1.1 TechnologiesA central technology that is at the heart of most applications is of course theInternet, fixed or mobile. Telecommunications and the Internet are mergingmore and more to become an all-IP environment, where traditional telephony(voice), television (video) and data exchange are integrated into a multi-channelsystem. Services can be provided to large groups of users (broadcasting andinformation sharing), specific groups (narrowcasting and user communities)as well as single users. As many critical applications have come to rely on theInternet, the Internet itself has become an ever more critical infrastructure.An important technology that builds on top of this is cloud computing.Cloud computing uses the communication infrastructure provided by theInternet to provide on-demand computation resources, in the form of rawcomputing power or more specialized services, by offering infrastructure,platforms or software ‘as a service’. Cloud computing is increasingly usedby individual citizens and companies to outsource their ICT needs. Cloudcomputing may offer economic benefits, by exploiting economies of scaleand releasing users from maintenance tasks. However, cloud computingalso introduces extra (communication) costs, and raises serious challenges forsecurity.Another important technological trend is pervasive systems: We are rapidlymoving away from the desktop-model, and increasingly interact with ICT technologythat is integrated into everyday objects and activities, that make upthe Internet of things. Some of these devices are fully connected to the wider146