Chair of Mobile Business & Multilateral Security

Attribute-based Credentials for Trust (ABC4Trust)

Abstract
abc4trust 05 L RGBThe goal of ABC4Trust is to address the federation and interchangeability of technologies that support trustworthy yet privacy-preserving Attribute-based Credentials (ABC). So far credentials such as digitally signed pieces of personal information or other information used to authenticate or identify a user where not designed to respect the users privacy. They invariably reveal the identity of the holder even though the application at hand often needs much less information, for instance only confirmation that the holder is a teenager or is eligible for social benefits. In contrast to that, Attribute-based Credentials allow a holder to reveal just the minimal information required by the application, without giving away full identity information. These credentials thus facilitate the implementation of a trustworthy and at the same time privacy-protecting digital society.

 

Start: 01-11-2010
Completion: 28-02-2015
Duration: 52 months
Type: EU Research Project
Website: http://www.abc4trust.eu
 
Objective

The proposed project will target six objectives:

  • Propose a framework of technology-independent architectural interfaces, formats, and protocols, for operating ABC technologies so that different ones can coexist to cater to different application requirements and be interchanged and federated as the technologies evolve.

  • Analyze and compare emerging ABC technologies with regard to their features, information flows, related security, performance, and other advantages and disadvantages in various application scenarios.

  • Develop reference implementations of these technologies that can be ported to different platforms or combination of platforms (e.g., PC, mobile phone, SIM, or NFC cards).

  • Identify application and business requirements to prepare pilot trials of some of the technologies.

  • Deploy pilot trials to validate the above architectural proposal, investigate ABC technologies in practice, and evaluate their usability in actual application and business scenarios.

  • Leverage the influence of the leading companies involved in ABC4Trust to target standardization and widely disseminate project outcomes, including organizing a summit event at the end of the project and publishing a book that makes knowledge of ABC technology and ABC4Trust pilots accessible to the general public.

Consortium
Team