Security Research from a Multi-disciplinary and Multi-sectoral Perspective

Abstract

During the era of information technology and within the domain, the topic of security has for many years been perceived of as a “goodness” factor particularly relevant to IT in general and Telecommunications in particular. Nevertheless, rapid application growth of complex Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in every society and state infrastructure has revealed vulnerabilities that eventually have given rise to serious security breaches. These vulnerabilities together with the course of the breaches from cause to consequence have gradually convinced the field experts that ensuring the security is no longer possible by only relying on the fundaments of the computer science, IT, or Telecommunications. Appropriating knowledge from other domains of science is not only beneficial, but indeed very necessary. At the same time, it is a common observation today that ICT-systems are used everywhere, from the aviation, nuclear, commerce and healthcare domains to camera-equipped web-enabled cellular phones used by your next door teenagers. There ought to be common mechanisms on security analysis and countermeasures against the possible breaches, which are valid for all these domains. This paper advocates the importance of a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral security research and analysis, and highlights the European and Norwegian initiatives in that direction.