SECOVAL

Security is usually centrally managed, for example in a form of policies duly executed by individual nodes. The SECOVAL workshop covers the alternative trend of using collaboration and trust to provide security. Instead of centrally managed security policies, nodes may use specific knowledge (both local and acquired from other nodes) to make security-related decisions. For example, in reputation-based schemes, the reputation of a given node (and hence its security access rights) can be determined based on the recommendations of peer nodes. As systems are being deployed on ever-greater scale without direct connection to their distant home base, the need for self-management is rapidly increasing. Interaction after interaction, as the nodes collaborate, there is the emergence of a digital ecosystem. By guiding the local decisions of the nodes, for example, with whom the nodes collaborate, global properties of the ecosystem where the nodes operate may be guaranteed. Thus, the security property of the ecosystem may be driven by self-organising mechanisms. Depending on which local collaboration is preferred, a more trustworthy ecosystem may emerge.