5th International Conference on Identity, Security and Behavior Analysis (ISBA) 2019

January 22-24, 2019

Shri R. Gandhi, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India inaugurated the 5th International Conference on Identity, Security and Behavior Analysis (ISBA 2019) at IDRBT on January 22, 2019.

The IEEE International Conference on Identity, Security and Behavior Analysis (ISBA 2019), spread over three days from January 22-24, 2019, is a unique conference series that brings together experts in biometrics, security, and human behavior to consider research issues and solutions that are robust, comprehensive, and broader than currently considered in each of these individual research areas. This conference serves as a new forum for such broad areas defining human side of security and user behavior as well as social influence in the biometrics security. The topics covered during the conference include:

  • Physiological and Behavioral Biometrics, Identity Management, Person Re-identification, Social Biometrics, Multimodal Biometrics
  • Security of Biometric Systems including Presentation Attacks and Countermeasures, Biometric Template Protection, Other Biometric Systems Vulnerabilities
  • Applications of Biometrics in Forensics & Law Enforcement
  • Cybersecurity, Information Security, User-centric Security, Mobile Device Security, Device Identification
  • Privacy of Personal Identification Data, Privacy-preserving Computing, Usable Privacy and Security
  • Human Behavior Analysis, Human Activity Understanding, Behavior Modeling, Modeling Deception and Deceptive Intent, Predictive Analytics
  • Modeling the Interplay of Behavioral Modalities with Applications in Biometrics and Security.

A galaxy of renowned international researchers including Prof. Winston Hsu, Professor, National Taiwan University & Director, NVIDIA AI Lab, NTU; Prof. Mohan S Kanakanhalli, National University of Singapore; Prof. Josef Bigun, Halmstad University, Sweden; and Dr. Sharathchandra U. Pankanti, Manager, Exploratory Computer Vision Group; Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY USA, delivered keynote talks.

Researchers from reputed institutions across the globe including University of Salzburg, Austria; Halmstad University, Sweden; Michigan State University, USA; University at Buffalo, USA; Clarkson University, USA; St. Lawrence University, USA; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway; University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), Norway; and IITs, are presenting their papers at the conference.

Some of the previous editions of the ISBA were hosted by other prestigious institutions such as Nanyang Technological University, (NTU) Singapore (2018), Tohoku University, Japan (2016), and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong (2015).

Dr. A. S. Ramasastri, Director, IDRBT, welcomed the dignitaries and participants on the occasion. In his welcome remarks, Dr. Ramasastri focused attention on the Institutes’ progress at various fronts and its contributions to the Banking and Financial Sector. He explained the latest developments in the areas of research, academics and executive education, with a particular focus on the contributions in the areas of Cyber Security, Analytics, Cloud Computing, Payment Systems, Mobile Banking, Affordable Technologies and Blockchain Technology.

Inaugural Address by Shri R. Gandhi, Former Deputy Governor, RBI

Shri R. Gandhi, Former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, delivered the inaugural address. The key points of his speech are as follows:

Security

  • Security is fundamental to banking. At every stage of development, and on launching of every new financial product or service, the banker has to continuously extend the assurance that the public money entrusted with him is safe and secure
  • Given the abstract character of the digital technology, the enormity of volume of digital transactions, the speed with which the digital transactions are carried out – many times transcending geographical borders, there is a continuous demand to improve digital security
  • The banking and financial sector is experiencing cyber risks more because of the increased use of rapidly evolving, sophisticated, and complex technologies, wide use of third-party vendors, increased use of mobile technologies by customers, including the rapid growth of the Internet of Things and the heightened cross-border information security threats
  • The current research attention has been on securing digital assets, better smart IoT botnets, protecting critical national infrastructure, Crypto jacking, Ransomware, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups, State Sponsored attacks, Encrypted traffic malware, AI assisted malware etc. I am glad that IDRBT and ISBA have specific focus in these areas.

Identity

  • When establishing identity of parties evolved through what the ‘users know’ to what the ‘users have’ to what the ‘users are’, attention has turned towards Biometrics – like the finger prints, iris, face, voice, gait and the like and with its overtones on biological and physical aspects, identity has now become a separate discipline.

Behavioural Analysis

  • Ignorant and gullible users are being compromised, in spite of use of biometric based identity and secured transaction protocols
  • With the developments in big data analysis, behavioural analysis has taken centre stage. Another development that compels higher thrust on Behaviour Analysis is the internationally coordinated measures for preventing formal financial system being a conduit for money laundering, drug trafficking and financing terrorism
  • Business Analytical tools have advanced profiling capabilities. Big data analytics and Machine learning algorithms and statistical analysis are used. Currently the use cases include identifying Privileged account misuse, Compromised account detection, Compromised machine/system detection, Insider Threat detection, Detection of Data Theft, Incident prioritisation, Application monitoring and Cloud Security Monitoring.

Security and Privacy

  • The hot subject that has received wider attention in recent times and debate is data security and data privacy. There are two facets of data privacy – one is, data privacy in a commercial context and the other is in a democratic and human rights context. The general trend is that data privacy is a fundamental right of the individuals and any unconsented use thereof by entities would result in heavy penalties. In the commercial context, primacy has been accorded to informed consent by the individual
  • One idea that I will request some of you to pursue is to find a solution for the problem of storage and access of biometric data. Technology has earlier found a solution for the security of data through the concept of Public Key Infrastructure(PKI) by splitting the key into its public and private parts. Similarly, is it possible to split ‘biometric data’ into two parts, one the public part to be with the government, and for that matter with anybody, and the other, the private part remaining with the individual; the biometric data with the government or others will be incomplete and useless, until and unless the private part is supplied by the individual.
  • Scientific study is for enhancing the knowledge base for its own sake, while application thereof in real life situation has to take several realities into account, not least the legal requirements. The eminently adorable solutions of the day can be breached or compromised by developments in the scientific study, and hence the applied research needs to constantly revisit the continued relevance of yesterday’s best solutions.

Launch of Journal of Banking and Financial Technology

With the aim to promote new thinking, conceptual frameworks and research practice-oriented innovative ideas on topics of current interest and broad relevance to application of technology in Banking and Financial Services, the Institute launched the IDRBT Journal of Banking Technology in July 2017.

The journal covers all aspects of technology, which directly or indirectly contributes to the technological growth of the banking and financial sector, both from researchers’ as well as practitioners’ perspectives. It publishes original research articles on all aspects of computing and communication technologies, which can be used in banking and finance. It also publishes case studies, practitioners’ perspectives, experimental and survey articles. The Institute published three issues of the Journal on its own.

The Institute is happy to announce that Springer, an experienced publisher of professional journals, is co-publishing the Journal on behalf of the Institute, effective January 2019. This will help in a big way in connecting and benefitting from the best research across the world. Further, with a view to broadbase it, the Journal is renamed as the “Journal of Banking and Financial Technology.”

Dr. Y. V. Reddy, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India, and Shri R. Gandhi, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India jointly launched the inaugural issue of the Journal of Banking and Financial Technology today.

Release of Blueprint of Blockchain Platform

Blockchain Technology is a “foundational technology”, which is likely to have an impact on human population across the geographies in several ways. However, it may take time for such a technology to be adopted and absorbed. It is, therefore, no surprise that Blockchain Technology is more discussed and debated than designed and deployed.

Accepting that the Blockchain Technology, in view of its inherent strengths, is useful and it is the right time to look at its usability, the usual questions like what, why, where, and how are to be addressed. IDRBT in its Whitepaper on Blockchain Technology, released in January 2017, attempted to give reasonable answers to what, why and where, at least in the context of banking sector. That leaves the most important question – how.

The Institute has been working closely with government, banks and industry in addressing the question – how to build a useful Blockchain that can serve as a common platform to launch varied applications. It virtually means, preparing a Blueprint for building a Blockchain platform. For drawing specifics to a generic platform, the Institute has leveraged the experience and expertise it has gained while working on Blockchain based projects for government as also from the interactions it has been having with Blockchain Technology consortiums. Further, the Institute has constituted a team of experts from banks, industry, academia in addition to its own researchers.

The Blueprint is organized into three chapters. In the first chapter, it is attempted to present the current scenario of financial networks, further requirements and benefits that might arise out of adoption of Blockchain Technology. The second chapter is devoted to design aspects of three important constituents – architecture, governance and technology – that will help in successful deployment of Blockchain based services. The third and last chapter gives roadmaps for implementation, taking into account the requirements and designs discussed in earlier chapters.

The Blueprint on Blockchain Platform was released by Dr. Y. V. Reddy, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India, and Shri R. Gandhi, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, today.