2nd Data Conversations 4 May 2017 – Data Security and Confidentiality

The 2nd Data Conversations had the theme of Data Security and Confidentiality. More than 20 Lancaster researcher attended. It was nice to start with a slice of pizza and a brew.

As at the 1st Data Conversations we had five lightning talks:

Denes Csala – The sensor cloud around us: collecting, mining and visualizing the energy and building management data of the campus

Dr Denes Csala is a newly appointed lecturer in Energy Storage Systems Dynamics with Energy Lancaster.

There are 30,000 sensors on campus capturing all sorts of data about energy and energy consumption.  This has the potential for us to understand a huge amount about the way energy is managed and used but at the same time throws up the issue of managing extremely sensitive commercial and personal data.  Access to the data is strictly controlled but Energy Lancaster are very excited about the possibilities of what could be done with the data.

You can see an animated visualization of the campus energy metering system sensor data here:

Kopo Ramokapane – Could computing: When is Deletion Deletion

Kopo Ramokapane is a PhD student in the School of Computing and Communications. Kopo gave an overview about the growing importance of “the cloud”. But do we also see the implications that cloud computing has on security and privacy of our data?

Kopo reported that when you delete data in the cloud there is no way to be sure that all copies or all versions have been deleted from the cloud provider. This issue isn’t new but doesn’t get as much attention as it should be.  Because of the way Cloud storage operates it is almost impossible even for the service providers to be certain that all the data has been deleted.  Avoid storing confidential data in the Cloud and learn more about how the systems work! Lancaster University has a contract with cloud service Box which ensures that compliance issues are dealt with in relation to storage of confidential or sensitive data.

Karen Broadhurst and Stuart Bedston – Better data for better justice: Towards data-driven analyses of Family Court policy and practice

Professor Karen Broadhurst and Stuart Bedston from the Sociology Department reported on concerns about transparency in family court-decision-making.  Greater transparency and “open data” would have a positive impact in many ways but is hard to achieve looking at the security requirements and potential risks.

Karen and Stu highlighted the changes that would be needed in order to strengthen interdisciplinary research using controlled-data here at Lancaster University but also the difficulties that stand in the way.

John Couzins – Security Overview at Lancaster University

Next on was John Couzins, the IT Security Manager of Lancaster University. John who works for the institutional IT service ISS reported on the certifications that are necessary to fulfil requirements of certain providers of confidential data. Current examples are Cyber Essentials Plus and the IG Toolkit (Information Governance Toolkit) which is used by the NHS.

Mateusz Mikusz – Running Research as a Service. Implications for Privacy Policies and Ethics

Mateusz Mikusz is working on his PhD in the School of Computing and Communications. He is working on a project that develops pervasive displays where students can get personalised content on public screens on campus if they use an app or iLancaster.

The issue regarding the data is that is used for two purposes:

• To make the app and its use cases work
• To create research data of usage and other properties that can be analysed by the project team

Mateusz explained that he is working hard to bring both things together in an ethical way that still allows innovative research.

It was a great showcase for a lot of fantastic research that is taking place at Lancaster University and the way in which handling sensitive data and tackling data security is at the forefront of this.  There were probably as many questions raised as there were answers given but it was a great opportunity to share approaches to handling data securely and ethically.

Want to know more?  Get in touch with the RDM team rdm@lancaster.ac.uk

3rd Data Conversation – 19th September 2017

Join us for our next Data Conversation on 19th September on Software as Data with a special guest speaker Neil Chue Hong from the Software Sustainability Institute.