Special issue of trust, security, and privacy for emerging applications in computer and information systems

Abstract

Satisfying the requirements of users on trust, security, and privacy in an efficient way is one of the key elements to almost all emerging applications in computer and information systems. However, traditional security technologies and measures may not satisfy these user requirements in open, dynamic, heterogeneous, and distributed computing environments. This necessitates adopting some emerging technologies, such as pervasive computing, peer-to-peer computing, grid computing, cloud computing, virtualization, and mobile and wireless technologies, to preserve trust, security, and privacy while users enjoy more scalable and comprehensive services.The main objectives of this special issue (SI) are to make available the state-of-the-art research results in design, development, and applications of trust, security, privacy, and related issues, such as technical, social, and cultural implications for emerging applications; to facilitate the recognition of leading contributions in the field; and to provide the best communication medium for the international research community.Following the Call for Papers, this special issue (SI) attracted 28 submissions. The final decision for the inclusion in this SI was strictly based on the outcome of the rigorous peer-review process to ensure that the papers published in the Journal are of top quality. Following the peer-review process, only seven papers have been accepted for inclusion in this SI. The authors of the selected papers presented at the CIT 2010 conference included at least 30% new and significant material for this SI.The selected seven papers span a range of important topics including efficient signcryption, finegrained reputation systems in the grid environment, fuzzy trust mechanisms for distributed networks, many-core graphics processing units, cryptography authentication protocols, trusted peer-to-peer mobile social networks, and efficient radio frequency identification authentication protocol. The contributions of these papers are outlined as follows.Efficient signcryption in the standard model [1]: An efficient signcryption scheme is proposed. Compared with Tan's scheme, it has |G| + |p| (320) bits shorter ciphertext, 2|p| À |G|(160) bits shorter private key, and |G| + |p| (1184) bits shorter public key. The scheme only needs a public key/private key pair, whereas in Tan's scheme, a user must hold two public key/private key pairs at a time if it acts as both sender and receiver at the same time.A QoS-based fine-grained reputation system in the grid environment [2]: The authors present an efficient reputation system, where economic elements are considered to make the reputation system more sensitive in the commercial grid environments. Moreover, the weighted combination of interorganizational trust, direct trust, and recommended trust makes the reputation system more robust against collusion attacks.LFTM, linguistic fuzzy trust mechanism for distributed networks [3]: An adaptation of a bio-inspired trust model to deal with linguistic fuzzy labels is proposed. The...