Ioannis Kounelis is designing a secure m-commerce system
LICENTIATE INTERVIEW
Published Nov 28, 2013
Ioannis has been studying Information and Communication System's Security at KTH. After graduation he continued with doctoral studies in ICT security and now he has defended his licentiate thesis with the topic "Security System for Mobile Commerce Applications".
Where are you from and where did you study before coming to KTH?
– I am from Thessaloniki, Greece. Prior to my doctoral studies I was a Master student at the Information and Communication System's Security programme here at KTH. Before moving to Stockholm, I had received a Bachelor degree in computer science from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
What is your topic and why did you choose it?
– My topic of research is ICT security with a focus on mobile security. I chose to emphasise on mobile security as mobile devices are now an indispensable part of our life and although they have enormous capabilities people usually still treat them as a simple phone and not as a powerful computing device.
As it proved to be the case, when a technology has a rapid evolvement such as the one the mobile phones have, security and privacy concerns of the users are neglected on the altar of profit.
Describe your topic in short.
– I have applied my research findings in the topic of mobile security in a use case that I believe will have a wide adoption soon, if not already: mobile commerce. I am investigating privacy and security issues from the user's side that arise from both the nature of the phone and the mobile applications that are running on it. The outcome of the full research will be a complete m-commerce system, designed in a privacy and security friendly way for the user.
Tell us something about your results.
– My results have proved so far that there are many threats found on a daily basis from an average use of a mobile phone. Threats coming from both the nature of the phone such as mobility and public exposure and from the enormous capabilities it has, combined with the lack of knowledge of what this power implies for the mobile device user. In my research so far I have demonstrated the existence of such threats and risks and have also proposed potential solutions.
What will the future bring for your research, how will you continue and what will the focus be on your PhD thesis?
– For my PhD, I will continue on the same track focusing however on implementing my findings. Until the licentiate, my research was more theoretic, emphasising on the exploration of the research area and proposing solutions. For my full PhD I intend to work on the implementation part and demonstrate in practice what my theoretic research has shown.