Cryptography and trust

Andres KüttInformation System Authority, chief architect

June 9, 2015

In this speech

• Thoughts on digital government

• Trust and digital government

• Cryptography and trust

Thoughts on digital government

We should talk about digital-embracinggovernment, not e-government

E-government implies a separation between the “e“ and the governmentwhile the point is to embed digital into all aspects of governance

I speak for Estonia butsuspect wider applicability

The strategic choices we face are fundamental in nature

Digital government is useful

• It makes plain old economic sense• Provided it is used as a change enabler rather than a bolt-on• Corporations have been doing kaizen, six-σ and lean for decades,why not governments?

• In Estonia we are seeing tangible, substantial and sustainableprofitability of digital government

• It makes social sense• Faster feedback enabled by technology allows for more flexible andagile society

• Emerging social structures are highly efficient and clearly valuable

Digital government is unavoidable

• Estonia cannot afford not to gain the benefits described• Too high prime minister per capita ratio• Geographic location on the edge of everything• All the demographic ailments of the western world

• Few options but to embrace digital change• Provide the services or face someone else providing them for you• Globalisation and technology are inexorably shifting the concepts of“state“ and “government“

• To have a chance, Estonia must change the game

Trust as an enabler

Trust enables digital government

Digital government assumes a level of trust between parties

• Digital world cannot be perceived directly• Electronic vs. physical voting• Complexity levels have grown beyond our cognitive abilities

• Therefore technology must be trusted to behave in a certain way• Complexity is still an issue: how deep is that rabbit-hole?• This is a serious issue with using the public cloud

• Contactless interaction requires trust in identification mechanisms• On the internet, everybody assumes you are a dog• Bi-directional mapping between a person and a portfolio of theirrights and obligations

Trust enables digital ecosystems

A digital ecosystem requires its parties to be able to digitally trust eachother

• Digital government brings value as part of an ecosystem, not byitself

• To cooperate, trust is required between• agencies on local, European and global level• government agencies and corporations• citizens and other stakeholders

A digital ecosystem cannot be limited to a single country

Trust is a fragile propertyof a complex system

Lack of trust leads to less reasons to trust and vice versa.Small actions can trigger important consequences

Sacrificing trust meansloosing digital government

Balancing tactical wins against strategic consequences is non-trivial

Cryptography and trust

Cryptography is firstly about math and thenabout technology

Technology makes math practical but is not that useful in itself

To enable trust, cryptography must betrustworthy

We can mostly rely on math but not necessarily on technology

And technology is effectively out of control

There is no way to prevent people from implementing mathematics.Think Bitcoin

Time is rapidly becoming a factor in trustingcryptography

Estonia has ten years worth of legacy digital signaturesgetting weaker by the minute

Summary

• Digital governance is desirable but depends on trust

• Cryptography can help provide trust if it is trustworthy itself

• Digital ecosystems span borders and share trust

Thank you!Andres Küttandres.kutt@ria.ee