An application to create a Security Profile of an SME was developed.
Flutter, Dart, Android, iOS, Cyber Security, Risk Score, Windows, macOS, Sharing, Decentral, Encryption, HTTP, Privacy, SME, GEIGER
The goal of this project was to provide owners and employees of an SME with the tools to create network of devices and employees in which a risk score as a central security metric can be shared. This score acts similar to a geiger counter, that provides the risk assessment at a glance. This score represents the collective cyber risk of the respective device/employee and shall raise awareness of potential nuisances. The security related data shall be stored decentrally, so no external entity has access to sensitive data. The application should also ensure that all pairing and sharing actions are based on the consent of the user and can be performed by people with low technological knowledge.
Since the number of cyber-attacks are increasing and small enterprises do not have the knowledge or monetary needs to secure their IT-infrastructure, the GEIGER Project was initiated. The Geiger project aims to collect security related data on the devices of the employees and transform it into a single risk score as a key metric, which is easy to understand as a person without deeper technological knowledge. For the detected risks, countermeasures are recommended, as well as learning tools provided. This leads to increased cyber-security awareness in the company.
The created application provides the functionality of pairing devices and employees in a network and enable them to exchange their risk scores. This allows a company to create a hierarchical structure and to assess the cyber risk across all departments. By assessing existing solutions and exploring decentral data storage and communication concepts, the process was designed so that people with no technological affinity canper-form und understand it, while incorporating consent in the form of QR-Code scanning, as a centralcontrol mechanism. Using the Flutter framework, a cross-platform application was created, that uses TCP and asymmetric encryption to securely transmit the data and store it decentrally. By integrating the pairing process into the GEIGER project, micro-and small enterprises can access their cyber security risk, understand the implications, or even receive help solving the issue and thus keeping business operations running regularly and ultimatelysaving money and nerves.
Project Duration: March - September, 2021 Time Investment: 720 hours (360 hours per student) Team Size: 2
Prof. Dr. Samuel A. Fricker Deputy Head of Institute Bahnhofstrasse 5 CH-5210 Windisch, Switzerland FHNW University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland School of Engineering Institute for Interactive Technologies IIT
Jilin Elavathingal (jilin.elavathingal@students.fhnw.ch) René Achterberg (rene.achterberg@students.fhnw.ch)
Prof. Dr. Samuel A. Fricker (samuel.fricker@fhnw.ch) Martin Gwerder (martin.gwerder@fhnw.ch)
