Security and trust in context-aware applications

摘要

Context-aware appliances are maturing to enter the market place. The sum of smart phones and tablets sold begins to outnumber the number of desktop PCs sold. The number of sensors built into these systems and the processing power also has increased. However, most importantly, context-aware applications platforms are entering the market, making use of sensory information to provide users with advanced functionality as well as novel means of access to information in their environment. As context-aware systems are leaving the laboratories and enter the life of a growing portion of the population, it becomes increasingly important to ensure that crucial features of security and privacy are added to foster and maintain the trust of users. This transition from applications in the laboratory to marketable apps has been a focus of recent research, at conferences such as the Context conference, whose 2011 edition focused on the challenges of commercializing context. This theme issue came out of the increasing demand for making context-aware applications secure and trustworthy.