2023, Moriggl, Pascal, Asprion, Petra, Schneider, Bettina, Scherb, Christopher, Bui, Tung X.

Components built into space vehicles and equipment (space products) must meet different regulatory requirements; in detail, each component must be certified and sustainably traceable at all times. Space engineers have expressed the need for an interoperable system to collect, manage and route certifications for components, parts and materials that go into space products. The lack of a unified approach in the European space industry is a challenge for companies involved in product development. This research proposes an open-source, secure, fast and distributed ledger technology (DLT) based solution that fits into any IT environment and is well adapted to the needs of manufacturing companies in the space sector. The results show that a blockchain-based solution based on ‘Hyperledger Fabric’ combined with the InterPlanetary File System is viable. The results can guide other researchers and practitioners to consider DLTs when changing their certification management paradigm with suppliers, customers and auditors.

2023, Asprion, Petra, Grieder, Hermann, Grimberg, Frank

Organizations today need internal reporting channels to report illegal/unethical misconduct. For this purpose, organizations set up one or more - often digital - internal reporting channels. Persons/Employees who want to report misconduct, so-called whistleblowers, expose themselves to reprisals and therefore need trustworthy reporting channels which ensure ´Digital Trust´. Blockchain, a technology that overcomes the need for trust due to its properties of immutability and integrity of data, could be promising as underlying technology for a digital reporting channel which is recognized as trustworthy. In our research, we explored multiple perspectives relevant to a trustworthy digital reporting system. Applying design science research, we evaluated the current state of the art of (digital) reporting channels and developed a prototypical blockchain-based reporting solution called “Integrity@Inside”. The prototype is being iteratively demonstrated and pre-evaluated.

2023, Asprion, Petra, Gossner, Philipp, Schneider, Bettina, Bui, Tung X.

2022, Asprion, Petra, Grieder, Hermann, Grimberg, Frank

Integrity@Inside leverages blockchain technology to prototype a web-based internal reporting channel that is compliant with the new EU Directive 2019/1937.

2023, Schneider, Bettina, Asprion, Petra

Cybersecurity and data privacy are important fields today. Basic education in these two interconnected areas should already be offered in schools, as practically everyone today can encounter the dangers and risks of the Internet in terms of data theft, data manipulation or the like. However, the topics of cybersecurity and data privacy are generally abstract, and many people are not interested in such rather technical topics. To arouse interest and provide a certain basic education, we used ‘peer instruction’ combined with storytelling as a promising method. Within the framework of an EU project called GEIGER and with the support of students who have learned data privacy by means of the presented method, the method has been further developed, applied, tested, reflected, and iteratively improved. In summary, the method presented is useful for the topics of cybersecurity and data privacy, but the recommendations compiled must be considered in particular with regard to careful preparation and testing.

2023, Asprion, Petra, Giovanoli, Claudio, Scherb, Christopher, Bhat, Sourabha, Gerber, Aurona, Hinkelmann, Knut

Cybersecurity management has emerged as a topic of growing importance on a global scale. Applying traditional management practices to cybersecurity is often too cumbersome and can lead to significant delays. Today's enterprises must be able to adapt to ever-evolving digital threats and act with corresponding agility and flexibility. Agile methods are well suited for projects without a defined scope, duration, tasks, and resources and has been identified as suitable for meeting the management challenges of cybersecurity teams. Based on an in-depth literature review, this study assumed that adopting an agile approach to cybersecurity helps organizations manage cybersecurity effectively. A first prototypical model was developed and evaluated which combines agile methods with cybersecurity functions - based on a recognized reference model.

2022, Schneider, Bettina, Ballesteros, Ruben, Moriggl, Pascal, Asprion, Petra, Bork, Dominik, Barat, Souvik, Asprion, Petra, Marcelletti, Alessandro, Morichetta, Andrea, Schneider, Bettina, Kulkarni, Vinay, Breu, Ruth, Zech, Philipp

A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an emerging entity facilitated through blockchain technology. It operates under the principle of a decentralized governance structure void of hierarchical leadership, and decisions are made based on community consensus. As DAO and its mechanisms are still in an early stage, its potential evolution and future influence on enterprises remain unclear. This work elaborates on this emerging type of organization through a literature review and case studies of DAOs to demonstrate the current state of the art. The findings presented include a brief discussion of the technology that facilitates these organizations. Additionally, advancements and the common characteristics of existing DAOs are presented. Examining current and defunct DAOs revealed the challenges these organizations should address to reach their full potential in future application areas. Finally, it is concluded which organizations and industries could most likely benefit from the DAO concept in future.

2023, Schneider, Bettina, Asprion, Petra, Misyura, Ilya, Jonkers, Natalie, Zaugg, Esther

The European (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is applicable since May 2018 and has since posed major challenges for small businesses with limited knowledge and resources. According to Art. 35 of the GDPR, a so-called ‘Data Protection Impact Assessment’ (DPIA) is mandatory if a processing of personal data is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. There is a demand for low-threshold, practical instruments that support the required DPIA. The objective of this research was to develop a new DPIA instrument that meets the needs – as unit of analysis – of non-technology small businesses and complies with the requirements of the EU GDPR. Design Science Research was used as the methodological framework and identified personas were drivers in the development. The result is two variants of instruments that have been carefully evaluated and proven to be valuable.

2023, Moriggl, Pascal, Asprion, Petra, Schneider, Bettina, Dornberger, Rolf

Daten gehören heute zu den zentralen Elementen digitaler Geschäftsmodelle, daher ist ein Bewusstsein für angemessene Maßnahmen zum Schutz von Daten und insbesondere personenbezogener Daten essenziell. Die Datenschutzgrundverordnung der Europäischen Union (EU) ist eine Folge der Diskussionen zum Schutz der Privatsphäre im digitalen Raum. Die Verordnung zwingt Organisationen dazu, sicherzustellen, dass ihre Prozesse zur Verarbeitung von Daten mit den relevanten Regularien übereinstimmen. Seit einigen Jahren wird die Blockchain-Technologie zunehmend beliebter, um den Austausch von Daten zu unterstützen. Die neue Technologie macht es möglich, auf eine zentrale Datenhaltung zu verzichten. Das Ziel dieser Forschung war es, Entscheidungsträgerinnen und Entscheidungsträgern bei der Auswahl einer geeigneten Blockchain-Konfiguration zu helfen, die den gesetzlichen Datenschutzanforderungen gerecht wird. Mit Hilfe der „Design-Science“-Methodik haben wir einen sogenannten morphologischen Kasten, sowie ein dazugehöriges Raster entwickelt, die als „Bewertungswerkzeuge“ für die Blockchain-Konfiguration „Hyperledger Sawtooth“ verwendet werden können. Die Forschungsergebnisse können mit wenigen Anpassungen verallgemeinert werden, um auch andere Blockchain-Konfigurationen zu bewerten.

2022, Babrak, Lmar, Smakaj, Erand, Agac, Teyfik, Asprion, Petra, Grimberg, Frank, Van der Werf, Daan, van Ginkel, Erwin Willem, Tosoni, Deniz David, Clay, Ieuan, Degen, Markus, Brodbeck, Dominique, Natali, Eriberto Noel, Schkommodau, Erik, Miho, Enkelejda

Background: Digital technologies are transforming the health care system. A large part of information is generated as real-world data (RWD). Data from electronic health records and digital biomarkers have the potential to reveal associations between the benefits and adverse events of medicines, establish new patient-stratification principles, expose unknown disease correlations, and inform on preventive measures. The impact for health care payers and providers, the biopharmaceutical industry, and governments is massive in terms of health outcomes, quality of care, and cost. However, a framework to assess the preliminary quality of RWD is missing, thus hindering the conduct of population-based observational studies to support regulatory decision-making and real-world evidence. Objective: To address the need to qualify RWD, we aimed to build a web application as a tool to translate characterization of some quality parameters of RWD into a metric and propose a standard framework for evaluating the quality of the RWD. Methods: The RWD-Cockpit systematically scores data sets based on proposed quality metrics and customizable variables chosen by the user. Sleep RWD generated de novo and publicly available data sets were used to validate the usability and applicability of the web application. The RWD quality score is based on the evaluation of 7 variables: manageability specifies access and publication status; complexity defines univariate, multivariate, and longitudinal data; sample size indicates the size of the sample or samples; privacy and liability stipulates privacy rules; accessibility specifies how the data set can be accessed and to what granularity; periodicity specifies how often the data set is updated; and standardization specifies whether the data set adheres to any specific technical or metadata standard. These variables are associated with several descriptors that define specific characteristics of the data set. Results: To address the need to qualify RWD, we built the RWD-Cockpit web application, which proposes a framework and applies a common standard for a preliminary evaluation of RWD quality across data sets—molecular, phenotypical, and social—and proposes a standard that can be further personalized by the community retaining an internal standard. Applied to 2 different case studies—de novo–generated sleep data and publicly available data sets—the RWD-Cockpit could identify and provide researchers with variables that might increase quality Conclusions: The results from the application of the framework of RWD metrics implemented in the RWD-Cockpit application suggests that multiple data sets can be preliminarily evaluated in terms of quality using the proposed metrics. The output scores—quality identifiers—provide a first quality assessment for the use of RWD. Although extensive challenges remain to be addressed to set RWD quality standards, our proposal can serve as an initial blueprint for community efforts in the characterization of RWD quality for regulated settings.