Q&A – Abubakar-Sadiq Shehu
- What is your role at DECaDE?
I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security, under the DECaDE project at the University of Surrey.
- What is your area of research?
My research focuses on information systems security, fraud prevention, data privacy, and identity management in the context of decentralised digital economies.
- What attracted you working on the DECaDE project at the Surrey Center for Cyber Security?
DECaDE’s focus on transforming the emerging future economy into one that is fair has appropriate governance, and maximizes opportunities for everyone to create value aligns perfectly with my research interests in secure and privacy-preserving digital identity systems that ensure the participation of data owners with some level of control.
- Tell me about your background?
I completed my PhD in Computer Science at the University of Porto, Portugal, and my Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (Digital Systems Security) from the University of Wollongong, Australia.
- What excites you about the field you’re working in?
I’m excited about the potential of decentralised identity management systems to empower individuals with control over their data while enabling secure and efficient digital transactions. The rapid evolution of technologies like blockchain and their application to real-world problems in cybersecurity is particularly fascinating.
- Would you like to share any recent papers or publications relevant to your role at DECaDE?
We have recently published work on decentralised reputation management. My recent paper ‘Decentralised Supply Chain Reputation: A Privacy and Self-Sovereign Identity Perspective’ co-authored with Steve Schneider was presented at IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy (EuroS&P) in Venice.
Our approach includes a systematic review of digital identity, data privacy, and reputation management across supply chains. In collaboration with our partners, Digital Catapult, we are also working on developing a prototype with our next field lab to address issues identified in this research.
- What is topical in the world of cyber security right now and what is DECaDE doing to address these challenges?
Securing the Decentralised Digital Economy: ensuring fairness, governance, and value creation using AI and Blockchain is critical. With technologies like LLMs generating vast data, preventing misuse, theft, impersonation, and leaks is essential.
DECaDE’s Action: Our current focus is developing a privacy-preserving reputation system to tackle privacy, transparency, and auditability challenges in this economy.”
