=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper15
|storemode=property
|title=Recent ICT Advances Applied to Smart e-Government Systems in Life Sciences
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper15.pdf
|volume=Vol-1498
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/haicta/SideridisP15
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==Recent ICT Advances Applied to Smart e-Government Systems in Life Sciences==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1498/HAICTA_2015_paper15.pdf
Recent ICT Advances Applied to Smart e-Government
Systems in Life Sciences
Alexander B. Sideridis1, Loucas Protopappas2
1
Informatics Laboratory, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, e-mail: as@aua.gr
2
Informatics Laboratory, Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, e-mail:
loucas.protopappas@aua.gr
Abstract. As Internet of Things and Cloud Computing are gaining momentum,
smart e-government systems and applications to citizens and business,
adopting these technologies, improve further our everyday lives and business
frontiers. E-government systems are further expanding their range of
application also, by reclaiming advances in electronic authentication and
identification. These late developments make even possible the application of
smart e-government systems not only to the areas of immense security like
Public Health and Banking but also to Life Sciences mainly Agriculture, Food
Sciences, Farming, Forestry and the Environmental Sciences. In this paper an
attempt is made to describe the framework of designing smart e-government
applications aiming to support advanced with no national frontier limitations
systems on the above important application areas. The importance of these
systems is becoming greater taking into account that the economic recession
hits particularly countries with main income from exports of agricultural
products.
Keywords: Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Radio frequency
identification (RFID), Smart e-Government Agricultural Applications.
1 Introduction
A couple of years ago we had observed the potentiality of new forms of e-
Government applications as well as the necessity of adopting advanced e-
Government services in both enhancing citizen's daily activities and creating the
appropriate basis in public administrations for the development of knowledge based
economies [17][13]. Emphasis was given to the need of fully exploiting Information
and Communication technologies (ICT) and new forms of communication for the
development of the appropriate structures aiming to support complex e-Government
systems which should extend further their area of application beyond national
boarders and economies [5]. This need is immense since globalization has strongly
emerged and we now discussion about global economies, global health, global
banking systems etc. [10] Global security, in all those systems of international
cooperation and application, is the dominant aspect and as recession, downturn in the
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economy and international terrorism remain the main areas of exchange of
information and methodologies between international organizations, governments
and individuals, this aspect promotes continuous research in this area.
The implementation of secure, trustworthy and smart e-Government systems in
order to support common standardized procedures within a country has been
encouraged by national governments and federal agencies [6]. In particular, the
progress of standardization and unification within the European Communities at the
beginning and European Union (EU) soon after has pressed State agencies for the
transformation of already developed procedures to cross-border e-Government
applications [7]. The EU policy towards convergence of e-Government systems of
member States was expressed through a series of incentive programs promoting
interoperability of those systems by introducing new research developments on e-
Signature (e-SIGN), e-Authentication and e-identification (European Commission,
[8],[9]). The latest EU's initiatives were aiming to create an integrated and well
established workplace for e-IDentification and AUthentication, [(eID) and (eAU)]
respectively, within European States for both citizens and enterprises or legal entities
of any form. Since the EU project STORK 2.0 [19] has just been successfully
implemented, these recent developments and EU's directives are going to be
gradually adopted by security sensitive systems on e-banking, e-health, e-Justice and
customs export systems of the member States [15]. However, if not, the above
systems could not be put in practice efficiently and the envisaged creation of a
Digital Single Market in Europe could not be materialized.
The operation of interoperable eID environments was one of the key objectives of
STORK 2. In fact, this objective was successfully tested by the operation of four
cross-sectoral pilots [15]. This implies that e-Government systems making use of this
capability can be designed not only to the benefit of important Government to
Government (G2G) or Government to Citizen (G2C) systems, such as those of public
administrations, public health, education etc but also Government to Business (G2B)
or Business to Business (B2B). The latest G2B and B2B will operate mostly to the
benefit of private sector and are considered to be very vital for boosting Small to
Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly these days of economic recession during
which SMEs have badly hit, and the creation of new jobs is the main scope of nearly
all Governments in order to fight unemployment. Particularly, countries of south
Europe have experienced very high figures of unemployment, mainly in young
people, e.g. in Greece this figure exceeds 50%, so that expected benefit out of the
growth of new SMEs, in a few remaining areas of the primary sector, like that of
agricultural production, is also high. Unemployment in Europe has brought many
young people abroad looking for jobs and new opportunities. Thus, G2C systems
with cross-border capabilities are invalid for safe certification using eID.
It’s evident, up to now that federal strategies and policies, like those of the EU and
the USA, towards the development of smart e-Government systems with capabilities
as those described above, are acting as incentives and lead research [6] in the area of
security and practically to innovative techniques e.g. on eID (with the prerequisite of
e-SIGN) and eAU.
In the near past, not long before the EU's initiatives [8, 9, 19], just the opposite
happened. ICTs and technological innovations used to provoke the policy makers to
fully exploit them in designing their e-Government systems and applications tailored
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made to their needs. Today, innovations such as those referred for e.g. to Big Data,
Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing (CC), combined with more recent
results on e-SIGN, eID, eAU, are leading us to design really smart e-Government
applications applicable to many G2G and G2C applications, mainly in the area of our
core interest in Agriculture, Forestry, the Environment and Food Technologies.
Precisely, this is the focal of this paper and our ideas in designing such systems are
analytically presented in section 5. For the completeness of these article innovations
as those of IoT, CC, eAU and eID are presented in sections 2, 3 and 4 respectively.
Finally, in section 6, are drown certain conclusions mostly based on the applicability
of the proposed smart e-Government applications of section 5.
2 Internet of Things and its Expansion
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the upcoming evolution of the Internet services
available today. It is a network that is not composed of computers but also of
interconnected objects. These items will contain embedded electronic systems and
may be of various household appliances, transportation, telecommunication means,
books, cars, even foods. In this vision, each object will use radio frequency
identification systems (known as RFID), a kind of sensor, etc. IoT will be the
culmination of the effort to integrate and automate services that provide embedded
systems of all kinds. All these are some applications that will radically change the
current way of life in the next decades.
Fig. 1. A new dimension. Source: ITU adapted from Nomura Research Institute
Although, the sustainability of IoT is still being discussed, its usability seems to be
very effective and efficient for citizen's daily activities as the connection of physical
things to the Internet makes it possible to access management and operation of
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remote devices [23]. Thanks to rapid advances in underlying ICT technologies, the
IoT is opening enormous opportunities for many novel applications that citizens may
improve the quality of their lives. International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in
2005, predicted that “the IoT will connect the world’s objects both in a sensory and
an intelligent manner”, fact that, in our days, is verified. The technology of IoT, on
the one hand, is a combination of 4 emerging promising technologies: RFID, Sensor
technologies, Smart technologies and Nanotechnology and, on the other hand, it
inherits the globality and interconnection of Internet and adds a new dimension to the
world of ICTs: from anytime, any place connectivity for anyone, we will now have
connectivity for anything (Figure 1).
The IoT has 3 major characteristics:
a. Integrated structure using RFID technology, sensors and two-dimensional code
to collect information from objects anywhere and anytime.
b. Reliable transmission. Accurate and real-time information by the objects,
involving various telecommunications networks and Internet.
c. Smart processing using smart ways such as cloud computing and fuzzy
recognition (fuzzy identification) to analyze and process vast amounts of data and
information, with a view to implementing intelligent control objects [25].
2.1 Architecture of Internet of Things and its Technologies
The IoT can be divided into three levels: the perception layer, the network layer
and the application layer.
a. The perception layer consists of RFID tag and reader, camera, GPS, all kinds of
sensors, sensor network, M2M terminals, and sensor gate (gateway), etc. The main
function of perception layer is the perception and identification of objects and
collecting information.
b. Network layer, also called as transport layer, is a convergent network that
formed by all kinds of communication networks and the internet. The network layer
has not only the ability of network operation, but should improve the ability of
information operation. Also, it provides and processes information from the
perception layers, like it is the nerve center and the brain structure, completing the
transfer of information and data between perception layer and the application layer.
c. The application layer is mainly composed of types of application systems, with
main functions the convergence, the transformation, the analysis and the exchange of
data and the relevant support platform for users. Moreover, this layer also provides
an interface for implementing IoT and the service’s implementation for devices and
user terminals.
The IoT is a technological revolution that represents the future of ICT and its
development require support and collaboration with some innovative technologies.
The major technologies that will dominate the IoT applications are wireless sensor
networks (WSN), the radio frequency identification (RFID) and mobile
communications with existing LAN / WAN networks.
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2.1.1 Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
The radio frequency identification is considered of the key drivers of growth of
the IoT. The objects should be identified so that can be connected. RFID technology,
which uses radio waves to determine the elements, can provide this function. The
RFID system includes various frequency bands from 124 kHz as the 5.8 GHz, such
as 124 kHz, 135 kHz, 13.56 MHz, 470 MHz, 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz.
The technology composed of tags / transmitters, a reader and a computer support
system. The tag has a unique identifier (ID) and an antenna for transmitting /
receiving radio waves from the reader located nearby. The reader transmits the
information that received from the tags in support system for validation and the
backend system runs the applications, according to data received from the reader.
Finally, RFID technology has been identified as the replacement of the bar code
system, but the RFID system can do much more than that. In addition to the data
identification, it can monitor the data in real time in order to get important
information about their location and status.
2.1.2 Sensor Technologies
The sensors have the innovative ability to detect any change in the physical status
of things and they provide a series of important data. In more details, the nodes
collect and forward the data to the base station for the joint monitoring of physical
objects or environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure and motion. In
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are usually one or more base stations and many
sensor nodes. The base station acts as the trusted central authority and also serves as
a data processor that connects the sensor network to the outside world.
2.1.3 Smart technologies
The objects that become smart after the implantation of intelligent technologies
can communicate with the users by actively or passively way. Nowadays, smart
technology is one of the most upcoming innovation as in combination with others
technologies (Bluetooth, Wireless Networks, RFID), it gives, in physical things, an
independent and dynamic role. Advances in smart buildings, in smart vehicles, in
smart environment and personal robotics are some of the leading areas.
2.1.4 Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is used to improve products in many industries and disciplines,
including medicine, energy and transport. This kind of technology is growing and is
connected with the capacity to observe and supervise the atoms and molecules.
Meanwhile, it can have other various forms of use, such as to develop special sports
equipment for therapeutic applications [12].
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2.2 Applications
Nowadays, the emerging IoT has impacted many application domains (Fig 2.) and,
according to the researchers, up to 2020, it is estimated more than 30 billion devices
will be wirelessly connected to the IoT [11][1].
Fig. 2. Application of IoT. Source: datasciencebe.com
The IoT appends to physical objects both an interactive and dynamic task,
providing them the capacity to interact with users via embedded systems. Ubiquitous
computing and the IoT are become entwined with our everyday lives in many areas,
such as health, transport, agriculture, public sector, almost without our noticing it.
Although, it seems that the IoT will change future lifestyles, further work is required
in safety and security.
3 Cloud Computing and its Aggressiveness
Cloud Computing (CC) implies the use, through Internet technologies, of
computers and their resources, like storage, system software, applications software,
software packages, user applications and data, in a global scale. Obviously, access to
unlimited resources permits among the others, flexibility in choosing the appropriate
and most updated software, and collection of innovative applications and packages.
At the same time, CC, by allowing the selection of low cost storage capacity of
various computer systems and other computer devices income, provides immense
scalability and reduces performance cost of CC systems considerably. An additional
benefit to the end users of CC services is related to compatibility issues. Through
CC, in most cases, end users can take advantage of advanced and updated versions of
available software regardless of their platform specifications. But, "no pain no gain".
The high benefits of CC cost high risks in inconsistency and security. And as
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everybody knows how to efficiently deal with inconsistency, security remains in
danger and presents the main issue for the CC system developers.
Cloud's source characterizes its deployment model. Therefore, in case of a private
model, the owner of a cloud is an organization allowing its use to its own members.
Quit often, these clouds are used for data and specific applications sharing. A public
model of a cloud provider is usually offering services to customers. Examples of
such providers are Yahoo, Google, Amazon etc. A model that provides applications
and any kind of recourses to citizens of a community belongs to a community model.
In such a case, an administrator or a number of community members are usually
collectively operating the specific cloud. Finally, there is a hybrid model of cloud
providers in case of any scheme combining more than one model of the above [22].
The large number of cloud users, the variety of platforms used and the unlimited
number of physical devices operating under external protocols may result to cloud
expose in various threats. For this reason, organizations are concerned of their data
not being safe enough. This fear for corruption is intense in case of sensitive data.
Fear intensifies more because users do not know the security measures taken by the
provider's liability. Clearly enough, authorization, authentication, data
confidentiality, privacy, trust, integrity and data availability in CC and cloud
environments are opened research areas.
3.1 Authorization
Cloud providers are responsible for security measures of their system and
specifics for identification of their clients whoever they will be (enterprises, staff,
end users in general). In most of the cases clients, by providing their credentials
(usually their name and password), are entering to the cloud and make use of their
privileges which, in general, are, or should be, different from one user to another [22,
3]. If a user, in order to fully exploit an application available to a cloud, has to store
his own data files on this cloud, he must be ensured that his file will not be modified
without his authorization. Otherwise severe damage may be caused and this may be
fatal, particularly in the case of systems using sensitive data. Therefore, authorization
is necessary and it should be enforced by specific security precautions. As a
conclusion, the structure of a CC system should be very well organized and provision
of access to clients should follow restrictions according to their roles and needs.
3.2 Availability
Since unlimited clients may use a CC system, system's provider must be able to
support it under a heavy network load. Varying protocols and bandwidths may also
reconsidered. Also, in case of hardware failures operations should be not
discontinued and alternative routes should be available. Failures may be also caused
by external attacks of malicious users who are trying to bring down the system [22, 3,
14, 24]. Thus, availability is a critical issue and characterizes the quality of CC
service.
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3.3 Trust
In CC environments trust is an important issue since it has to do not only with the
cloud provider and his precautions but also with the behavior of the rest of parties
involved. Clients play a significant role since they may not always behave as they are
expected. Users of this kind may cause damage to an unsuspecting client, his data
files and expected outcome of his operation. Therefore, CC system providers must
ensure their clients that all safety measures have been undertaken and trust should be
their mutual feeling of minimized risks of the available cloud [22, 20].
3.4 Integrity
In CC environments data and hardware integrity refer to the system's protection by
not allowing to unauthorized users to access or modify or make any modifications to
the hardware used or its drivers. CC system' users may cause damages of this kind
intentionally or unintentionally. In both cases unsuspected clients are victims of a
malicious operation [22, 20].
4. e-Authentication - e-Identification: Ironing Computer Security
Currently, the complexity and multi-level architecture of computer systems pose
risks to application security and integrity of citizens’ personal data. Additionally, the
developers make unremitting efforts to meet all the application security gaps but
most of the time without success. The design of security in IT systems is closely
linked to the techniques, procedures and administrative measures as well moral-
social attitudes, principles and assumptions, sheltering from any threat of accidental
or intentional. The most crucial point in the design process of safe policies is the
identification and characterization as confidential data that are used and protected. In
addition to, principles of Integrity of Information, Confidentiality and Availability
Information security policies should incorporate besides the terms of authenticity,
authentication and Identification. The new emerging technologies (IoT, CC), that we
note above, facilitate greatly the daily life of citizens. However, security plays a key
role in the sustainability of an application or that of a service. On the one hand, the
system may defend information and data from unauthorized access and, on the other
hand, people use and trust these services more easily because they have high levels of
security.
Furthermore, milestone are the cross-border services that allow increased citizens’
mobility within the European states, as personal documentation and data are
following citizens throughout Europe. STORK 2.0 that recently finished, launched by
European Commission and presents a series of cross-border digital services that to (i)
enable the Digital Single Market focusing on legal entities & attributes which is
important for boosting SMEs & private sector, (ii) Facilitates cross-border
eGovernment applications and (iii) Reduces administrative burdens of the companies
& individuals wishing to provide services across borders. In this project, there are 58
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partners from 26 participating countries, including Greece. EID, eAU and e-SIGN
are the novel milestones for secure cross-border electronic transactions and
foundation blocks of the Digital Single Market.
4.1 Security in Internet of Things
The widely usage of IoT is an indisputable fact and by 2020 it is estimated to
reach 50 to 100 billion of devices [20]. In not-so futuristic world of IoT, security,
privacy, and trust need to be considered as fundamental design parameters. Experts
are trying to enhance the security of IoT framework, many security aspects must be
covered in order to maximize the security, such as, secure booting of devices, role-
based access controls, Firewalling and IPS and device authentication [21][18].
Fig. 3. Security in IoT. Source: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-06811-4
4.2 Security in Cloud Computing
The security of CC or just cloud security is a developing sub-domain of computer,
network, and, information security roughly. It indicates an extensive set of policies,
technologies, and controls that are used to secure data, applications, and the related
infrastructure of CC. The CC security can be separated into two categories: security
concerns encountered by cloud providers and security concerns encountered by their
customers. Although, most of cloud providers are considered to be frontrunners in
security issues, the last techniques that were used are: data encryption, data masking,
authentication and privacy [2].
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4.3 Security in cross-boarder Services
The goal of cross-border services is to eradicate the current digital barriers that
citizens face, and the businesses’ flexibility in the single market via e-gov services.
In essence, they allow citizens to establish new e-relations across borders, just by
presenting their national eID. EAU and eID, in combination with the e-Signatures are
the key enablers for the interoperability and reliability of cross-boarder services
[6][7][8]. The following figure shows the identification process and which the
providers that are involved.
Fig. 4. Authentication Procedures. Source: https://www.eid-stork2.eu/
5 Smart e-Government Agricultural applications
Traditional e-Government systems, adopted by many countries for the last ten
years or so, can be transform to Smart e-Government Systems (SeGSs) using last
developments and plethora of applications of CC, Big Data and IoT technologies.
This transformation, by the application or combined with recent research results, and
actually readymade platforms, on eID, eAU and e-SIGN, is further extending their
use and benefits to citizens, business or Government agencies. In the case of
Agriculture, SeGSs present a special interest due to the global recession in economy
which necessitates considerable reduction in production and distribution cost of the
agricultural production.
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Fig. 5. Different Technologies in Smart Farming. Source: Beeocham Research Ltd
On e-Commerce, the decisive benefits in using e-Government systems of the
mode G2B, B2B or B2C and their expected value for trust, time and money, are
those enabling e-business to perform efficiently improving at the same time their
security, accessibility and reliability. For example, let us consider a B2B application
of import-export activity of agricultural products. The transformation of this
application to the corresponding B2B smart e-Government system, by making full
use of eID, eAU and eSIGN platforms, will further minimize bureaucracy, time and
cost spent in ordinary transactions. E-transactions, through the above platforms, will
lower burden in conducting business in person (physical or enterprise).
Exports and imports of agricultural products are important day-to-day activities
and are usually supported so far by e-Government B2B systems conducted, in the
name of farmers, by intermediaries and, in the best case, by their Unions. Small
Medium Agricultural Enterprises (SMAEs) are paying heavy duties on this.
Evidently in the cross-border environment, a SMAE cannot conduct business without
guaranteed eID, eAU and eSIGN SeGSs. Therefore the use of SeGSs is of enormous
significance for SMAEs in conducting business at least in cross-border environments
(for example between the member States of the EU).
As we saw in previous sections, the IoT and the CC can work beneficially for
every domain. Moreover, the perfect combination of them can "take off" and
promote fast development in any sector. Agriculture is considered as a key driver of
the economy in many countries, especially those of South Europe like Greece, which
is in recession in economy. For this reason, there is an urgent need for transformation
and upgrading of the agricultural sector and making full use of the benefits of Smart
Agriculture.
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These days, farmers and breeders have new dynamic roles and challenges as
utilizing the technology and many interactive tools to their smart phones or their
tablets. So, based on key techniques of IoT, Big Data, GPS and CC, farmers have
endless functions, such as environment monitoring and control systems, real-time
weather forecasting reports, monitoring of food supply chain and soil and plant
monitoring [3].
Smart Agriculture is now an unprecedented research area, which has numerous
features, utilizing the sensors technology and ICTs. Among the benefits of innovative
technologies are: improvement in the use efficiency of inputs, increased profitability,
sustainability and food safety [3]. Additional, using RFID technology, farmers can
monitor the plant’s growth and monitor farm’s important data (soil constituent, soil
humidity, light, wind and air). Smart farms, now, aims to for making many
agricultural works more autonomous and context-aware [14].
A concrete area of Smart Agriculture with a plethora of SeGSs is that of Precision
Agriculture. Automation of farming procedures, climate monitoring, crops health
data, diagnosis of farm machinery breakdown and early detection of natural disasters
synthesize an upcoming Smart Farming era [24].
Fig. 6. Smart Farming. Source: http://www.iotphils.com/solutions/precision-agriculture/
6 Discussion
Under the World Wide Web (WWW) a new computing paradigm, with innovative
applications and integrated e-government systems inspired by advances in CC, Big
Data and IoT, is now prevailing. This computing paradigm dictates the extent, the
applicability, the availability and reliability of the new e-government systems
especially designed for unpredictable so far application areas in Agriculture,
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Forestry, Food Science and the Environment. That is why the current technological
epoch could be characterized as the epoch of Smart e-Government Systems (SeGS).
The main benefit of SeGSs is the combination of enormous quantities of data
and information, available through the above mentioned technologies, with no or
very low cost by the free usage of software and hardware globally available. The
main shortcoming comes from the security aspect and its parameters. In this respect a
lot of research effort is already producing useful results. Governmental organizations,
realizing the importance of SeGS in sensitive and financially significant application
areas, have announced political strategies, major programmes and specific projects.
In particular, the European Union (EU), since the turn of the century, has put too
much emphasis for the development of platforms by its member States enabling them
to implement the EU's objectives. An important such EU's principle is that of free
movement of its citizens with no cross-border obstacles. Other, no less significant
objectives, are those of the financial sector, integrated banking system, e-health and
e-justice systems. These systems have now developed and been applicable by
advances in the latest EU's STORK2 project. This project is on line with launched
seven priority areas in the "Europe 2020 Strategy". One of this areas should be dealt
with “wider deployment and more effective use of digital technologies” as a way of
preparing EU economy of the next decade [8]. Specific actions undertaken by
member States form the Digital Agenda for Europe which, in turn, is leading to a
Digital Single Market (DSM). Of course the main characteristic and prerequisite of
DSM implementation should be the connectivity of all Europeans (citizens,
businesses or administration staff) to high speed Internet though G2C, G2B, B2C and
G2G mode [10, 21, 16].
In this paper has been pointed out, though reference to specific SeGSs, that to the
above application areas should be added e-Agriculture, e-Forestry, e-Food Sciences
and e-Environment. In the latest areas of our interest, security aspects are partly
encountered by STORK's successful outcomes on eAU, eID and e-SIGN. The
importance of these SeGSs, with the latest features, it becomes more eminent under
the current economic recession on the economy of countries like Greece heavily
dependent on export of agricultural products.
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