Master's thesis in Software Development: Integrating the privacy-by-design system IRMA in CryptPad

When you want to prove that you are older than 18 to buy a bottle of whiskey it shouldn’t be necessary to show your ID card which also contains your name, BSN and date of birth. Only the fact that you are 18+ should be sufficient. IRMA can achieve this by securely disclose certain attributes about you using your mobile phone running the IRMA app (https://irma.app) It protects your privacy by only show attributes that are sufficient in this situation, namely the attributing stating that you are older than 18. Therefore, your name and date of birth cannot be abused by a third party to commit for example identity fraud. This attribute-based authentication only reveals what you are and not who you are.

IRMA also offers attribute-based signatures which improve on the traditional digital signature done with a private key and a corresponding certificate containing the public key. These IRMA signatures are constructed by enclosing a number of attributes of the signer to the document. For example, signing a medical recipe using the docter’s medical attribute stating that the recipe comes from a real doctor. This is a big advantage over traditional signatures because it gives information about who actually signs it. IRMA is open source and available to integrate with other services for which authentication and signatures are important.

Such a service can be CryptPad (https://cryptpad.fr) with which you can make collaborative documents. It uses client side encryption to make sure it’s protected from other people that can access the server. Other people can read your documents by sharing your cryptographic key that is never sent to the server. Moreover, your username and password are used only to generate a unique keyring and the server only knows your signature to identify you and retrieve your documents. This Zero Knowledge application makes a good candidate to research whether integrating it with the IRMA system has further potential benefits.

You will research whether CryptPad can be improved by integrating IRMA by comparing approaches for authentication and digital signatures. Perhaps the attribute-based signatures can add value to prove the origin of the documents you write with CryptPad? What about the different authentication flows of both systems? This research includes setting up IRMA, integrate it with CryptPad, analyze approaches and motivate your choices to potentially improve CryptPad.

About Info Support Research Center

We anticipate on upcoming and future challenges and ensures our engineers develop cutting-edge solutions based on the latest scientific insights. Our research community proactively tackles emerging technologies. We do this in cooperation with renowned scientists, making sure that research teams are positioned and embedded throughout our organisation and our community, so that their insights are directly applied to our business. We truly believe in sharing knowledge, so we want to do this without any restrictions.

Read more about Info Support Research here.

What does Info Support offer you during your graduation period?

Of course, we offer you an excellent package of graduation conditions with various options. These include:

• Laptop, all necessary tools, and development environments to successfully carry out your assignment
• A graduation allowance, where you have the choice of:
  • € 1000 gross per month
  • € 500 gross per month + lease car with fuel card
  • € 600 gross per month + accommodation in Veenendaal

During your graduation internship, you will be included in one of our business units and in our Research Center. This will give you a good understanding of the developments within our projects and our research projects.

In addition, Info Support offers you:

• A challenging master’s thesis at a solid, growing, and financially healthy company
• Professional and experienced guidance, hybrid working
• A graduation program with, among other things, training sessions, knowledge evenings, project visits, activities, and team, unit, and company outings
• Experimentation with new products and releases that are in the pre-release phase
• Brainstorming with other graduates and IT colleagues who are collegial and passionate
• Potential for a permanent position in our IT Top Traineeship program!

About Info Support

Info Support specializes in custom software, data/AI solutions, management, and training and is active in the Finance, Industry, Agriculture, Food & Retail, Mobility & Public, and Healthcare sectors. We provide solid and innovative solutions for complex and critical software issues. Our headquarters are located in Veenendaal (NL) and Mechelen (BE). At present, approximately 500 employees are employed by Info Support.

Info Support’s working method is characterized by a number of core values: solidity, integrity, craftsmanship, and passion. These core values are intertwined in our work and the way we interact with each other. 

To ensure that all employees are always up to date with the latest developments, Info Support has an in-house knowledge center that eagerly satisfies the hunger for more or different knowledge and skills.

B2 language proficiency in Dutch is required.