Digital Identities

The average Internet user has more than 25 Internet accounts, which are created for a wide variety of purposes. Besides accounts for e-mail services or social networks, users need access to learning platforms or online shopping services. Each of these internet accounts represents an individual digital identity. Each of these identities in turn contains a wide variety of personal information. In addition to information used to authenticate a user, such as an e-mail address and password, other services require very personal and sensitive data, such as bank details for payment and the place of residence for the subsequent delivery of an order.

The amount and variety of personal information that a digital identity can define provides cyber criminals with extensive opportunities for data misuse in the event of data theft. The protection of digital identities is therefore becoming increasingly important.

In this course we will look at how a digital identity is defined and what attributes such an identity can have. We will also explain which methods can be used to authenticate an identity and which techniques are available for identity management.

Another section of the workshop will look at different forms of attack on digital identities and give advice on how users can better protect their data. An important element in this context is the knowledge about secure passwords, possible attacks against passwords and secure methods for password storage.