TrustCV : supporting reputation-based trust for collectivist digital business ecosystems
- Authors: Isherwood, Donovan Anthony
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Software ecosystems - Africa , Small business - Africa , Trust , Reputation , Social networks
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:11706 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11427
- Description: M.Sc. (Information Technology) , In Africa, the economy is largely dominated by SMMEs that represent 90% of private businesses and contribute to more than 50% of employment and GDP. However, these SMMEs struggle to sustain their businesses in the current economic climate. To address this, advancements in mobile and cloud technology introduce new possibilities such as digital business ecosystems to support environment where small, micro, and medium enterprises can interoperate. The fundamental challenge for SMMEs in a digital business ecosystem is the selection of transaction partners. SMMEs are interested to transact with other SMMEs that will benefit their business through successful transactions. This leads to the sustainability and growth of SMMEs and consequently the economy. However, not all SMMEs behave as predicted and therefore, being able to trust another SMME in the digital business ecosystem is important. Trust is an essential part of business and personal life. The social nature of trust makes trust very personalised and for each individual, trust is interpreted, understood and perceived according to past experience and social behaviour. These factors are largely influenced by cultural norms and behaviours that individuals conform to. In African and some other regions, collectivist cultural norms and behaviours are common whereas in Westernised regions, individualist cultures are common. Therefore, it is not enough to just consider trust from a technical perspective but also from a cultural perspective. For small businesses in Africa and other regions in the world, this is especially true. Compared to larger companies in developed economies, SMMEs in Africa are more informal and operate in a more personal manner. This implies that trust decisions are largely influence an owner or employee’s cultural norms and behaviour. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a trust model, known as Trustcv that supports the cultural norms and behaviours of collectivist cultures for trust in a digital business ecosystem. Digital business ecosystems, trust, culture and social network analysis provide the literature foundation for Trustcv. The effectiveness of Trustcv is measured through simulations of a digital business ecosystem in Africa, which provides interesting results compared to an existing trust model. The results indicate that Trustcv could be used to support trust in collectivist digital business ecosystems used by collectivist cultural SMMEs.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Isherwood, Donovan Anthony
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Software ecosystems - Africa , Small business - Africa , Trust , Reputation , Social networks
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:11706 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11427
- Description: M.Sc. (Information Technology) , In Africa, the economy is largely dominated by SMMEs that represent 90% of private businesses and contribute to more than 50% of employment and GDP. However, these SMMEs struggle to sustain their businesses in the current economic climate. To address this, advancements in mobile and cloud technology introduce new possibilities such as digital business ecosystems to support environment where small, micro, and medium enterprises can interoperate. The fundamental challenge for SMMEs in a digital business ecosystem is the selection of transaction partners. SMMEs are interested to transact with other SMMEs that will benefit their business through successful transactions. This leads to the sustainability and growth of SMMEs and consequently the economy. However, not all SMMEs behave as predicted and therefore, being able to trust another SMME in the digital business ecosystem is important. Trust is an essential part of business and personal life. The social nature of trust makes trust very personalised and for each individual, trust is interpreted, understood and perceived according to past experience and social behaviour. These factors are largely influenced by cultural norms and behaviours that individuals conform to. In African and some other regions, collectivist cultural norms and behaviours are common whereas in Westernised regions, individualist cultures are common. Therefore, it is not enough to just consider trust from a technical perspective but also from a cultural perspective. For small businesses in Africa and other regions in the world, this is especially true. Compared to larger companies in developed economies, SMMEs in Africa are more informal and operate in a more personal manner. This implies that trust decisions are largely influence an owner or employee’s cultural norms and behaviour. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a trust model, known as Trustcv that supports the cultural norms and behaviours of collectivist cultures for trust in a digital business ecosystem. Digital business ecosystems, trust, culture and social network analysis provide the literature foundation for Trustcv. The effectiveness of Trustcv is measured through simulations of a digital business ecosystem in Africa, which provides interesting results compared to an existing trust model. The results indicate that Trustcv could be used to support trust in collectivist digital business ecosystems used by collectivist cultural SMMEs.
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A low-cost contactless micro-payment framework
- Authors: Grimm, Nicholas Justin
- Date: 2014-06-30
- Subjects: Taxicab industry , Payment , Electronic funds transfers , Mobile commerce , Global positioning system , Near field communication
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/366994 , uj:11622 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11335
- Description: M.Com. (Informatics) , This research has the aim of creating a low-cost, contactless, micro-payment framework to support micro-payments for the informal taxi industry in South Africa. The informal taxi industry is a prime example of an industry that needs simple and effective payments for low-cost services where the primary medium of payment is currently cash. Challenges of currently used are the security of cash, the difficulty for the taxi driver to collect cash, and the auditability of cash from the perspective of the taxi owner. Furthermore, the taxi owner does not know the routes the taxi travels or the petrol that is used by the taxi. Micro-payment transaction volumes are rapidly increasing due to consumer need for simple and effective payments for low-cost items and services. Micro-payment technologies are rapidly growing in popularity and demand, prompting the need for financial institutions to consider investment in the technology. Contactless technology, specifically near-field communication (NFC), is contributing to the exponential growth of micro-payments. Increasingly, consumers are not required to enter security information in order to perform transactions. By bringing a compatible card within range of a suitable reader, a transaction takes place with immediate effect, with little or no involvement from payment providers and financial institutions. Complementary wireless technologies such as GPS enable a multitude of applications by offering positional and speed information. Combining GPS technology with NFC enables contactless positional payment information to be accessible, to present a unique micro-payment concept. This dissertation presents M-Thinta, a low-cost contactless micro-payment model. The M-Thinta prototype demonstrates the real-world operation of the M-Thinta model. The prototype demonstrates that it is possible to create a functional low-cost, contactless micro-payment platform by combining a number of standard low-cost components.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Grimm, Nicholas Justin
- Date: 2014-06-30
- Subjects: Taxicab industry , Payment , Electronic funds transfers , Mobile commerce , Global positioning system , Near field communication
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/366994 , uj:11622 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11335
- Description: M.Com. (Informatics) , This research has the aim of creating a low-cost, contactless, micro-payment framework to support micro-payments for the informal taxi industry in South Africa. The informal taxi industry is a prime example of an industry that needs simple and effective payments for low-cost services where the primary medium of payment is currently cash. Challenges of currently used are the security of cash, the difficulty for the taxi driver to collect cash, and the auditability of cash from the perspective of the taxi owner. Furthermore, the taxi owner does not know the routes the taxi travels or the petrol that is used by the taxi. Micro-payment transaction volumes are rapidly increasing due to consumer need for simple and effective payments for low-cost items and services. Micro-payment technologies are rapidly growing in popularity and demand, prompting the need for financial institutions to consider investment in the technology. Contactless technology, specifically near-field communication (NFC), is contributing to the exponential growth of micro-payments. Increasingly, consumers are not required to enter security information in order to perform transactions. By bringing a compatible card within range of a suitable reader, a transaction takes place with immediate effect, with little or no involvement from payment providers and financial institutions. Complementary wireless technologies such as GPS enable a multitude of applications by offering positional and speed information. Combining GPS technology with NFC enables contactless positional payment information to be accessible, to present a unique micro-payment concept. This dissertation presents M-Thinta, a low-cost contactless micro-payment model. The M-Thinta prototype demonstrates the real-world operation of the M-Thinta model. The prototype demonstrates that it is possible to create a functional low-cost, contactless micro-payment platform by combining a number of standard low-cost components.
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PerTrust : leveraging personality and trust for group recommendations
- Authors: Leonard, Justin Sean
- Date: 2014-07-01
- Subjects: Recommender systems (Information filtering) , Information filtering systems
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:11648 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11364
- Description: M.Sc. (Information Technology) , Recommender systems assist a system user to identify relevant content within a specific context. This is typically performed through an analysis of a system user’s rating habits and personal preferences and leveraging these to return one or a number of relevant recommendations. There are numerable contexts in which recommender systems can be applied, such as movies, tourism, books, and music. The need for recommender systems has become increasingly relevant, particularly on the Internet. This is mainly due to the exponential amount of content that is published online on a daily basis. It has thus become more time consuming and difficult to find pertinent information online, leading to information overload. The relevance of a recommender system, therefore, is to assist a system user to overcome the information overload problem by identifying pertinent information on their behalf. There has been much research done within the recommender system field and how such systems can best recommend items to an individual user. However, a growing and more recent research area is how recommender systems can be extended to recommend items to groups, known as group recommendation. The relevance of group recommendation is that many contexts of recommendation apply to both individuals and groups. For example, people often watch movies or visit tourist attractions as part of a group. Group recommendation is an inherently more complex form of recommendation than individual recommendation for a number of reasons. The first reason is that the rating habits and personal preferences of each system user within the group need to be considered. Additionally, these rating habits and personal preferences can be quite heterogeneous in nature. Therefore, group recommendation becomes complex because a satisfactory recommendation needs to be one which meets the preferences of each group member and not just a single group member. The second reason why group recommendation is considered to be more complex than individual recommendation is because a group not only includes multiple personal preferences, but also multiple personality types. This means that a group is more complex from a social perspective. Therefore, a satisfactory group recommendation needs to be one which considers the varying personality types and behaviours of the group. The purpose of this research is to present PerTrust, a generic framework for group recommendation with the purpose of providing a possible solution to the aforementioned issues noted above. The primary focus of PerTrust is how to leverage both personality and trust in overcoming these issues.
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- Authors: Leonard, Justin Sean
- Date: 2014-07-01
- Subjects: Recommender systems (Information filtering) , Information filtering systems
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:11648 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/11364
- Description: M.Sc. (Information Technology) , Recommender systems assist a system user to identify relevant content within a specific context. This is typically performed through an analysis of a system user’s rating habits and personal preferences and leveraging these to return one or a number of relevant recommendations. There are numerable contexts in which recommender systems can be applied, such as movies, tourism, books, and music. The need for recommender systems has become increasingly relevant, particularly on the Internet. This is mainly due to the exponential amount of content that is published online on a daily basis. It has thus become more time consuming and difficult to find pertinent information online, leading to information overload. The relevance of a recommender system, therefore, is to assist a system user to overcome the information overload problem by identifying pertinent information on their behalf. There has been much research done within the recommender system field and how such systems can best recommend items to an individual user. However, a growing and more recent research area is how recommender systems can be extended to recommend items to groups, known as group recommendation. The relevance of group recommendation is that many contexts of recommendation apply to both individuals and groups. For example, people often watch movies or visit tourist attractions as part of a group. Group recommendation is an inherently more complex form of recommendation than individual recommendation for a number of reasons. The first reason is that the rating habits and personal preferences of each system user within the group need to be considered. Additionally, these rating habits and personal preferences can be quite heterogeneous in nature. Therefore, group recommendation becomes complex because a satisfactory recommendation needs to be one which meets the preferences of each group member and not just a single group member. The second reason why group recommendation is considered to be more complex than individual recommendation is because a group not only includes multiple personal preferences, but also multiple personality types. This means that a group is more complex from a social perspective. Therefore, a satisfactory group recommendation needs to be one which considers the varying personality types and behaviours of the group. The purpose of this research is to present PerTrust, a generic framework for group recommendation with the purpose of providing a possible solution to the aforementioned issues noted above. The primary focus of PerTrust is how to leverage both personality and trust in overcoming these issues.
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A framework for the provisioning of context-aware RESTful services on mobile devices
- Authors: Van Der Westhuizen, Charl
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/267203 , uj:28347
- Description: M.Sc. (Computer Science) , Abstract: Web accessible services on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are a reality in today’s age. Traditionally web services are hosted in server environments with fixed infrastructure. With the number of mobile devices and their technical capabilities increasing rapidly, it becomes possible to provide web accessible services on mobile devices that were previously only available in static environments. However, the web accessible services hosted on mobile devices could consume valuable device resources such as battery power, network connectivity, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) availability. This research explores the requirements, challenges, existing architectures and the current state-of-the-art solutions for providing RESTful services on mobile devices. A specific challenge that is addressed by this research is how the quality of service and discovery of RESTful services on mobile devices can be improved. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a framework for the provisioning of context-aware RESTful services on mobile devices, namely Context-RSP. Context- RSP is evaluated by implementing a prototype, designed according the specifications of the framework. The prototype is evaluated by using a server test tool. The evaluation of the framework suggests that Context-RSP is a suitable framework that supports the provisioning of context-aware RESTful services hosted on mobile devices.
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- Authors: Van Der Westhuizen, Charl
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/267203 , uj:28347
- Description: M.Sc. (Computer Science) , Abstract: Web accessible services on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are a reality in today’s age. Traditionally web services are hosted in server environments with fixed infrastructure. With the number of mobile devices and their technical capabilities increasing rapidly, it becomes possible to provide web accessible services on mobile devices that were previously only available in static environments. However, the web accessible services hosted on mobile devices could consume valuable device resources such as battery power, network connectivity, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) availability. This research explores the requirements, challenges, existing architectures and the current state-of-the-art solutions for providing RESTful services on mobile devices. A specific challenge that is addressed by this research is how the quality of service and discovery of RESTful services on mobile devices can be improved. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a framework for the provisioning of context-aware RESTful services on mobile devices, namely Context-RSP. Context- RSP is evaluated by implementing a prototype, designed according the specifications of the framework. The prototype is evaluated by using a server test tool. The evaluation of the framework suggests that Context-RSP is a suitable framework that supports the provisioning of context-aware RESTful services hosted on mobile devices.
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Access control for local personal smart spaces
- Authors: Greaves, Brian Rex
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Smartphones - Access control , Mobile computing - Access control , Wireless communication systems - Access control
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/84733 , uj:19258
- Description: Abstract: More powerful smart devices come onto the market and into the hands of consumers every year. These devices provide less reliance on fixed mediums for information and content sharing by supporting peer-to-peer connections such as Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth and Near Field Communication. Technologies such as these enable resource sharing that is not hindered by fixed access point range or costly Internet connections. This new-found mobility has enabled a greater degree of freedom for smart device users to share and consume resources wherever they are. New technologies not only support unrestricted content sharing, but also introduce new threats to the security of personal and corporate information resident on smart devices. Peer-to-peer technologies do not provide a means to enable streamlined sharing for multiple files. It quickly becomes a cumbersome task to synchronise content such as files or calendars without a third-party application such as DropBox or iCloud, which may incur additional costs to the user. To combat this limitation, smart spaces can enable the sharing of resources on-the-go, whenever other capable devices are in range. Smart spaces provide a managed means for users to share and protect their resources. Although current smart spaces can manage user resources in a secure way, they lack the ability to allow users to define content sharing preferences and have them considered when access control is performed. Current smart spaces thus provide a greater degree of autonomy and security, but they do not support the measure of personalisation and control needed by today’s smart device users. In order to address the contents sharing and personalisation concerns relating to smart spaces, this dissertation proposes the concept of a Local Personal Smart space to provide user-tailored services to smart devices in close proximity. This research proposes a Local Personal Smart Space framework that is geared to provide secure resource sharing by supporting resources and access control policy management to perform access control locally on a peer device without the reliance on third parties. This dissertation defines a trust- and context-based access control model capable of catering to user preferences and the security of groups of devices and files through the use of local and global policies which are combined to consider the personal preference of the device owner and the security rules set by the group owner. To test the Local Personal Smart Space framework and its access control model, this research developed the SmartNet prototype to verify their effectiveness at providing user-tailored services and security for content resident on the devices. The SmartNet application also serves to verify the effectiveness of this research in achieving its research objectives. , M.Sc. (Information Technology)
- Full Text:
- Authors: Greaves, Brian Rex
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Smartphones - Access control , Mobile computing - Access control , Wireless communication systems - Access control
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/84733 , uj:19258
- Description: Abstract: More powerful smart devices come onto the market and into the hands of consumers every year. These devices provide less reliance on fixed mediums for information and content sharing by supporting peer-to-peer connections such as Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth and Near Field Communication. Technologies such as these enable resource sharing that is not hindered by fixed access point range or costly Internet connections. This new-found mobility has enabled a greater degree of freedom for smart device users to share and consume resources wherever they are. New technologies not only support unrestricted content sharing, but also introduce new threats to the security of personal and corporate information resident on smart devices. Peer-to-peer technologies do not provide a means to enable streamlined sharing for multiple files. It quickly becomes a cumbersome task to synchronise content such as files or calendars without a third-party application such as DropBox or iCloud, which may incur additional costs to the user. To combat this limitation, smart spaces can enable the sharing of resources on-the-go, whenever other capable devices are in range. Smart spaces provide a managed means for users to share and protect their resources. Although current smart spaces can manage user resources in a secure way, they lack the ability to allow users to define content sharing preferences and have them considered when access control is performed. Current smart spaces thus provide a greater degree of autonomy and security, but they do not support the measure of personalisation and control needed by today’s smart device users. In order to address the contents sharing and personalisation concerns relating to smart spaces, this dissertation proposes the concept of a Local Personal Smart space to provide user-tailored services to smart devices in close proximity. This research proposes a Local Personal Smart Space framework that is geared to provide secure resource sharing by supporting resources and access control policy management to perform access control locally on a peer device without the reliance on third parties. This dissertation defines a trust- and context-based access control model capable of catering to user preferences and the security of groups of devices and files through the use of local and global policies which are combined to consider the personal preference of the device owner and the security rules set by the group owner. To test the Local Personal Smart Space framework and its access control model, this research developed the SmartNet prototype to verify their effectiveness at providing user-tailored services and security for content resident on the devices. The SmartNet application also serves to verify the effectiveness of this research in achieving its research objectives. , M.Sc. (Information Technology)
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The design of a configurable reputation service
- Authors: Van Der Westhuizen, Channel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/267211 , uj:28348
- Description: M.Sc. (Computer Science) , Abstract: Novel trust and reputation models are frequently proposed by the research community to suit the needs of a specific environment. From the plethora of models that are available, it becomes difficult to know which features can be combined in general-purpose models suitable for commercial use. In order to address this problem, the focus of recent research on trust and reputation systems has been on the identification of common features in order to enable reuse. Organizations who need to use a reputation system within their application domain have to custom build it, which may be challenging for novice reputation system developers. This dissertation defines a strategy to develop a configurable SaaS reputation service that has the ability to support common features, but at the same time accommodate the unique requirements of a variety of online communities. A domain analysis reveals common features that can be arranged and re-organized using variability modelling to enable a SaaS providers to support the configuration of a SaaS reputation service. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a Reputation-as-a-Service model that support configuration in order to accommodate the reputation requirements of a variety of communities.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Van Der Westhuizen, Channel
- Date: 2016
- Language: English
- Type: Masters (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/267211 , uj:28348
- Description: M.Sc. (Computer Science) , Abstract: Novel trust and reputation models are frequently proposed by the research community to suit the needs of a specific environment. From the plethora of models that are available, it becomes difficult to know which features can be combined in general-purpose models suitable for commercial use. In order to address this problem, the focus of recent research on trust and reputation systems has been on the identification of common features in order to enable reuse. Organizations who need to use a reputation system within their application domain have to custom build it, which may be challenging for novice reputation system developers. This dissertation defines a strategy to develop a configurable SaaS reputation service that has the ability to support common features, but at the same time accommodate the unique requirements of a variety of online communities. A domain analysis reveals common features that can be arranged and re-organized using variability modelling to enable a SaaS providers to support the configuration of a SaaS reputation service. The research conducted in this dissertation proposes a Reputation-as-a-Service model that support configuration in order to accommodate the reputation requirements of a variety of communities.
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A framework for identity and access assurance
- Authors: Damon, Ferdinand
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/458757 , uj:40760
- Description: Abstract: Organisations are under attack. The security domain is a vast area with many components that are being deployed to enable the protection of organisational or personal assets and resources. In the background, hidden from sight, are information technology protection systems that identify threats, give access to resources and monitor malicious intentions from outsider threats. The ownership and responsibility of these protection systems are squarely placed on the shoulders of top level executives that manage and run organisations. No longer is the impact of breaches limited to affecting the organisations, but now executives are held personally responsible and may receive hefty fines. Organisational security is often experienced by users, and also executives, as an incidental and a seamless experience as the complexity of the implementation processes and technology is hidden from them. As a result, organisations often shift their focus to business related technology requirements and end user experience enhancements. Without a constant focus on organisational information security protection, organisations can lose control of their security posture and face compliance problems. In addition, with the advent of social networks and mobile devices, significant new business risks are emerging such as inadvertently sharing confidential organization information to the public. New innovations such as cloud and mobile technologies expand the reach of organisations and requires significant investment of resources to protect data. In the constant search for a base to identify, design and deploy robust solutions has resulted in the research of frameworks, architectures and evaluation models at both an enterprise as well as security levels. These frameworks, architectures and evaluation models greatly assist with the design of the organisation, but unfortunately, do not provide a single view of the components that make up identity and access management domain and the current maturity or state of the components. This thesis identifies the components that define the identity and access management domain and outlines a framework to derive a component model that can be presented to stakeholders at an executive level. The identity and access management component model framework provide stakeholders with a view to identify focus areas for innovation and/or improvement. , Ph.D. (Computer Science)
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- Authors: Damon, Ferdinand
- Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Type: Doctoral (Thesis)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/458757 , uj:40760
- Description: Abstract: Organisations are under attack. The security domain is a vast area with many components that are being deployed to enable the protection of organisational or personal assets and resources. In the background, hidden from sight, are information technology protection systems that identify threats, give access to resources and monitor malicious intentions from outsider threats. The ownership and responsibility of these protection systems are squarely placed on the shoulders of top level executives that manage and run organisations. No longer is the impact of breaches limited to affecting the organisations, but now executives are held personally responsible and may receive hefty fines. Organisational security is often experienced by users, and also executives, as an incidental and a seamless experience as the complexity of the implementation processes and technology is hidden from them. As a result, organisations often shift their focus to business related technology requirements and end user experience enhancements. Without a constant focus on organisational information security protection, organisations can lose control of their security posture and face compliance problems. In addition, with the advent of social networks and mobile devices, significant new business risks are emerging such as inadvertently sharing confidential organization information to the public. New innovations such as cloud and mobile technologies expand the reach of organisations and requires significant investment of resources to protect data. In the constant search for a base to identify, design and deploy robust solutions has resulted in the research of frameworks, architectures and evaluation models at both an enterprise as well as security levels. These frameworks, architectures and evaluation models greatly assist with the design of the organisation, but unfortunately, do not provide a single view of the components that make up identity and access management domain and the current maturity or state of the components. This thesis identifies the components that define the identity and access management domain and outlines a framework to derive a component model that can be presented to stakeholders at an executive level. The identity and access management component model framework provide stakeholders with a view to identify focus areas for innovation and/or improvement. , Ph.D. (Computer Science)
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