These are exciting, yet at the same time worrying, times. ICT is increasingly used to empower and connect people (already before but even more so during the corona crisis). This gradual confluence of the virtual and the real world into one Internet of People and Things is changing the world before our very eyes. Are we in control? Can we trust this emerging new infrastructure?
Jaap-Henk Hoepman believes that these are important questions that do not have just a technological answer. They need to be tackled from different perspectives. Even though their means and methods differ widely, engineers, legal scholars, social scientists and even artists all investigate and try to understand the world around them. Their creations, whether they are new technologies, scientific papers, or works of art, present us views on a possible future. Jaap-Henk thinks we can learn from each others approaches and results, and that we should join forces to shape our future in this new world. We should not stand on the sideline and simply watch the future unfold.
Jaap-Henk believes that our increasing dependence on information technology requires us to do all that is necessary to ensure that the user remains in control. This means the technology should be open, transparent, reliable, trustable, secure and aligned with our digital liberties. Self-organisation is key. Adaptability, by humans as well as the systems themselves, is important.
Currently, Jaap-Henk is an associate professor in computer security, privacy and identity management at the Digital Security group of the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences of the Radboud University Nijmegen, working for the iHub, the interdisciplinary research hub on Security, Privacy, and Data Governance. He is principal scientist (and former scientific director and co-founder) of the Privacy & Identity Lab, and he is also an associate professor in the IT Law section of the Transboundary Legal Studies department of the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen.
His research is inspired by practical problems. Jaap-Henk focuses on the design of a secure and privacy friendly protocols for identity management and the Internet of Things. Apart from that he studies privacy by design. Jaap-Henk likes to solve complex problems, and to explain their (technical) solution in layman’s terms to a general audience. He speaks on these topics at national and international conferences and publish his results both in (inter)national scientific journals as well as in the popular press.
Jaap-Henk likes to stimulate debate on how current developments in ICT impact our society, especially in the areas of security, privacy and digital liberty. He is not afraid to take an unorthodox or extreme position in such debates which can help to uncover the essence, the hearth of the matter at hand. Most importantly, Jaap-Henk loves to be standing at this personal crossroads of theoretical computer science, ICT, law, and creativity in art, music and design, and to be able to combine the best of all these worlds. In his free time Jaap-Henk enjoys making his own music, designing visuals, and practice Okinawan Goju Ryu karate-do.
EOW