The cost of security for a completely private ubiquitous environment

Ubiquitous Environments are characterised as a heterogeneous set of devices and diverse communication channels and protocols to support seamless or invisible interaction between users and the environment. Information is constantly varying and transiting different channels throughout its lifetime in a dynamic and unpredictable manner. These environments provide a significant and novel set of challenges for security to support privacy protection. This extended abstract presents a discussion of the challenges involved in providing a hypothetical level of complete privacy and the potential security costs for an existing ubiquitous environment. The case study presents a specific scenario in which a high degree or complete privacy would be required. The discussion elaborates on the ability of current security technology to provide the required level of privacy and the potential costs related to the scenarios proposed.