Minerva E-ID Assessment Framework (MEIA) Pilot Project
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to test basic social scientific theory on the relation between digital identity, socioeconomic growth, and cybercrime. It draws on legal theory, cyberdeviance theory, and sociopolitical theory on ungoverned spaces to develop a new integrated fundamental understanding of the growing phenomena of e-citizenship. Several countries across the globe are developing or have developed programs to allow fore-citizenship ore-residency. ln these cases, a person need not have physical ties (such as a physical residence) in order to access state resources and rights (e.g., tax breaks for businesses, protection from the state, social services, even voting rights). E-citizenship ore-residency are established through the fonnation of a digital identity, which generates access to state-developed and state-maintained portals. Little is known about the unintended adverse effects of such programs, which could conceivably involve identity threat, money-laundering avenues, and a range of cybercrimes. Also, the processes and systems for establishing e-citizenship/residency processes are only beginning to emerge and little is known about their reliability, validity, and whether they will be viewed as legitimate in the global complex. Consequently, the researchers will also be advancing institutional theory, legitimacy theory, and identity theory by testing competing hypotheses from these basic social science areas in this new empirical domain. The research team has unique experience exploring the legal and social implications of digitar identities. They also have expertise in legal theory and, particularly international law. They will harness this expertise to develop novel theoretical frameworks to be validated through hypothesis testing using the case of Estonia in this initial project. Estonia is one of the first nation states to launch an extensive e-residency program. The PI and Co-PI have outstanding access to Estonian officials and experts who are developing the e-residency program in Estonia, including the Estonian Director of thee-residency program. They have designed a comprehensive interview schedule to document key facets of the enrollment process, lechnology systems, rights/resources accessibility, economic goals and political goals, as well as marketing strategy of the Estonian e-residency program. The team also has developed a comprehensive interview schedule to administer to both Estonian and US experts in cybercrime and quality of services delivered purely through on-line methods. Data from these interviews will be quantified, where appropriate, particularly to assess risks via advanced software analytics (e.g., Metrics Identification of Attack Surfaces (MIDAS) and to assess service flows and choke points related to the process of e-residency enrollment and access of services by e-residents. Vulnerabilities in these systems and processes will then be identified and tested. The project will also entail collecting data on relevant laws in Estonia, international law, and a small sample of nation states to compare law and identify points of conflict. The PI has already identified nation-states whose citizens may be most likely candidates fore-residency in Estonia. To lend interpretation to these more formal and computational analyses, some of the interview data will be qualitative to enable a process-tracing analytic strategy to uncover latent issues that this new fonn of citizenship may entail at individual, state, and global levels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 12, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1510595
Entities
People
- Eric Burger
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Georgetown University
- United States Army