Obsidian I² works on cybersecurity, digital trust and system resilience across connected, data-intensive and operational environments. The institute’s activities address secure architectures, privacy, trust, governance, and the protection of digital and cyber-physical systems under real-world constraints.
Our work spans cryptography, secure software and systems engineering, privacy-preserving architectures, post-quantum and advanced security approaches, AI-related security challenges, enterprise security architecture, and the security of connected and distributed systems. We also address resilience, assurance and trust in environments where data integrity, operational continuity and responsible deployment are critical.
Cybersecurity at Obsidian I² is not treated as an isolated technical field. It is considered in relation to how organisations design, operate and depend on digital systems, infrastructures, platforms and data flows. This includes the interaction between technical safeguards, governance mechanisms, human factors, and the wider operational context in which systems must remain trustworthy and usable.
Our areas of interest
Secure architectures and privacy
We explore security-by-design and privacy-by-design approaches for software, platforms, services and distributed systems. This includes secure architecture principles, identity and access approaches, cryptographic protection, confidential processing, and privacy-aware system design.
Trust, assurance and governance
We examine how trust can be established, maintained and assessed in digital environments. This includes assurance mechanisms, governance structures, compliance-oriented design, responsible innovation practices, and methods for improving confidence in data, systems and digital interactions.
AI, data integrity and resilient digital systems
We are interested in the security implications of AI-enabled environments, including data integrity, model robustness, trustworthy automation, and the resilience of systems that rely on algorithmic processing and large-scale data flows.
Security for IoT, distributed and cyber-physical environments
We address the security and resilience of connected devices, distributed platforms and cyber-physical systems, including challenges related to interoperability, constrained environments, edge systems, and real-world deployment conditions.
How we work
Obsidian I² contributes through research, technical development, collaborative innovation, validation activities, and interdisciplinary cooperation with partners from research, industry and other relevant ecosystems. Depending on the context, this may include conceptual work, prototyping, pilot support, architecture design, analysis, or dissemination of non-confidential outcomes and good practices.
Why this matters
As digital systems become more interconnected and more deeply embedded in organisational, industrial and societal processes, security can no longer be reduced to perimeter protection or isolated technical controls. Cybersecurity must support trust, continuity, usability and resilience across the full lifecycle of systems and services. Obsidian I² approaches this challenge as both a technical and socio-technical problem, recognising that secure and trustworthy systems depend on architecture, governance, context and responsible implementation.
