56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS)

This year’s Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2023 (HICSS) was a great platform for experts in the field to share their research findings. This year’s conference welcomed 678 papers out of 1,429 submissions by 2,012 authors into their 11 topic communities:

• Collaboration Systems and Technologies
• Decision Analytics and Service Science
• Digital and Social Media
• Digital Government
• Electric Energy Systems
• Information Technology in Healthcare
• Internet and the Digital Economy
• Knowledge Innovation and Entrepreneurial Systems
• Location Intelligence
• Organizational Systems and Technology
• Software Technology

Our team presented three research papers within the topics of cybersecurity and blockchain.

Touching Space: Distributed Ledger Technology for Tracking and Tracing Certificates
Author(s): Moriggl, Pascal; Asprion, Petra; Schneider, Bettina; Scherb, Christopher

Components built into space vehicles and equipment (space products) must meet different regulatory requirements; in detail, each component must be certified and sustainably traceable at all times. Space engineers have expressed the need for an interoperable system to collect, manage and route certifications for components, parts and materials that go into space products. The lack of a unified approach in the European space industry is a challenge for companies involved in product development. This research proposes an open-source, secure, fast and distributed ledger technology (DLT) based solution that fits into any IT environment and is well adapted to the needs of manufacturing companies in the space sector.

Building Digital Trust to Protect Whistleblowers – A blockchain-based Reporting Channel
Author(s): Asprion, Petra; Grieder, Hermann; Grimmberg, Frank; Moriggl, Pascal

Organizations today need internal reporting channels to report illegal/unethical misconduct. For this purpose, organizations set up one or more – often digital – internal reporting channels. Persons/Employees who want to report misconduct, so-called whistleblowers, expose themselves to reprisals and therefore need trustworthy reporting channels which ensure ´Digital Trust´. Blockchain, a technology that overcomes the need for trust due to its properties of immutability and integrity of data, could be promising as underlying technology for a digital reporting channel which is recognized as trustworthy. In our research, we explored multiple perspectives relevant to a trustworthy digital reporting system. Applying design science research, we evaluated the current state of the art of (digital) reporting channels and developed a prototypical blockchain-based reporting solution called “Integrity@Inside”. 

Cybersecurity Governance – An Adapted Practical Framework for Small Enterprises
Author(s): Asprion, Petra; Gossner, Patrick; Schneider, Bettina

Digitalization is advancing and the associated risks are a strategic task for enterprises of all sizes. One risk area to which small businesses often do not pay enough attention are cyber risks. Often, the governance of cyber risks is not embedded at the owner or management level. However, it is important to evaluate, direct and monitor cyber risk mitigation activities by a company’s leaders or its owner. A ´cybersecurity governance framework´ for small enterprises was developed and validated by applying Design Science Research. The framework focuses on criteria that are essential for small businesses, such as simplicity of understanding and ease of use (both for non-experts).