Sensitive data integration services using shared data environments
Rajeev Samarage1, A. Abigail Payne1 1Melbourne Institute, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Abstract
The amount of data from secondary sources available for research is increasing due to recent changes in legislation and regulation around data sharing. Given the changing threat landscape (as evidenced by recent high profile data breaches in the country) and the changing requirements of researchers to undertake deeper analyses using sensitive data, there is now an ever-growing need for sensitive data environments within the existing infrastructure made available for research.
The Integrated Research Infrastructure for Social Sciences (IRISS) project is working towards providing a new foundation for integrating data, analysis, and platforms for social science research in Australia. One of its core components is the demonstration of how sensitive data environments can support and uplift existing data analytics practices while maintaining data confidentiality and the trust of data custodians. This project leverages the Melbourne Institute’s data expertise and their dedicated sensitive environment, the Melbourne Institute Data Lab, to showcase existing IRISS services can work within a high security setting. Our work for the IRISS project aims to showcase how sensitive data can be managed and incorporated into curation pipelines that enable the creation of ‘research ready’ versions of the data. These data enable faster research while contributing to a digital community of practice, the shared data environment – where data assets, documentation and program code can be shared with approved users inside the secure environment.
This presentation is intended to be delivered as a part of a session on the Integrated Research Infrastructure for Social Science (IRISS) project.
Biography
Dr Rajeev Samarage is the Data & Analytics Program Director and a Senior Research Fellow in data & analytics at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research. His expertise is in developing data science methods and translating them from engineering to medicine, and now to the social sciences. He is also the project lead of the Melbourne Institute Data Lab, a secure data enclave that enables collaboration on research to inform Australian economic and social policy using highly sensitive data assets from Australian Government and proprietary sources.