Business is about to get better security for information thanks to research in pure mathematics.

"Information security is a major issue in today's digital telecommunication environment," says CSIRO scientist Dr Christine O'Keefe.

"As businesses gather information on the marketplace and use new techniques to infer valuable understanding from it, they need to protect this information."

Dr O'Keefe's research has provided highly efficient techniques to control access to important documents and information.

The techniques provide very high levels of security. Immense computing power, far beyond that currently available, would be required to overcome the security schemes.

Dr Christine O'Keefe's ground-breaking work has been recognised by the award of this year's Medal of the Australian Mathematical Society. She was one of two Australian researchers to receive the medal this year, and is the first woman to win the prize.

Dr O'Keefe carried out the basic research which earned her the medal while at the University of Adelaide. She joined CSIRO's Business Intelligence Group earlier this year to use the research to add information security systems to the Group's technologies for integrating information.

The Group is developing technologies which can, for example, combine information from multiple sources to improve business decision-making.

They can also provide automatic warnings to companies about events such as take-overs, by recognising the patterns associated with such events.

Dr O'Keefe's work will provide businesses with a way to secure this crucial information, ensuring that they retain the competitive advantage the new technologies offer.

"The field of finite geometry is quite different from the geometry that people may remember from high-school," she said. "It is very abstract. Points and objects have little resemblance to the intuitive idea of a point or a drawable figure. Instead, they can occupy an unlimited number of dimensions – not just 2 or 3 dimensions like the objects around us."

"But these geometries can be used to construct schemes for encoding and securing information and processes," Dr O'Keefe says.

"Having the chance to apply my research in pure mathematics to real world problems in this way is very exciting," she says.

"Being awarded the Medal is a great honour. I'm thrilled."

In announcing the award at the Society's Annual Meeting at the University of Queensland, the Society's President, Professor Ian Sloan said: "Australia should be proud of the achievements of its mathematical scientists who continue to make a major contribution to knowledge and the economic and cultural life of the nation".

"The Society is proud to acknowledge these two stars in awarding them this year's medal," he said.

More information:

Dr Christine O'Keefe (08) 8303 8772
Email: Christine.OKeefe@cmis.csiro.au

Janelle Kennard (02) 6216 7157
Janelle.Kennard@cmis.csiro.au