ENSAE Paris - École d'ingénieurs pour l'économie, la data science, la finance et l'actuariat
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Secure Data Hub (CASD)

Secure Data Hub (CASD)

CASD is a public interest grouping bringing together the State represented by INSEE, GENES, CNRS, École Polytechnique and HEC Paris created by interministerial order on December 29, 2018. 

  • The CASD was historically created within GENES, in the immediate environment of ENSAE and CREST.
  • After a pilot phase implemented jointly by GENES and INSEE in 2009, the CASD was selected as an Equipment of Excellence (Équipex) in the first wave of the French government's Investissements d'Avenir program (PIA, February 2010), and as such benefited from co-financing managed by the National Research Agency (ANR).

Missions

The main purpose of CASD is to organize and implement secure access services for confidential data for non-profit research, study, evaluation or innovation purposes, activities qualified as "research services", mainly public. It also has the mission of promoting the technology developed to secure access to data in the private sector. 

CASD plays an important role in the environment of applied research in economics and qualitative social sciences, by making data available to researchers under very strict security conditions.

A dedicated secure infrastructure known as "secure bubbles"

The SD-Box, a secure computer access box, allows remote access to a secure infrastructure where confidential data is kept safe. This data storage and processing area is called a "secure bubble". The SD-Box, specifically designed for this purpose, is very simple to install, easy to replace, and is updated remotely. Coupled with the central "watertight" IT infrastructure, it forms a coherent set of services controlled from end to end, guaranteeing the very high level of security that the CASD must offer to data producers.

The Data

  • In the public sector, the CASD currently makes available data from INSEE, the Ministries of Justice, National Education, Agriculture and Food, and the Economy and Finance for tax data... For the latter, an application decree explicitly states that access must be through the CASD.
  • In the health sector, access to data on all public and private hospital stays in France (PMSI data from the ATIH) as well as to certain health cohorts is possible via the CASD.
  • In the private sector, many companies are already partners of the CASD to increase the security of their data in external access in the context of collaboration with researchers, start-ups or consultants. These examples are perfectly in line with the current "open innovation" approach, combining business know-how, research and the innovation capacities of start-ups.