Alter-egos and Roles --- Supporting Workflow Security in Cyberspace

Ehud Gudes, Reind P van de Riet, Hans FM Burg and Martin S Olivier

1998

Citation information

E Gudes, RP van de Riet, JFM Burg and MS Olivier, "Alter-egos and Roles - Supporting Workflow Security in Cyberspace," in TY Lin and S Qian (eds), Database Security XI: Status and Prospects, 182-195, Chapman & Hall, 1998

Abstract

Workflow Management (WFM) Systems automate traditional processes where information flows between individuals. WFM systems have two major implications for security. Firstly, since the description of a workflow process explicitly states when which function is to be performed by whom, security specifications may be automatically derived from such descriptions. Secondly, the derived security specifications have to be enforced. This paper considers these issues for a Cyberspace workflow system by describing a small, but comprehensive example.

The notion of an Alter-ego is central in this description: Alter-egos are objects that represent individuals in Cyberspace (and not merely identify them). In Cyberspace, documents in a workflow system therefore flow between Alter-egos, rather than between individuals.

Keywords

Security and Database systems, Workflow, Cyberspace, Object-Oriented Databases, Role-based security

BibTeX entry

@INPROCEEDINGS(altego,
  AUTHOR={Ehud Gudes and Reind P van de Riet and Hans F M Burg and
          Martin S Olivier},
  TITLE={Alter-egos and Roles --- Supporting Workflow Security in
         Cyberspace},
  EDITOR={T Y Lin and Shelly Qian},
  BOOKTITLE={Database Security XI: Status and Prospects},
  PAGES={182--195},
  PUBLISHER={Chapman \& Hall},
  YEAR={1998} )

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