Refinement for Administrative Policies

Flexibility of management is an important requisite for access control systems as it allows users to adapt the access control system in accordance with practical requirements. This paper builds on earlier work where we defined administrative policies for a general class of RBAC models. We present a formal definition of administrative refinnement and we show that there is an ordering for administrative privileges which yields administrative refinements of policies. We argue (by giving an example) that this privilege ordering can be very useful in practice, and we prove that the privilege ordering is tractable

A satellite-based personal communication system for the 21st century

Interest in personal communications (PCOMM) has been stimulated by recent developments in satellite and terrestrial mobile communications. A personal access satellite system (PASS) concept was developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) which has many attractive user features, including service diversity and a handheld terminal. Significant technical challenges addressed in formulating the PASS space and ground segments are discussed. PASS system concept and basic design features, high risk enabling technologies, an optimized multiple access scheme, alternative antenna coverage concepts, the use of non-geostationary orbits, user terminal radiation constraints, and user terminal frequency reference are covered

How a Diverse Research Ecosystem Has Generated New Rehabilitation Technologies: Review of NIDILRR’s Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers

Over 50 million United States citizens (1 in 6 people in the US) have a developmental, acquired, or degenerative disability. The average US citizen can expect to live 20% of his or her life with a disability. Rehabilitation technologies play a major role in improving the quality of life for people with a disability, yet widespread and highly challenging needs remain. Within the US, a major effort aimed at the creation and evaluation of rehabilitation technology has been the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERCs) sponsored by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research. As envisioned at their conception by a panel of the National Academy of Science in 1970, these centers were intended to take a “total approach to rehabilitation”, combining medicine, engineering, and related science, to improve the quality of life of individuals with a disability. Here, we review the scope, achievements, and ongoing projects of an unbiased sample of 19 currently active or recently terminated RERCs. Specifically, for each center, we briefly explain the needs it targets, summarize key historical advances, identify emerging innovations, and consider future directions. Our assessment from this review is that the RERC program indeed involves a multidisciplinary approach, with 36 professional fields involved, although 70% of research and development staff are in engineering fields, 23% in clinical fields, and only 7% in basic science fields; significantly, 11% of the professional staff have a disability related to their research. We observe that the RERC program has substantially diversified the scope of its work since the 1970’s, addressing more types of disabilities using more technologies, and, in particular, often now focusing on information technologies. RERC work also now often views users as integrated into an interdependent society through technologies that both people with and without disabilities co-use (such as the internet, wireless communication, and architecture). In addition, RERC research has evolved to view users as able at improving outcomes through learning, exercise, and plasticity (rather than being static), which can be optimally timed. We provide examples of rehabilitation technology innovation produced by the RERCs that illustrate this increasingly diversifying scope and evolving perspective. We conclude by discussing growth opportunities and possible future directions of the RERC program

A Dynamic Query-Rewriting Mechanism for Role-Based Access Control in Databases

Although Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a common security model currently, it has not been systematically applied in databases. In this paper, we propose a framework that enforces RBAC based on dynamic query rewriting. This framework grants privileges to data based on an intersection of roles, database structures, content, and privileges. All of this is implemented at the database level, which also offers a centralized location for administering security policies. We have implemented the framework within a healthcare setting

Oracle R12 EBusiness Suite Role Based Access Control and Roles Lifecycle Management

Oracle E-Business Suite R12 is a widely used ERP solution that provides integrated view of information across multiple functions and sources. It allows for simplified business process tools for Shared service model e.g. Centralized Operation where multiple operating units can be supported. Security considerations are vital for such operations in large enterprises. R12 introduced Role Based Access Control security based on ANSI RBAC standard. R12 RBAC implementation is challenged with lack of Roles Lifecycle Management (RLM) process which also contributes to challenges such as Segregation of duty (SOD), and controlling access to PII for multi-country operation for common functional areas. The paper will propose a possible Roles Lifecycle Management process.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figure

A Prototype Toolkit For Evaluating Indoor Environmental Quality In Commercial Buildings

Measurement of building environmental parameters is often complex, expensive, and not easily proceduralized in a manner that covers all commercial buildings. Evaluating building indoor environmental quality performance is therefore not standard practice. This project developed a prototype toolkit that addressed existing barriers to widespread indoor environmental quality performance evaluation. A toolkit with both hardware and software elements was designed for practitioners around the indoor environmental quality requirements of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers / Chartered Institution of Building Services / United States Green Building Council Performance Measurement Protocols. This unique toolkit was built on a wireless mesh network with a web-based data collection, analysis, and reporting application. The toolkit provided a fast, robust deployment of sensors, real-time data analysis, Performance Measurement Protocol-based analysis methods and a scorecard and report generation tools. A web-enabled Geographic Information System-based metadata collection system also reduced field-study deployment time. The toolkit was evaluated through three case studies, which were discussed in this report

An Access Control Model for Protecting Provenance Graphs

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