A metaobject architecture for fault-tolerant distributed systems : the FRIENDS approach

The FRIENDS system developed at LAAS-CNRS is a metalevel architecture providing libraries of metaobjects for fault tolerance, secure communication, and group-based distributed applications. The use of metaobjects provides a nice separation of concerns between mechanisms and applications. Metaobjects can be used transparently by applications and can be composed according to the needs of a given application, a given architecture, and its underlying properties. In FRIENDS, metaobjects are used recursively to add new properties to applications. They are designed using an object oriented design method and implemented on top of basic system services. This paper describes the FRIENDS software-based architecture, the object-oriented development of metaobjects, the experiments that we have done, and summarizes the advantages and drawbacks of a metaobject approach for building fault-tolerant system

Using Medical History Embedded in Biometrics Medical Card for User Identity Authentication: Data Representation by AVT Hierarchical Data Tree

User authentication has been widely used by biometric applications that work on unique bodily features, such as fingerprints, retina scan, and palm vessels recognition. This paper proposes a novel concept of biometric authentication by exploiting a user's medical history. Although medical history may not be absolutely unique to every individual person, the chances of having two persons who share an exactly identical trail of medical and prognosis history are slim. Therefore, in addition to common biometric identification methods, medical history can be used as ingredients for generating Q&A challenges upon user authentication. This concept is motivated by a recent advancement on smart-card technology that future identity cards are able to carry patents' medical history like a mobile database. Privacy, however, may be a concern when medical history is used for authentication. Therefore in this paper, a new method is proposed for abstracting the medical data by using attribute value taxonomies, into a hierarchical data tree (h-Data). Questions can be abstracted to various level of resolution (hence sensitivity of private data) for use in the authentication process. The method is described and a case study is given in this paper

Authorization and access control of application data in Workflow systems

Workflow Management Systems (WfMSs) are used to support the modeling and coordinated execution of business processes within an organization or across organizational boundaries. Although some research efforts have addressed requirements for authorization and access control for workflow systems, little attention has been paid to the requirements as they apply to application data accessed or managed by WfMSs. In this paper, we discuss key access control requirements for application data in workflow applications using examples from the healthcare domain, introduce a classification of application data used in workflow systems by analyzing their sources, and then propose a comprehensive data authorization and access control mechanism for WfMSs. This involves four aspects: role, task, process instance-based user group, and data content. For implementation, a predicate-based access control method is used. We believe that the proposed model is applicable to workflow applications and WfMSs with diverse access control requirements

Complex Protection System of Metadata-based Distributed Information Systems

A description of architecture and approaches to the implementation of a protection system of metadatabased adaptable information systems is suggested. Various protection means are examined. The system described is a multilevel complex based on a multiagent system combining IDS functional abilities with structure and logics protection means

Multilevel adaptive security system

Recent trends show increased demand for content-rich media such as images, videos and text in ad-hoc communication. Since such content often tends to be private, sensitive, or paid for, there exists a requirement for securing such information over resource constrained ad hoc networks. In this work, traditional data security mechanisms, existing ad hoc secure routing protocols and multilevel security are first reviewed. Then a new system, called the Multilevel Adaptive Security System, which incorporates the multilevel security concept at both the application layer and the network layer, is proposed to provide adaptive security services for data and routing processes. MLASS is composed of two subsystems: Content-Based Multi-level Data Security (CB-MLDS) for content-rich data protection and Multi-Level On-demand Secure Mobile Ad hoc Routing (MOSAR) for secure route selection. The structure of each sub-system is explained in detail; experiments for each sub-system were conducted and the performance was analyzed. It is shown that MLASS is a practical security solution that is flexible enough to adapt to a range of security requirements and applies appropriate level of security services to data and its distribution over ad hoc networks. MLASS provides a balance between security, performance and resource