Secure data sharing and processing in heterogeneous clouds

The extensive cloud adoption among the European Public Sector Players empowered them to own and operate a range of cloud infrastructures. These deployments vary both in the size and capabilities, as well as in the range of employed technologies and processes. The public sector, however, lacks the necessary technology to enable effective, interoperable and secure integration of a multitude of its computing clouds and services. In this work we focus on the federation of private clouds and the approaches that enable secure data sharing and processing among the collaborating infrastructures and services of public entities. We investigate the aspects of access control, data and security policy languages, as well as cryptographic approaches that enable fine-grained security and data processing in semi-trusted environments. We identify the main challenges and frame the future work that serve as an enabler of interoperability among heterogeneous infrastructures and services. Our goal is to enable both security and legal conformance as well as to facilitate transparency, privacy and effectivity of private cloud federations for the public sector needs. © 2015 The Authors

Logic programming in the context of multiparadigm programming: the Oz experience

Oz is a multiparadigm language that supports logic programming as one of its major paradigms. A multiparadigm language is designed to support different programming paradigms (logic, functional, constraint, object-oriented, sequential, concurrent, etc.) with equal ease. This article has two goals: to give a tutorial of logic programming in Oz and to show how logic programming fits naturally into the wider context of multiparadigm programming. Our experience shows that there are two classes of problems, which we call algorithmic and search problems, for which logic programming can help formulate practical solutions. Algorithmic problems have known efficient algorithms. Search problems do not have known efficient algorithms but can be solved with search. The Oz support for logic programming targets these two problem classes specifically, using the concepts needed for each. This is in contrast to the Prolog approach, which targets both classes with one set of concepts, which results in less than optimal support for each class. To explain the essential difference between algorithmic and search programs, we define the Oz execution model. This model subsumes both concurrent logic programming (committed-choice-style) and search-based logic programming (Prolog-style). Instead of Horn clause syntax, Oz has a simple, fully compositional, higher-order syntax that accommodates the abilities of the language. We conclude with lessons learned from this work, a brief history of Oz, and many entry points into the Oz literature.Comment: 48 pages, to appear in the journal "Theory and Practice of Logic Programming

Distributed Governance: a Principal-Agent Approach to Data Governance -- Part 1 Background & Core Definitions

To address the need for regulating digital technologies without hampering innovation or pre-digital transformation regulatory frameworks, we provide a model to evolve Data governance toward Information governance and precise the relation between these two terms. This model bridges digital and non-digital information exchange. By considering the question of governed data usage through the angle of the Principal-Agent problem, we build a distributed governance model based on Autonomous Principals defined as entities capable of choice, therefore capable of exercising a transactional sovereignty. Extending the legal concept of the privacy sphere to a functional equivalent in the digital space leads to the construction of a digital self to which rights and accountability can be attached. Ecosystems, defined as communities of autonomous principals bound by a legitimate authority, provide the basis of interacting structures of increasing complexity endowed with a self-replicating property that mirrors physical world governance systems. The model proposes a governance concept for multi-stakeholder information systems operating across jurisdictions. Using recent software engineering advances in decentralised authentication and semantics, we provide a framework, Dynamic Data Economy to deploy a distributed governance model embedding checks and balance between human and technological governance. Domain specific governance models are left for further publications. Similarly, the technical questions related to the connection between a digital-self and its physical world controller (e.g biometric binding) will be treated in upcoming publications.Comment: 27 pages, 20 figures, basis of presentation at University of Geneva's lectures on Information Securit

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

This paper presents a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation that promotes a neat separation of the adaptation logic from the application logic through a clear identification of control data and their role in the adaptation logic. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey archetypal approaches to (self-)adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models, to engineering solutions

Abstract State Machines 1988-1998: Commented ASM Bibliography

An annotated bibliography of papers which deal with or use Abstract State Machines (ASMs), as of January 1998.Comment: Also maintained as a BibTeX file at http://www.eecs.umich.edu/gasm

DesyreML: a SysML profile for heterogeneous embedded systems

International audienceWe propose a novel language for the formal description of heterogeneous embedded systems (DesyreML). As the main contribution, the language is formally described in terms of semantics and concrete syntax based on the SysML language. We define the concept of thick connector to allow for heterogeneous components communication and computation for multiple semantic domains (synchronous reactive, continuous time, discrete time, discrete-event). As technological application, a verification flow based on model-transformation techniques is described showing the use of an enriched version of the SystemC-AMS simulation kernel that is capable of simulating heterogeneous systems containing combinatorial loops. Finally, the language and the analysis flow are applied to a cruise control case study

A Conceptual Framework for Adapation

This paper presents a white-box conceptual framework for adaptation that promotes a neat separation of the adaptation logic from the application logic through a clear identification of control data and their role in the adaptation logic. The framework provides an original perspective from which we survey archetypal approaches to (self-)adaptation ranging from programming languages and paradigms, to computational models, to engineering solutions