INFORMATION INTEGRATION ACROSS AUTONOMOUS ENTERPRISES

• US 20080065910A1
• Filed: 10/25/2007
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: SRIKANT, RAMAKRISHNAN, EVFIMIEVSKI, ALEXANDRE, AGRAWAL, RAKESH
• Granted Patent: US 8,041,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/193
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A system, method, and computer program product for processing a query spanning separate databases while revealing only minimal information beyond a query answer, by executing only specific information-limiting protocols according to query type.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing a query spanning separate databases while revealing only minimal information beyond a query answer, comprising:

executing only specific information-limiting protocols according to query type.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said protocols process queries of at least one of the following query types:

intersection, equijoin, intersection size, and equijoin size.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said protocols use commutative encryption to limit the information revealed beyond the query answer.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said query is rejected if no information-limiting protocol exists for the corresponding query type.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising returning said query answer to a receiver R that has access to database D_R.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising sharing said query answer with a sender S that has access to database D_S.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said minimal information is at least one of:

nothing, pre-specified categories of information I.

8. A general purpose computer system programmed with instructions for processing a query spanning separate databases while revealing only minimal information beyond a query answer, the instructions comprising:

executing only specific information-limiting protocols according to query type.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said protocols process queries of at least one of the following query types:

intersection, equijoin, intersection size, and equijoin size.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein said protocols use commutative encryption to limit the information revealed beyond the query answer.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein said query is rejected if no information-limiting protocol exists for the corresponding query type.

12. The system of claim 8 further comprising instructions for returning said query answer to a receiver R that has access to database D_R.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising instructions for sharing said query answer with a sender S that has access to database D_S.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein said minimal information is at least one of:

nothing, pre-specified categories of information I.

15. A system for processing a query spanning separate databases while revealing only minimal information beyond a query answer, comprising:

means for executing only specific information-limiting protocols according to query type.

16. A computer program product comprising a machine-readable medium having computer-executable program instructions thereon for processing a query spanning separate databases while revealing only minimal information beyond a query answer, comprising:

a code means for executing only specific information-limiting protocols according to query type.