SEMANTIC CONTROLS ON DATA STORAGE AND ACCESS

• US 20110225659A1
• Filed: 01/14/2011
• Published: 09/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Novell Incorporated (Open Text Corporation)
• Inventors: Antony, John Melvin, Isaacson, Scott A., Carter, Stephen R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,782,734 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems

Abstract

Methods and apparatus teach defining an access policy to digital data available on one or more computing devices, including identifying one or more semantic attributes of at least one first digital data set and using the identified attributes to define policy dictating user access privileges. On receipt of a user request to access at least one second digital data set, semantic attributes are compared to the at least one first digital data set and access is allowed or not allowed based on the policy. Semantic attributes are selected from at least one of a closeness attribute, a relatedness attribute, and a semantic vector attribute. Also is taught configuring a policy enforcement agent on the one or more computing devices to undertake the comparing and to allow or not allow access. In turn, computer program products and computing systems for accomplishing the foregoing are provided.

Claims

1. In a computing system environment, a method for controlling access to digital data available on one or more computing devices, comprising:

identifying one or more semantic attributes of at least one first digital data set;

using said identified one or more semantic attributes, accessing a policy dictating access to the at least one first digital data set;

receiving a user request to access the at least one second digital data set;

identifying one or more semantic attributes of at least one second digital data set;

comparing the semantic attributes of the first digital data set and the at least one second digital data set; and

based on the policy, allowing or not allowing the user to access the at least one second digital data set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic attributes are selected from at least one of a closeness attribute, a relatedness attribute, and a semantic vector attribute.

3. The method of claim 1, further including configuring a policy enforcement agent on the one or more computing devices to undertake the comparing and the allowing or not allowing.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing occurs without a user request.

5. The method of claim 1, further including storing the semantic attributes of the at least one first digital data set on a tangible computer readable medium.

6. The method of claim 1, further including storing one or more outputted results of the step of comparing on a tangible computer readable medium.

7. The method of claim 1, further including allowing an overriding of the policy dictating access to the at least one second digital data set.

8. A computer program product available on a computer readable medium for loading on a computing device in a computing system environment, the computer program product configured for controlling access privileges to digital data available on a same or different said computing device, comprising executable instructions for configuring a policy enforcement agent to operate on a processor of the computing device to compare at least one semantic attribute of at least one original digital data set to a corresponding semantic attribute of at least one current digital data set on the same or a different computing device, and to allow or not allow a user request for access to the at least one current digital data set based on the comparing.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the at least one semantic attribute is selected from one or more of a closeness attribute, a relatedness attribute, and a semantic vector attribute.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, further including executable computer readable instructions for receiving a user request for access to the at least one current digital data set and for configuring the comparing without any further input of the user.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, further including executable computer readable instructions for storing the at least one semantic attribute of the at least one original digital data set on a tangible computer readable medium.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, further including executable computer readable instructions for storing outputted results of the comparing on a tangible computer readable medium.

13. The computer program product of claim 8, further including executable computer readable instructions for storing policy enforcement actions taken by the policy enforcement agent.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the at least one semantic attribute is maintained for less than the full original digital data set.

15. In a computing system environment, a method of controlling access to digital data available on one or more computing devices, comprising:

configuring a policy enforcement agent on the one or more computing devices;

providing a semantic template by selecting at least one original file of digital data stored on the one or more computing devices according to at least one semantic attribute of the original files;

receiving a user request to access at least one current file of digital data;

by the policy enforcement agent, comparing the at least one current file against the at least one original file according to the at least one semantic attribute; and

based on the comparing, allowing or not allowing the user to access the at least one current file.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one semantic attribute is selected from a closeness attribute, a relatedness attribute, and a semantic vector attribute.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the comparing occurs without a user request.

18. The method of claim 15, further including storing the at least one semantic attribute of the at least one original file on a tangible computer readable medium.

19. The method of claim 15, further including storing one or more outputted results of the step of comparing on a tangible computer readable medium.

20. The method of claim 15, further including allowing an overriding of the policy dictating access to the at least one current file.