Method and system for policy driven data disclosure

• US 8,615,792 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2009
• Issued: 12/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hinton, Heather M., Jones, Donald N., Miyamoto, Masakazu
• Primary Examiner(s): SIMITOSKI, MICHAEL J
• Application Number:
  US12/648,813
• Publication Number:
  US 20110162089A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,456 Days
• Field of Search: 726/6, 726/28
• US Class Current: 726/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database

Abstract

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for controlling access to attribute information. A request is received from an application for attribute information. An attribute release policy associated with the requesting application is used to filter attributes stored in a datastore. The filtered attributes are then provided to the requesting application.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor;

a data bus coupled to the processor; and

a non-transitory computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium being coupled to the data bus, the computer program code controlling the distribution of data and comprising instructions executable by the processor for;

receiving a request from a first application for attribute information;

filtering the attributes stored in a first datastore according to a first attribute release policy to generate a first set of filtered attributes; and

providing the first set of filtered attributes to the first application;

providing the first set of filtered attributes to a second datastore;

filtering the first set of filtered attributes according to a second attribute release policy to generate a second set of filtered attributes; and

providing the second set of filtered attributes to a second application;

and wherein

while executing the instructions on the processor, a request is received from the second application for attribute information stored in the first datastore;

the attributes stored in the first datastore are filtered according to a second attribute release policy to generate a second set of filtered attributes from the first datastore by instructions executing on the processor; and

the second set of filtered attributes from the first datastore is provided to the second application by instructions executing on the processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

while executing the instructions on the processor, a request is received from the second application for attribute information stored in a second datastore;

the attributes stored in the second datastore are filtered according to the second attribute release policy to generate a second set of filtered data by instructions executing on the processor; and

the second set of filtered data is provided to the second application by instructions executing on the processor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first attribute release policy is centralized and the second attribute release policy is distributed.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first attribute release policy is used to update the second attribute release policy.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second attribute release policy is associated with the second application.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the second attribute release policy is used as a proxy by the second application to access the first set of filtered attributes.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

a plurality of first attribute release policies are stored in a centralized repository; and

individual first attribute release policies in the plurality of first attribute release policies are associated with one or more of a plurality of applications.

8. A non-transitory computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer program code comprising computer executable instructions configured for:

receiving a request from a first application for attribute information;

filtering the attributes stored in a first datastore according to a first attribute release policy to generate a first set of filtered attributes; and

providing the first set of filtered attributes to the first application;

providing the first set of filtered attributes to a second datastore;

filtering the first set of filtered attributes according to a second attribute release policy to generate a second set of filtered attributes; and

providing the second set of filtered attributes to a second application; and

wherein a request is received from the second application for attribute information stored in the first datastore;

the attributes stored in the first datastore are filtered according to a second attribute release policy to generate a second set of filtered attributes from the first datastore; and

the second set of filtered attributes from the first datastore is provided to the second application.

9. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein:

a request is received from the second application for attribute information stored in a second datastore;

the attributes stored in the second datastore are filtered according to the second attribute release policy to generate a second set of filtered data; and

the second set of filtered data is provided to the second application.

10. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein the first attribute release policy is centralized and the second attribute release policy is distributed.

11. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein the first attribute release policy is used to update the second attribute release policy.

12. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein the second attribute release policy is associated with the second application.

13. The computer usable medium of claim 12, wherein the second attribute release policy is used as a proxy by the second application to access the first set of filtered attributes.

14. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein:

a plurality of first attribute release policies are stored in a centralized repository; and

individual first attribute release policies in the plurality of first attribute release policies are associated with one or more of a plurality of applications.

15. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein the computer executable instructions are provided to a client computer from a server at a remote location.

16. The computer usable medium of claim 8, wherein the computer executable instructions are provided by a service provider to a customer on an on-demand basis.