DATABASE ACCESS CONTROL

• US 20140090085A1
• Filed: 09/25/2013
• Published: 03/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Protegrity USA, Inc. (Xcelera Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Protegrity USA, Inc. (Xcelera Inc.)
• Inventors: Mattsson, Ulf, Meijer, Hans, Boberg, Jan
• Granted Patent: US 9,087,209 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/176 Support for shared access to files; File sharing support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6227 where protection concerns the structure of data, e.g. records, types, queries

Abstract

A method for database access control includes receiving an access request from a requesting user, the access request identifying one or more data entries stored in a base table storing a plurality a data entries each associated with a data category. The identified one or more data entries from the base table are retrieved and a security table including one or more data categories to which the requesting user is authorized to access is generated based on an identity of the requesting user. The data entries associated with a data category included in the security table are outputted as a result table.

Claims

1. A method for database access control, comprising:

receiving an access request from a requesting user, the access request comprising user credentials identifying the requesting user and identifying requested data;

querying an authorization table with the user credentials, wherein the authorization table stores one or more data categories, each data category associated with one or more users that have access to data associated with the data category;

retrieving, from the authorization table, a security table that identifies a subset of the one or more data categories to which the requesting user has access;

querying a base table that comprises a plurality of data entries, each data entry mapped to at least one data category of the one or more data categories stored in the authorization table and the security table to access the identified requested data associated with at least one category identified by the security table;

generating a result set comprising the identified requested data associated with at least one category identified by the security table; and

providing the generated result set to the requesting user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one association between a data category and a user stored in the authorization table is determined based on a current time.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein an association between a particular data category and a corresponding user includes:

a data access level indicating a magnitude of data access to specific data entries provided to the corresponding user based on the particular data category.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data access level specifies a set of properties, of the specific data entries, to which the corresponding user has access based on the particular data category.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the data access level specifies a nature of access rights, to the specific data entries, to which the corresponding user has access based on the particular data category.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the data access level specifies a nature of encryption applied to the specific data entries, to which the corresponding user has access based on the particular data category.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the data access level corresponding to the particular data category is determined based on a current time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the base table comprises an encrypted representation of the data entries and the data categories; and

accessing the base table comprises decrypting one or more of the encrypted data entries to access the plurality of data entries and corresponding data categories.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more data categories stored in the authorization table correspond to business entities, organizational groups, class years, social circles, data types, data classes, security levels, or any combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the result set comprises:

performing a join operation between the generated security table and a table formed by the identified plurality of candidate data entries and the corresponding categories; and

selecting the result data entries associated with data categories included in the generated security table.

11. A method for database access control, comprising:

receiving an access request from a requesting user, the access request identifying one or more data entries stored in a base table, the base table comprising a plurality a data entries each associated with a data category;

retrieving the identified data entries from the base table;

generating a security table including one or more data categories to which the requesting user is authorized to access based on an identity of the requesting user;

for each retrieved data entry, determining if the data entry is associated with a data category included in the security table; and

outputting a result table comprising each retrieved data entry determined to be associated with a data category identified in the security table.

12. A database access control system, comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable memory storing executable computer instructions, the instructions comprising instructions for;

receiving an access request from a requesting user, the access request comprising user credentials identifying the requesting user and identifying requested data;

querying an authorization table with the user credentials, wherein the authorization table stores one or more data categories, each data category associated with one or more users that have access to data associated with the data category;

retrieving, from the authorization table, a security table that identifies a subset of the one or more data categories to which the requesting user has access;

querying a base table that comprises a plurality of data entries, each data entry mapped to at least one data category of the one or more data categories stored in the authorization table and the security table to access the identified requested data associated with at least one category identified by the security table;

generating a result set comprising the identified requested data associated with at least one category identified by the security table; and

providing the generated result set to the requesting user; and

a processor configured to execute the computer instructions.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one association between a data category and a user stored in the authorization table is determined based on a current time.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein an association between a particular data category and a corresponding user includes:

a data access level indicating a magnitude of data access to specific data entries provided to the corresponding user based on the particular data category.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data access level specifies a set of properties, of the specific data entries, to which the corresponding user has access based on the particular data category.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the data access level specifies a nature of access rights, to the specific data entries, to which the corresponding user has access based on the particular data category.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the data access level specifies a nature of encryption applied to the specific data entries, to which the corresponding user has access based on the particular data category.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the data access level corresponding to the particular data category is determined based on a current time.