Processing of confidential information in distributed systems by fragmentation

Abstract

This paper discusses how object orientation in application design enables confidentiality aspects to be handled more easily than in conventional approaches. The approach is based on the Fragmentation-Redundancy-Scattering technique developed at LAAS–CNRS for several years. This technique and previous developments are briefly summarized. The idea developed in this paper is based on object fragmentation at design time for reducing data processing in confidential objects; the more non confidential objects can be produced at design-time, the more application objects can be processed on untrusted shared computers. Still confidential objects must be processed on non shared trusted workstations. Rules and limits of object fragmentation are discussed together with some criteria evaluating tradeoffs between fragmentation and performance. Finally, a distributed object-oriented support especially fitted for fragmented applications is briefly described.