Security policies by design in NoSQL document databases

Abstract

The importance of data security is currently increasing owing to the number of data transactions that are continuously taking place. Large amounts of data are generated, stored, modified and transferred every second, signifying that databases require an appropriate capacity, control and protection that will enable them to maintain a secure environment for so much data. Big Data is becoming a prominent trend in our society, and increasing amounts of data, including sensitive and personal information, are being loaded into NoSQL and other Big Data technologies for analysis and processing. However, current security approaches do not take into account the special characteristics of these technologies, leaving sensitive and personal data unprotected and consequently risking considerable financial losses and brand damage. In this paper, we focus on NoSQL document databases and present a proposal for the design and implementation of security policies in this type of databases. We first follow the concept of security by design in order to propose a metamodel that allows the specification of both the structure and the security policies required for document databases. We also define an implementation model by analysing the implementation features provided by a specific NoSQL document database management system (MongoDB). Having obtained the design and implementation models, we follow the model-driven development philosophy and propose a set of transformation rules that allow the automatic generation of the final implementation of security policies. We additionally provide a technological solution in which the Eclipse Modelling Framework environment is employed in order to implement both the design metamodel (Emfatic) and the transformations (Epsilon, EGL). Finally, we apply the proposed framework to a case study carried out in the airport domain. This proposal, in addition to saving development time and costs, generates more robust solutions by considering security by design. This, therefore, abstracting the designer from both specific aspects of the target tool and having to choose the best strategies for the implementation of security policies.