Translating Usage Control Policies to Semantic Rules: A Model using OrBAC and SWRL

Abstract

The increasing volume of data in various environments such as IoT and the need to maintain data privacy and security have led to the development of usage control models. Usage control policies are models that enable fine-grained access control over data by enforcing restrictions on how users can use the data. Semantic mechanisms, on the other hand, use context and meaning to identify potential security threats and prevent them from accessing sensitive information. Although not widely explored, merging these two techniques could create an efficient mechanism to help ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical data and resources. This paper aims to encourage this research path by proposing a translation model that converts usage control rules into SWRL. In particular, we consider during our approach the notions of contexţ permission and prohibition. The proposition is validated by constructing a multi-layer proof of concept that use ontologies and OWL for implementing the translation model. Furthermore, to ascertain the practicality of our approach, a time processing evaluation is conducted, and the results are found to be satisfactory.