Creating and enforcing access control policies using description logic techniques

The quantity of generated information we store and need to access is colossal. Security of this information is becoming an issue of greater importance as the techniques and granularity with which it can be accessed become more advanced. Availability of information is a key component of any security system, although the information must be protected, it must also be available to the people who need it as and when they request it. However, increasing the methods by which it is accessible automatically increases the chance it maybe compromised. Security systems are now using advanced levels of encryption, digital signatures containing biometric data and highly complex access control policies. We are proposing an access control system which reduces the complexity involved in defining authorisation permissions, particularly in structured documents such as XML where the user may be granted restricted access. Our solution employs techniques usually reserved for intelligent systems and the semantic web.