A Framework for Managing the Assured Information Sharing Lifecycle

Research Areas: End System Security, Assured Identity and Privacy,

Principal Investigator: Elisa Bertino, Chris Clifton, Ninghui Li, Eugene Spafford

AISL is a five year MURI project sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research focused on developing an integrated framework to support assured information sharing. This collaborative research project comprises researchers from UMBC, Purdue University, and the Universities of Illinois, Michigan, Texas at Dallas, and Texas at San Antonio.

Our research is framed by a set of requirements relevant to applications found in the DoD, Government and industry. Significant research contributions will include the definition of an AIS lifecycle (AISL) that is driven by the 4Vs — volume, veracity, velocity, vector — as well as cross-cutting requirements. Within the overarching lifecycle perspective we will focus on the development of:

  1. a software framework based on a secure semantic event-based service oriented architecture to realize the life cycle,
  2. novel policy languages, reasoning engines and negotiation strategies,
  3. techniques for information integration, analysis and quality,
  4. secure knowledge management for AISL based on risk and incentives, and
  5. techniques to exploit social networks to enhance AISL.

For each of these areas, we will contribute to the underlying theory and algorithms as well as build prototypes of software components and systems. The resulting concepts and technology will be demonstrated and evaluated through prototype applications developed in collaboration with partners in Government and industry. The end result will be concepts, algorithms and technologies that will enhance the DoD.s ability to implement and deploy systems that are capable of sharing information securely with greater assurance.

Keywords: assured information sharing lifecycle (AISL), service oriented architecture, policy language, risk, social networks