A content-driven access control system

Abstract

Protecting identity in the Internet age requires the ability to go beyond the identification of explicitly identifying information like social security numbers, to also find the broadly-held attributes that, when taken together, are identifying. We present a system that can work in conjunction with natural language processing algorithms or user-generated tags, to protect identifying attributes in text. The system uses a new attribute-based encryption protocol to control access to such identifying attributes and thus protects identity. The system supports the definition of user access rights based on role or identity. We extend the existing model of attribute-based encryption to support threshold access rights and provide a heuristic instantiation of revocation.