Workflow Operational Assurance Platform for Security-by-Design Certified Service-Based Coalitions

The concept of Dynamic Coalitions (DCs) provides a scalable approach for service-based business integration suitable to Small and Medium-size Enterprises (SMEs). An outcome of a DC model is a composite service offered to a market place. The notion of security-by-design certified coalition enables coalition designers/owners to request a certification authority to certify whether the coalition workflow design supports certain security properties of interest by stipulating the security properties individual services have to conform to. This paper presents an approach based on a novel Highly Dynamic Coalition (HDC) concept able to provide workflow operation assurance for security-by-design certified service-based coalitions. Certified HDC models can become an enabler for SMEs to participate in coalition formations guaranteeing a certified level of security. Users of HDC-based services will have assurance for the properties preserved during coalition operation, while service providers will have assurance in providing services during HDC formations and partners' selection phases. We will show how workflow operation assurance is realized by means of service security certificates developed in ASSERT4SOA project.