Access control and the Resource Description Framework: A survey

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kirrane, Sabrina^{a; *} | Mileo, Alessandra^b | Decker, Stefan^c

Affiliations: [a] Vienna University of Business and Economics, Austria. E-mail: sabrina.kirrane@wu.ac.at | [b] Insight Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. E-mail: alessandra.mileo@insight-centre.org | [c] RWTH Aachen University, Germany. E-mail: stefan@stefandecker.org

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. E-mail: sabrina.kirrane@wu.ac.at.

Abstract: In recent years we have seen significant advances in the technology used to both publish and consume structured data using the existing web infrastructure, commonly referred to as the Linked Data Web. However, in order to support the next generation of e-business applications on top of Linked Data suitable forms of access control need to be put in place. This paper provides an overview of the various access control models, standards and policy languages, and the different access control enforcement strategies for the Resource Description Framework (the data model underpinning the Linked Data Web). A set of access control requirements that can be used to categorise existing access control strategies is proposed and a number of challenges that still need to be overcome are identified.

Keywords: Access control, policies, Linked Data, Semantic Web, Resource Description Framework

DOI: 10.3233/SW-160236

Journal: Semantic Web, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 311-352, 2017