Mark-and-Sweep Garbage Collection in Multilevel Secure Object-Oriented Database Systems
In this paper, the introduction of garbage collection techniques in a multilevel secure object-oriented database system is discussed; in particular, the attention is focused on mark-and-sweep collectors. A secure garbage collection scheme guarantees referential integrity and avoids potential covert channels arising from object deletion.

title: Index Configurations in Object-Oriented Databases

title: Extending the ODMG object model with composite objects
abstract: In this paper we extend the ODMG object data model with composite objects. A composite object is an object built by aggregating other component objects. Exclusiveness and dependency constraints, as well as referential integrity, can be associated with composition relationships among objects. Our composite object model is developed in the framework of the ODMG object database standard data model, but can be used in both object-oriented and object-relational database systems. In the paper, we propose a language for defining composite objects and we define the semantics of update operations on composite objects.

title: A temporal authorization model
abstract: This paper presents a discretionary access control model in which authorizations contain temporal information. This information can be used to specify temporal intervals of validity for authorizations and temporal dependencies among authorizations. A formal definition of those concepts is presented in the paper, in terms of their interpretation in first order logic. We characterize sets of temporal dependencies that can lead to undesirable states of the authorization system and we sketch an algorithm for their detection. Finally, operations to add, remove, or modify authorizations and temporal dependencies are described.

title: An approach to model and query event-based temporal data
abstract: Temporal database systems support all functions related to the management of large amounts of constantly changing data. However, current temporal database systems support a flat view of the history of data changes, in that all the changes are considered equally relevant and are, therefore, all stored in the database. However, many applications, such as monitoring and planning applications, call for more flexibility. Monitoring applications, in particular, may require that the history of a data item is stored only whenever a certain event occurs. For other applications, the history of data changes may be less important than the event causing the changes. In this paper, we propose an event-based temporal object model which allows us to keep track of selected values within the history of a data object attribute. The portions within the history of a data object which are actually stored in the database are identified by relating them to events. In the paper, besides defining the data model, we investigate the problem of querying a database with incomplete temporal information.

title: An index allocation tool for object-oriented database systems
abstract: The problem of index configuration is an important topic for database system performance and has been extensively investigated for relational Database Management Systems (DBMS). By contrast, the problem of index allocation for Object-Oriented DBMS (OODBMS) has been considered only from a theoretical point of view and no practical development of any tool for commercial OODBMS has been reported. In this paper, we investigate the problem of index configuration in the framework of a commercially available OODBMS. We first identify the features that characterize such OODBMS and we develop two cost models: the first extends the generic cost model presented by Gardarin et al. (), the second is an analytical cost model tailored to the OODBMS at hand. Both cost models have been validated by comparing the estimated costs and the actual costs observed from the system. The comparison has shown that both models are quite accurate. Using the proposed cost models, we have also developed an algorithm for the efficient index allocation on a given path, given a workload specified in terms of operation frequencies. Even though our algorithm has been developed for a specific OODBMS, we believe that it can be easily tailored to other OODBMS and persistent programming languages.

title: Systematic control and management of data integrity
abstract: Integrity has long been considered a fundamental requirement for secure computerized systems, and especially today's demand for data integrity is stronger than ever as many organizations are in-creasing their reliance on data and information systems. A number of recently enacted data privacy regulations also require high in-tegrity for personal data. In this paper, we discuss various issues concerning systematic control and management of data integrity with a primary focus on access control. We first examine some previously proposed integrity models and define a set of integrity requirements. We then present an architecture for comprehensive integrity control systems, which has its basis on data validation and metadata management. We also provide an integrity control policy language that we believe is flexible and intuitive.

title: Controlled and cooperative updates of XML documents in byzantine and failure-prone distributed systems
abstract: This paper proposes an infrastructure and related algorithms for the controlled and cooperative updates of XML documents. Key components of the proposed system are a set of XML-based languages for specifying access-control policies and the path that the document must follow during its update. Such path can be fully specified before the update process begins or can be dynamically modified by properly authorized subjects while being transmitted. Our approach is fully distributed in that each party involved in the process can verify the correctness of the operations performed until that point on the document without relying on a central authority. More importantly, the recovery procedure also does not need the participation of a central authority. Our approach is based on the use of some special control information that is transmitted together with the document and a suite of protocols. We formally specify the structure of such control information and the protocols. We also analyze security and complexity of the proposed protocols.

title: An integrated approach to federated identity and privilege management in open systems
abstract: Online partnerships depend on federations of not only user identities but also of user entitlements across organizational boundaries.