17457281. SECURE POLICY DISTRIBUTION IN A CLOUD ENVIRONMENT simplified abstract (INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION)

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SECURE POLICY DISTRIBUTION IN A CLOUD ENVIRONMENT

Organization Name

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION

Inventor(s)

Mark Duane Seaborn of Algonquin IL (US)

SECURE POLICY DISTRIBUTION IN A CLOUD ENVIRONMENT - A simplified explanation of the abstract

This abstract first appeared for US patent application 17457281 titled 'SECURE POLICY DISTRIBUTION IN A CLOUD ENVIRONMENT

Simplified Explanation

The abstract describes a computer-implemented method for securely distributing access policies to a cloud system. Here are the key points:

  • The method involves defining an access policy for a set of resources on a cloud computing system.
  • The access policy includes rules that determine which users can access the resources.
  • An activation function and attribute metadata are created based on the access policy.
  • The attribute metadata contains access attributes for each resource.
  • When a request to access a resource is received, the activation function compares the credentials provided in the request to the access attributes.
  • Based on this comparison, the request to access the resource is processed.

Potential Applications

This technology has potential applications in various areas, including:

  • Cloud computing platforms that require secure access control mechanisms.
  • Multi-user systems where different users have different levels of access to resources.
  • Enterprise systems that need to enforce access policies for sensitive data.

Problems Solved

This technology addresses the following problems:

  • Ensuring secure access to resources in a cloud computing environment.
  • Managing and distributing access policies for a large number of resources.
  • Enforcing access control rules based on user credentials and resource attributes.

Benefits

The benefits of this technology include:

  • Enhanced security by enforcing access policies for cloud resources.
  • Simplified management of access policies through automation.
  • Improved scalability and efficiency in processing access requests.



Original Abstract Submitted

A computer-implemented method for secure policy distribution to a cloud system. The method includes defining an access policy for a set of resources on a cloud computing system, where the access policy includes rules to allow access to the set of resources. The method further includes creating, based on the access policy, an activation function and attribute metadata in the cloud computing system, where the attribute metadata includes a set of access attributes for each resource of the set of resources. The method also includes, receiving a request to access a first resource of the set of resources, where the request includes a set of credentials. The method includes comparing, by the activation function, the set of credentials to the set of access attributes. The method further includes processing, based on the comparing, the request the access the first resource.