Integrity in Automated Information Systems
Abstract
For many years, the security research community has focused on the confidentiality aspect of security, and a solid analytical foundation for addressing confidentiality issues has evolved. Now it is recognized that integrity is at least as important as confidentiality in many computer systems; it is also apparent that integrity is not well understood. The purpose of this paper is to lay a foundation for understanding integrity and investigate how it can be promoted and preserved in computer systems. The paper begins by exploring what is meant by integrity. It identifies three primary subgoals of integrity: (1) prevent unauthorized users from accessing system resources or modifying data, (2) maintain traditional data consistency, as well as the consistency of a system with respect to its environment, and (3) prevent authorized users from improperly accessing system resources or modifying data. Having articulated a vision of integrity, the paper discusses principles underlying the preservation of integrity, analyzes manual and automated integrity-preserving mechanisms, and examines integrity models and proposed implementation of the models. The paper concludes that although some gaps in understanding still exist, it is possible to begin to standardize integrity properties of systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA253990
Entities
People
- Catherine W. Mcdonald
- J. E. Roskos
- John M. Boone
- Stephen R. Welke
- Terry Mayfield
Organizations
- Institute for Defense Analyses