Modeling Security Concerns in Service-Oriented Architecture

Many enterprises are implementing service-oriented architecture (SOA) using Web services, and are designing those services according to the principles of Model Driven Architecture (MDA). Because the UML used to express MDA lacks model elements for indicating the security needs of business processes, system architects are forced either to ignore security concerns in their models, or to indicate their intentions in ways that are implementation-specific. This paper proposes a candidate profile for UML that presents security-related intent elements as stereotypes that business users and software architects can apply to UML elements when working with business stakeholders to capture business requirements. Using a profile such as the one proposed here would allow architects to specify the business intent of security in their designs without violating the MDA prohibition against implementation-specific details in high-level, behavioral models.