Difference in Security Policies for Dynamic Systems

Advances in three aspects of computing, namely reachability, pervasiveness, and autonomy, lead to highly dynamic systems, whose components increasingly manage themselves. However, their security and trustworthiness must always be evaluated in the user’s context and in tight association with his personal goals and current preferences. Therefore, this paper defines an operator for policies to determine the difference in policies. This policy operator enables the user to check for additional permissions that would come along with the acceptance of a new or modified policy and can assist him in estimating the risk he puts his security or privacy in before adopting it.