Dynamic Data Protection Services for Network Transfers: Concepts and Taxonomy

Paper in proceeding, 2004

Security should be thought of as a tunable system attribute that allows users to request a specific protection level as a service from the system. This approach will be suitable in future networking environments with heterogeneous devices that have varying computing resources. The approach is also appropriate for multimedia applications that require tuning the protection level to maintain performance at levels that are acceptable to users. In this paper, we investigate data protection services for network transfers that are designed to offer variable protection levels and propose a taxonomy for such services. The taxonomy provides a unified terminology for dynamic data protection services and a framework in which they can systematically be inspected, evaluated, and compared. The taxonomy is also intended to provide a basis for development and identification of current and future user and/or application needs. It comprises four dimensions: type of protection service, protection level, protection level specification, and adaptiveness. On the basis of our taxonomy, we made a survey and categorization of existing dynamic data protection services for network transfers.