An access control model for linked data

Abstract

Linked Open Data refers to a set of best practices for the publication and interlinking of structured data on the Web in order to create a global interconnected data space called Web of Data. To ensure the resources featured in a dataset are richly described and, at the same time, protected against malicious users, we need to specify the conditions under which a dataset is accessible. Being able to specify access terms should also encourage data providers to publish their data. We introduce a lightweight vocabulary, called Social Semantic SPARQL Security for Access Control Ontology (S4AC), allowing the definition of fine-grained access control policies formalized in SPARQL, and enforced when querying Linked Data. In particular, we define an access control model providing the users with means to define policies for restricting the access to specific RDF data, based on social tags, and contextual information. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.