GRID security review

Abstract

A Computational GRID is a collection of heterogeneous computing resources spread across multiple administrative domains, serving the task of providing users with an easy access to these resources. Taking into account the advances in the area of high-speed networking, but also the increased computational power of current micro-processors, Computational GRIDs or metasystems have gradually become more popular. However, together with the advantages that they exhibit they are also contributing to several problems associated with the design and implementation of a secure environment. The conventional approach to security, that of enforcing a single, system-wide policy, cannot be applied to large-scale distributed systems. This paper analyzes the security requirements of GRID Computing and reviews a number of security architectures that have been proposed. Furthermore, these architectures are evaluated in terms of addressing the major GRID security requirements that have been identified. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.