Usage control in inter-organisational collaborative environments - A case study from an industry perspective

Abstract

Sharing information between collaborators without relinquishing control of that information has for many years been a tantalizing goal in the research community, but despite application support, the concept of usage control has failed to take hold in the business community. In this paper we present the results of a case study in the Norwegian oil & gas domain. The purpose of the study is to better understand the reasons for the slow adoption rate of usage control technology to control shared information. To this end we investigate risk perception, existing control measures and the attitude towards usage control technology. The study shows that although participants in the case study do not think their information is properly protected, there are several practical challenges that prevent them from adopting usage control technology as a means to improve protection. © 2012 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.