[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] Re: Blended Authentication (AKA "Granular Access Control")
----- Original Message ----- From: "W. E. Perry" <wperry@f...> To: "XML DEV" <xml-dev@l...> Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2003 9:48 PM Subject: Re: Blended Authentication (AKA "Granular Access Control") > Jeff Greif wrote: > > > The "cartelization" being described makes Joe authenticate himself with System > > A, in order to use the trust relationship between System A and System B to > > examine your medical records (after System B verifies that System A has a > > right to look at your records because it represents the designated insurance > > provider). Is there something nefarious about this? Would you prefer it if > > Joe could access your records without this level of security? > > Hi Jeff. > > Questions of whether this is nefarious I shall leave to others. The question of > whether this is cartelization, however, you seem to have answered yourself with > this very example. As you illustrate, Systems A and B have apportioned between > themselves, and between themselves exclusively, the entire functionality, as > they understand it, of authenticating and authorizing users (and the very term > 'trust relationship' which you use has equally, and ambiguously, both the > meanings 'mutual reliance' and 'collusion in cartel' [as criminalized by the > antitrust laws]). Your example demonstrates a priori agreement on a) the full > scope of the functionality involved; b) the comprehensive list of participants > who will execute any of that functionality; and c) the precise division of > that functionality between the identified participants. Those three criteria > define cartelization. This doesn't seem to describe what I had in mind. Joe is known to System A, not to System B, which is good, because employee turnover at some health insurance providers is high, and it's expensive for System B to keep lists of all the claims agents for all of them. System A *is* known (by its authentication and authorization tokens) to System B, and is allowed to see records for its insured parties. System A passes on Joe's name for System B's auditing requirements. System A will broker Joe's transaction because Joe is not known to System B, but System B will accept certain requests from individuals approved by System A. The extent to which System A is known to System B may be only that some elements of its authentication and authorization tokens (suitably decrypted) match elements of System B's records of your surgery. Thus, the parties have agreed only on the criteria for acceptability of particpants, not the comprehensive list. They have not agreed on the scope of functionality -- System B has imposed requirements, and will give information to System A if the request meets those requirements. System A may make requests which are denied (because a data entry error put down the wrong insurance carrier for some patient in System B's records). System A might also try to update the records on System B, but this attempt would be denied by System B (and B may impose some access penalty thereafter on A). System B does not know what System A will do with the data that it provides, nor perhaps, does System A know what all the data it gets means to System B. System A may not ask for all the data that System B is prepared to give it simply because its purposes are limited in Joe's particular inquiry about your surgery. There may be no agreement whatever between System A and System B. System B may simply announce that certain data are available under certain conditions of authorization and authentication, to any party who can meet them. The particular scenario of Joe examining your hospital records, as a legal representative of your health service provider, just meets the publicly stated preconditions for access to System B. Cartelization seems a misnomer for this kind of arrangement, particularly as you characterize it. Jeff
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