Primary Access Control in Large-scale Time-shared Decision Systems

Abstract

The computer differs from other tools in that it presently does not provide its users with a working environment transparent to their desires; in particular, current computer systems do not support adequate mechanisms for controlled sharing of sensitive information. Four primary dimensions of the access control problem are identified. They are: 1) the physical level at which to apply control; 2) the fineness of distinction applied to the term ""access"" 3) the meaning of the term "user identification",and 4) the degree of sophistication employed in automatically assigned restrictions to new data files.