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There is an increasing demand for processing large volumes of unstructured data for a wide variety of applications. However, protection measures for these big data sets are still in their infancy, which could lead to significant security and privacy issues. Attribute-based access control (ABAC) provides a dynamic and flexible solution that is effective for mediating access. We analyzed and implemented a prototype application of ABAC to large dataset processing in Amazon Web Services, using open-source versions of Apache Hadoop, Ranger, and Atlas. The Hadoop ecosystem is one of the most popular frameworks for large dataset processing and storage and is adopted by major cloud service providers. We conducted a rigorous analysis of cybersecurity in implementing ABAC policies in Hadoop, including developing a synthetic dataset of information at multiple sensitivity levels that realistically represents healthcare and connected social media data. We then developed Apache Spark programs that extract, connect, and transform data in a manner representative of a realistic use case. Our result is a framework for securing big data. Applying this framework ensures that serious cybersecurity concerns are addressed. We provide details of our analysis and experimentation code in a GitHub repository for further research by the community.
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Access Control in the Era of Big-Data Driven Models and Simulations
In today's mobile-first, cloud-enabled world, where simulation-enabled training is designed for use anywhere and from multiple different types of devices, new paradigms are needed to control access to sensitive data. Large, distributed data sets sourced from a wide-variety of sensors require advanced approaches to authorizations and access control (AC). Motivated by large-scale, publicized data breaches and data privacy laws, data protection policies and fine-grained AC mechanisms are an imperative in data intensive simulation systems. Although the public may suffer security incident fatigue, there are significant impacts to corporations and government organizations in the form of settlement fees and senior executive dismissal. This paper presents an analysis of the challenges to controlling access to big data sets. Implementation guidelines are provided based upon new attribute-based access control (ABAC) standards. Best practices start with AC for the security of large data sets processed by models and simulations (M&S). Currently widely supported eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) is the predominant framework for big data ABAC. The more recently developed Next Generation Access Control (NGAC) standard addresses additional areas in securing distributed, multi-owner big data sets. We present a comparison and evaluation of standards and technologies for different simulation data protection requirements. A concrete example is included to illustrate the differences. The example scenario is based upon synthetically generated very sensitive health care data combined with less sensitive data. This model data set is accessed by representative groups with a range of trust from highly-trusted roles to general users. The AC security challenges and approaches to mitigate risk are discussed.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1723587
- PAR ID:
- 10161195
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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- The DOI is not currently available.
