Secure Manipulation of Linked Data

When it comes to publishing data on the web, the level of access control required (if any) is highly dependent on the type of content exposed. Up until now RDF data publishers have focused on exposing and linking public data. With the advent of SPARQL 1.1, the linked data infrastructure can be used, not only as a means of publishing open data but also, as a general mechanism for managing distributed graph data. However, such a decentralised architecture brings with it a number of additional challenges with respect to both data security and integrity. In this paper, we propose a general authorisation framework that can be used to deliver dynamic query results based on user credentials and to cater for the secure manipulation of linked data. Specifically we describe how graph patterns, propagation rules, conflict resolution policies and integrity constraints can together be used to specify and enforce consistent access control policies.