Managing access in extended enterprise networks

Combining distributed role-based access control with a public key infrastructure can facilitate secure, flexible data access in environments where enterprises collaborate via Web services. An approach to secure authentication and authorization for extended enterprises, which combines distributed role-based access control (RBAC), a public key infrastructure (PKI), and a privilege management infrastructure (PMI) is described. Moreover, a J2EE-based prototype system which shows the feasibility of the approach is implemented.