SoNeUCONABC, an expressive usage control model for Web-Based Social Networks

In the era of hyper-connectivity Web-Based Social Networks (WBSNs) are demanding applications. They facilitate the interaction of huge amounts of users and the development of appropriate Access Control Models (ACMs) is an arising necessity. Particularly, the development of WBSNs ACMs with expressive power and capable of managing access control along the whole usage process is the challenge pursued. To contribute on this issue, first, 23 proposals have been analysed and second, SoNeUCON(ABC), an expressive usage control model for WBSNs, is proposed. It extends UCONABC (Park, 2003) including relationships management and it is formally defined, specifying entities and elements involved and an access control policy language. Moreover, policy construction is carefully detailed by using regular expressions and access control enforcement functions are described. Finally, the evaluation shows, theoretically, the significant expressive power of SoNeUCON(ABC) and, empirically, the feasibility of its implementation by the development of a proof of concept system. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.