Mobile PAES: Demonstrating Authority Devolution for Policy Evaluation in Crisis Management Scenarios

Traditional data protection schemes deployed in Enterprise Rights Management systems rely on centralised infrastructures where recipients must request authorisation for data access from remote evaluation authorities, trusted by the data originator to keep the data decryption keys and evaluate authorisation policies. During emergency situations when network connection is intermittent these solutions are no longer viable. This demonstration presents a implementation of the hierarchical Policy-based Authority Evaluation Protocol (PAES) that allows the devolution of authority over policy evaluations in a disconnected crisis area. The demonstration simulates the movements of rescuers in the area and the creation of opportunistic connections when they meet. These connections are then used for cross-evaluation of authority and distribution of cryptographic keys in addition to transmitting the data. PAES guarantees a correct policy evaluation at each encounter, so only authorised rescuers finally obtain the authority to access the disseminated data.