Validating a trust-based access control system

Over the last few years researchers have recognized the need for adaptive access control mechanisms for dynamic collaborative environments. As a result, several mechanisms have been proposed and demonstrated in academic literature. Although these mechanisms have been verified to perform as advertised, few of them have been validated to work within an operational environment. Using a decentralized trust-based access control system of their own design, the authors validated their system using a narrative technique to develop a realistic operational scenario. They tested the system within the scenario and then applied a cost and a success metric to the results to determine the efficiency of their mechanism. The results show how the authors' narrative approach and success metric combine to provide more efficient and effective analysis of how an access control mechanisms will perform when used in an operational environment.