Optimal Information Release for Mixed Opacity in Discrete-Event Systems

Opacity is a property of a system that captures whether certain event sequences (or certain states) are indistinguishable from other event sequences (or states) in the system. Opacity is used in analyzing privacy, secrecy, and other aspects of systems modeled by discrete-event systems. In this paper, we introduce the concept of minimal information release policies for non-opacity and the concept of mixed opacity. Mixed opacity policies are introduced as a holistic approach for solving problems that involve a combination of releasing information to make some objectives of the system opaque while making some other objectives non-opaque. We present a set of algorithms for information release under a mixed opacity policy. These algorithms compute policies in a system such that two given sublanguages are opaque, and at the same time, two other sublanguages in the same system are non-opaque. The application of mixed opacity is demonstrated on the Dining Cryptographers Problem. Note to Practitioners-Many organizations and companies must deal with maintaining privacy and secrecy and the protection of their intellectual property while at the same time revealing information to their employees so that they can properly do their jobs. In addition, to maintain transparency, companies and organizations must also reveal information to the public. In this paper, discrete-event system's modeling is used to produce policies that capture the balance between privacy and transparency.