Non-Discretionery Controls for Commercial Applications

The lattice model of non-discretionary access control in a secure computer system was developed in the early Seventies[BIaP]. The model was motivated by the controls used by the Defense Department and other "nationalsecurity" agencies to regulate people's access to sensitive information. Since that time, the lattice model has enjoyed reasonable success in several computer systems used to process national security classified information [MME; Multics; SACDIN]. "Reasonable success", in this context, means that human beings accept the systems and are able to use them to accomplish useful work,without the protection provided by the non-discretionary controls unduly interfering with productivity or perceived convenience.