Communities of Trust in Tactical Coalition Networks

The need for information exchange between security domains has traditionally been approached through the use of guards and security labels. Although these technologies are thoroughly researched and exist in mature implementations, they offer simplistic approaches with several shortcomings. In this paper, we build on the "guard" model and present a framework for trusted information exchange which accommodates a wider range of use cases, network topologies, and authorization models. Our approach can be used on a range of practical levels, down to dismounted soldiers and sensor networks. Central to this framework are the concepts of Communities of Trust and Policy Enforcement Points.