Andras Szakal, IBM provided a presentation on what it means, from an IBM perspective, but also from an open architecture and standardization perspective, to architect security into a solution by using a “fine-grained multi-tiered containment strategy”. His presentation offered a good graphical look at what needs to be considered for securing each of the layers: network, data, platform, data center, applications/middleware, business mission/services, collaboration and community, and trusted partners. He stressed the importance of securing these tiers independently, at the interfaces and cross-sectionally over multiple layers. The presentation was very well received and led to good discussion.
Ron Schuldt, Chair of The Open Group UDEF Project, gave an in-depth presentation on the vision of Semantic Interoperability through the Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF), and how it is currently being implemented. He started off by identifying the problem: each organization is setting its own semantics, the problem occurs when they need to interface with other organizations who are also creating their own semantics – resulting in a breakdown of communication and interoperability breaks because they can’t understand what the other is conveying – thus the importance of one global standard. If it was used by everyone, it would eliminate the problem. The UDEF is currently published in multiple languages and intends to publish in additional languages in the near future. The group was very engaged, leading to a highly interactive give-and-take throughout the session.
The Secure Mobile Architecture (SMA) Session, led by Steve Venema from Boeing, was a joint session with the Security Forum that offered a status update with interactive discussion to resolve some outstanding technical issues. Steve urged all those who committed to offering use-cases to the project to complete them as soon as they can.
