Distributed attribute based access control as means of data protection and collaboration in sensitive (personal) digital record and activity trail investigations

Abstract

A distributed system provides access by a principal to a resource associated with sensitive data. Micro-services in communication with an authorization engine each include a resource provider that receives a resource action request from the principal to access the resource, determines a context for the request, and transmits the context to the authorization engine in an authorization request. The authorization engine receives the authorization request, resolves the authorization request context against a plurality of pre-defined resource conditions, and responds to the resource provider with an authorization response of allow, deny, or allow-with-conditions. The context for the request includes metadata regarding attributes of the principal, and each of the resource conditions includes a logical expression operating upon the attributes.