Access control in distributed heterogeneous database management systems

Most large organizations have multiple databases on multiple systems for reasons of economy, organization and geography. The prime objective of the distributed heterogeneous database management system (DHDBMS) approach is to support database integration across organizational and geographical boundaries. The DHDBMS provides users with uniform and controlled access to information stored in different databases without having to deal with a variety of data formats, access protocols and interfaces. The integration of multiple databases leads to additional requirements to control the access and manipulation of data. This paper presents an access control mechanism for DHDBMSs.