Guest Editor’s Introduction

Abstract

The past two decades have witnessed a phenomenal growth in distributed and multiuser computing and connectivity. Usage of computers to process sensitive and crucial information in governmental, military, as well as commercial sectors has been increasing considerably. Every activity in both public and private organizations is today depending on the correctness, availability, and secrecy of the information stored or processed within a computer system or transmitted over a network. New technological developments and increased automation of business processes are contributing towards a more efficient and powerful way of managing and accessing such large quantity of data. These include the proliferation of the Internet and the World Wide Web, the introduction of electronic commerce and digital libraries, and the application of workflow systems. At the same time, however, this “evolution” has also increased both the vulnerability of systems to security violations and the damage that such violations may cause. Consequently, security issues are today of great concern to both researchers and practitioners involved with data management. As a complicating aspect, new technologies have also introduced new security requirements and new research challenges that have not been addressed before. Reacting to this increasing need for security, researchers and developers have contributed significantly to advancements in the theory, design, implementation, analysis, and application of secure computer systems and networks. This special issue on security of the Distributed and Parallel Databases: An International Journal, comprising of four research papers, is an attempt to provide a insight into this research.