XML Cross-Domain Guard

It is currently nearly impossible to define, manage and deploy the rules for secure information access in an agile and consistent manner. Moreover, there is no robust rules-based implementation for cross-domain message filtering (higher-security to lower-security transfers). Without the ability to enact and deploy XML-based security policy (rules sets) quickly, easily, and with a minimum of man-in-the-loop, security authors and administrators cannot hope to achieve the Air Force's currently stated advanced technology goals for XML tagged and signed information. XML Cross-Domain Guard (X2DG) provides man-machine interfaces (MMIs) that allow policy authors and certificators to develop and manage access rules and transformation rules (especially for down-transfer) quickly and without programming skills. Once these policies and transformations are safely in place, X2DG executes reliable high-to-low cross-domain transfers without human intervention. Uniform (XML) security tagging and signed information objects as strategic investment areas are only part of the cross-domain information sharing (CDIS) solution. X2DG leverages that investment with (1) programmer-free policy management and (2) unmediated (no-man-in-the-loop) policy deployment (filtering and sanitization). Applying XML and Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) to security problems is not new. Eliminating the programmer and the message-handling man-in-the-loop is a significant breakthrough.