Security policy applied to common data security architecture

A security architecture for a computer platform comprising at least one data processor and at least one memory means said architecture comprising:

• an applications layer (200) for containing a plurality of user security applications;
• a layered services layer (201) for containing a plurality of security services protocols;
• a language interface adapter, and tools for policy and model authoring or the like;
• a common security services manager (CSSM) layer (202) comprising a plurality of security services management means (203-208), a set of integrity services, a policy interpreter, a manager of security contexts, and a plurality of interfaces (209-214) for interfacing with add-in security modules (216-221);
• and
• an add-in security modules layer (215) capable of accepting a plurality of add-in security modules (216-221) implementing a set of standard security services;
• characterized in that said architecture comprises;
• a generic trust policy library (217) supporting a set of standard trust policy Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and some functions dealing with trust policy description files;
• a trust policy description file (223) containing a set of domain-specific trust policies written in a policy language common to said architecture;
• and
• a policy interpreter (224), said policy interpreter operating to interpret a set of policies contained in said policy description file.