1. Data Virtualization Demoette… Column-Based Security
Hello, and welcome to the Tutorial series for Cisco Information Server, or CIS. Tutorials are brief instructional videos that demonstrate specific features of CIS.
In this Tutorial, we discuss CIS’s Column-Based Security feature.

2. Agenda What is it and why does it matter? A basic demo Summary
Here is our agenda.
We begin by defining column-based security and outlining its importance for our customers.
Next we walk through a very basic demo of column-based security.
Finally, we summarize the contents of this demoette.

3. Agenda What is it and why does it matter? A basic demo Summary
Let’s begin by discussing what column-based security is, and why it’s important for our customers.

4. What is it? Column-based Security
Column-level data access restrictions for:
Users
Groups
Applies to:
Tables
Views
Column-based security is a CIS capability that enables developers to specify data access restrictions at the column level for CIS users and groups.
Column-based restrictions may be applied to Tables and Views. If the restricted column is part of a table, an access attempt to the table will generate an access error. If the restricted column is part of a View, no access error is generated, but the restricted column and/or metadata will not be included in the data returned to the user.

5. Why does it matter? Column-based Security During development:
Enables flexible, granular restrictions to be applied to sensitive information
Enhances reusability of CIS tables and views
During ongoing operation:
Enables System Administrators to control data access without additional developer intervention
Column-based security is important for CIS developers, system administrators, and IT managers.
At development time, it lets developers or administrators specify flexible and highly granular restrictions for sensitive data that may need to be restricted for certain users or groups. This enhances re-use of CIS views, because it permits a single view to be leveraged across many CIS users who may have different permission levels.
During ongoing operations, column-based security lets system administrators control user and group access to sensitive data without any need for developer intervention. This, in turn, gives IT managers assurance that CIS provides appropriate levels of security, along with the flexibility needed for the data needs of a large, complex enterprise.

6. Agenda What is it and why does it matter? A basic demo Summary
Next, let’s walk through a very basic demo of column-based security.

7. Demo: Here is the business problem…
Administrators
Group
Eagle Users
Group
Complete
View
Restricted
View (no phones)
Here is the business problem that we illustrate in this demo. We have created a CIS Customer View based on a customer table from a physical data source. Users in the Administrators Group may access all the columns in the view. However, we also have a group called Eagle Users. We want members of this group to be able to see all columns in the View EXCEPT for two: the customer’s phone number and fax number.
We don’t want our developers to have to create separate views for each user group, and we want to simplify administrative tasks as users come and go from these groups. Therefore, we want to add column restrictions based on group membership.

8. Demo: before you begin…
Be sure these privileges are removed for eagle users.
In this demo, we’ll create a view that returns all columns for administrator users, but restricts the phone number columns for members of the Eagle Users group. You can create an Eagle Users group, and give it No rights.
If you have run this demo before, make sure that the Customers table from the ds_orders datasource in the Examples folder has no permissions set for the Eagle Users group.

9. Demo: define a folder
Begin by creating a new folder for the demo. Be sure to create this folder in the Shared portion of the CIS namespace. Remember, the My Home area of the namespace is only accessible to the owner and to users with administrative privileges, so if you try to create the demo in My Home, you will have trouble when you try to specify permissions for other groups.
<CLICK> Specify Read and Select privileges for Eagle Users on the folder. Note that Privileges can be assigned to any CIS artifact.

10. Demo: create the view Create a new View in the folder…
<CLICK> …and drag in the Customers table from Shared/Examples/ds_orders.
<CLICK> Use the Grid Panel to create a projection using all columns. Note that PhoneNumber and FaxNumber are the columns we are going to restrict for this demo.

11. Demo: set permissions at the View level
Open Privileges for the View in the Namespace, and choose Read and Select privileges for Eagle Users on the View. Also select “Apply recursively to dependencies,” which will cause the eagle user permissions to be added to the underlying Customers table.

12. Demo: restrict the phone number columns
Select the PhoneNumber column from the Customers View, and open its Privileges. Turn Read and Select OFF for the Eagle Users group. Repeat this process for the FaxNumber column.

13. Demo: publish the View
Publish the View. Note that the Eagle Users group will not have privileges yet for the published view, even though we set them on the design-time view.
<CLICK> To grant access to eagle users, open Privileges for the top-level container, called Demoettes in this example. Add Read and Select privileges for eagle users, and check the box to apply these privileges to child resources and folders. This will propagate the privileges to the catalog and schema containers, as well as to the published View.

14. Demo: access the View
Now we are ready to access the published views from an external client, in order to see how the result sets will vary depending on our login type. In this example, we use Squirrel to access CIS.
<CLICK> When we log in as an Administrator and access the published view, we are able to see the phone number fields.
<CLICK> However, when we log in as an Eagle user, the phone number fields do not appear. Our demo is complete.

15. Agenda What is it and why does it matter? A basic demo Summary
Let’s summarize what we have seen in this presentation.

16. Summary Column-level data access restrictions for: Users and Groups
Applies to:
Tables and Views
Benefits
Development:
Granular data restriction enhances reusability of CIS tables and views
Operation:
Administrators control data access
Column-based security enables data to be restricted at the column level for CIS users and groups. Column-based security may be applied to Tables and Views.
At development time, column-based security enhances resource re-use by enabling developers to use a single Table or View to serve the needs of different users and groups. In addition, column-based security makes it much easier for system administrators to provide fine-grained control over data access for user communities where membership may change frequently.
Thank you.

17. TOMORROW starts here.