Hanover, MD, November 13, 2007 – As database managers for websites like the New Zealand census bureau have begun releasing a wide variety of information online, new operations research techniques are helping to balance the public’s right to know with the need to maintain online security, according to a new study in Operations Research, a flagship journal of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®).
The study, “Stochastic Protection of Confidential Information in Databases: A Hybrid of Data Perturbation and Query Restriction,” is by Manuel A. Nunez, Robert S. Garfinkel, and Ram D. Gopal of the School of Business at the University of Connecticut, Storrs.
Data perturbation and query restriction are two methods developed to protect confidential data in statistical databases. In the former, the data is systematically changed to yield answers to queries that are statistically similar to those that would have resulted from the original data. The latter provides exact answers to queries as long as the risk of exact disclosure of confidential data does not become too great.
The authors present a new methodology to combine these techniques so that the advantages of both are captured. The hybrid model is appropriate and computationally viable for large databases. The results indicate that many queries can be answered exactly and the proposed perturbation approach provides more accurate answers than the standard perturbation method.
The study appears in the current issue of the journal Operations Research and is highlighted as a featured article.
Operations Research is published bi-monthly; the Editor-in-Chief selects a featured article in every issue. The objective is to spotlight important research selected from operations research and related fields, such as revenue management, marketing science, health care, homeland security, and computational economics
About INFORMS
INFORMS journals are strongly cited in Journal Citation Reports, an industry source. In the JCR subject category “operations research and management science,” Operations Research ranked in the top 10 along with two other INFORMS journals.
The special MBA issue published by Business Week includes Operations Research and two other INFORMS journals in its list of 20 top academic journals that are used to evaluate business school programs. Financial Times includes Operations Research and four other INFORMS journals in its list of academic journals used to evaluate MBA programs.
The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®) is an international scientific society with 10,000 members, including Nobel Prize laureates, dedicated to applying scientific methods to help improve decision-making, management, and operations. Members of INFORMS work in business, government, and academia. They are represented in fields as diverse as airlines, health care, law enforcement, the military, financial engineering, and telecommunications. The INFORMS website is www.informs.org. More information about operations research is at www.scienceofbetter.org.
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