On the design of a single-key-lock mechanism based on Newton´s interpolating polynomial

A single-key-lock (SKL) mechanism used for implementing the access matrix of a computer protection system is proposed. The key selection is very flexible. The lock values are generated recursively using the Newton interpolating polynomial. A new user/file can be inserted into the system without recomputing all locks/keys. Since the computational load of the key-lock operation depends on the key positions in the access matrix, a user-hierarchy structure can be constructed for the mechanism. Thus, the smallest key value is assigned to a user who accesses the information resources more frequently than others, in order to reduce the average computation time. An example is included to illustrate this idea