Towards a framework for iteratively signing graph data

Abstract

When publishing graph data on the web such as vocabularies using RDF(S) or OWL, one has only limited means to verify the authenticity and integrity of the graph data. Today's approaches require a high signature overhead and do not support iterative signing of graph data. This paper describes a first step towards a framework for signing arbitrary graph data provided in RDF(S), Named Graphs, or OWL. Our framework supports signing graph data at different levels of granularity: minimum self-contained graphs (MSG), sets of MSGs, and entire graphs. It supports iteratively signing graph data, e. g., when different parties provide different parts of a common graph, and allows for signing multiple graphs. Both can be done with a constant, low overhead for the resulting signature statements, even when iteratively signing.