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Appendix C:
APerspective of the
Inference Problem
C.1 Overview
e inference problem was studied extensively in statistical databases for several
years before it became a very popular topic for MLS/DBMSs. Inference is the
process of posing queries and deducing information from the legitimate response
received. It becomes a problem if the information deduced is something that a user
is not authorized to know. For example, if one deduces secret information from
unclassified pieces of data, then the inference problem has occurred.
In the case of statistical databases, Dorothy Denning and others were the first
to study the problem extensively ( ...