A Generic Distortion Free Watermarking Technique for Relational Databases

In this paper we introduce a distortion free watermarking technique for relational databases based on the Abstract Interpretation framework. The watermarking technique is partition based. The partitioning can be seen as a virtual grouping, which does not change neither the value of the table's elements nor their physical positions. Instead of inserting the watermark directly to the database partition, we treat it as an abstract representation of that concrete partition, such that any change in the concrete domain reflects in its abstract counterpart. The main idea is to generate a binary image of the partition as a watermark of that partition, that serves as ownership proof as well as tamper detection.