A weighted algorithm for watermarking relational databases

A weighted algorithm for watermarking relational databases for copyright protection is presented. The possibility of watermarking an attribute is assigned according to its weight decided by the owner of the database. A one-way hash function and a secret key known only to the owner of the data are used to select tuples and bits to mark. By assigning high weight to significant attributes, the scheme ensures that important attributes take more chance to be marked than less important ones. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme is robust against various forms of attacks, and has perfect immunity to subset attack.