Access control is a fundamental component of data security that dictates who’s allowed to access and use company information and resources. Through authentication and authorization, access control policies ensure users are who they say they are and have appropriate access to company data. Access control can also be applied to a whole range of activities.
How does access control work?
Access control is used to identify users by verifying various login information (usernames and passwords, PINs, biometric scans, and security tokens, etc). Many access control systems also include multifactor authentication, a method that requires multiple authentication methods to verify a user’s identity.
Once a user is authenticated, access control then authorizes the appropriate level of access and allowed actions associated with that user’s credentials or IP address (conditional Access).
There are various types of access control, and the choice of which to use is determined based on the organization’s choice that satisfies their security and compliance needs. They are as follows below.
Discretionary access control (DAC):
This form of Access Control was originally defined by the Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria (TCSEC) as “a means of restricting access to objects based on the identity of subjects and/or groups to which they belong. The controls are discretionary in the sense that a subject with a certain access permission is capable of passing that permission (perhaps indirectly) on to any other subject (unless restrained by mandatory access control)”.
DAC gives subjects full control of objects they have created or been given access to, including sharing them with other subjects. Subjects are empowered and control their data. Standard UNIX and Windows operating systems use DAC for file systems: subjects can grant other subjects access to their files, change their attributes, alter them, or delete them. This means the data (information) owner or administrator of the protected system, data, or resource sets the policies for who is allowed access.
Note: DAC systems are generally easier to manage than MAC systems. The distrusted administrative model puts less of a burden on the administrator. The administrator is not responsible for setting the permissions on all the systems.
DAC systems can be a little less secure than MAC systems. This is in part due to the distributed management model. Since the administrator does not control all object access, it’s possible that permissions can be incorrectly set, possibly leading to a breach of information.
Mandatory access control (MAC): This model is the opposite of the DAC model. In a mandatory access control (MAC) model, users cannot determine who can access objects as in a DAC model. An operating system based on a MAC model greatly reduces the number of rights, permissions, and functionality a user has for security purposes.
Role-based access control (RBAC):
Role-based access control (RBAC) is a method of restricting network access based on the roles of individual users within an enterprise. RBAC gives employees access only to the information they need to do their jobs and prevents them from accessing information that doesn’t pertain to them.
This means RBAC grants access based on defined business functions rather than the individual user’s identity. The goal is to provide users with access only to data that’s been deemed necessary for their role within the organizations. This widely used method is based on a complex combination of role assignments, authorizations, and permissions.
- Some of the designations in an RBAC tool can include:
- – Management role scope: It limits what objects the role group can manage.
- – Management role group: You can add and remove members.
- – Management role: These are the types of tasks that a specific role group can perform.
- – Management role assignment: This links a role to a role group.
By adding a user to a role group, the user can access all the roles in that group. If they are removed, access becomes restricted. Users may also be assigned to multiple groups if they need temporary access to certain data or programs and removed once the project is complete.
Rules-Based Access Control:
This is a strategy for managing user access on IT systems, where business changes trigger the application of Rules, which specify access changes.
Rule-based Access Control is commonly used as an add-on to the other types of access control. In addition to whatever type of access control you choose, rule-based access control can change the permissions based on a specific set of rules created by the administrator.
Implementing Rules-Based Access Control systems is feasible as long as the number of triggering business events and the set of possible actions that follow those events are small.
Attribute-based access control (ABAC): ABAC is often referred to as the policy-based access control for IAM, and this defines an access control paradigm whereby access rights are granted to users through the use of policies that combine attributes.
Attributes are sets of labels or properties that can be used to describe all the entities that must be considered for authorization purposes.
Why is access control vital? (Understanding the different Access Control Methods)
Nonetheless, Access control helps keep the information confidential. This includes customer data, Personally Identifiable Information (PIN), and Intellectual Property from getting into the wrong hands. Moreover, organizations risk data leakage from both internal and external sources without a robust access control policy.
For more information, see the following reference.
– https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/specialpublications/NIST.SP.800-162.pdf
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