What Is Access Control & How Crucial Is It to Cybersecurity?
Digital security professionals face tough choices every day. On the one hand, you must protect your company's vital resources. On the other, you must give people access to the tools they need to do their work.
Strong access control policies allow you to do both.
Access control involves verifying credentials, managing access, and monitoring your system regularly. In many industries, you must handle access control to comply with state, local, and federal laws.
But even if you're not in a highly regulated market, it's smart to worry about access control. Reporters say some hackers have developed sophisticated tools to take over computers and encourage these zombies to search for valuable data.
Access mining like this can be devastating to a company, no matter the size. Access control could stop it.
How Access Control Works
Large companies can face a staggering number of hacking attempts every day. Utah state computer systems, for example, endure as many as 300 million hacking trials each and every day. Managing each issue without help is impossible. A robust system could help.
Your access control system is made up of software, humans to manage it, and rules to dictate its use. Common steps within the system include:
- Authentication. A user wants to access your system. Is that person legitimate, or are you dealing with an imposter? User names, passwords, biometric data, and one-time verification codes could all help you confirm identities.
- Authorisation. What should that person be allowed to do? Authorisation involves the rules you set regarding access.
- Access. With identities verified and rules set, a person can see, write, save, share, or otherwise work with an asset. Conversely, if the person does not pass your authentication or authorisation checks, the system denies entry.
- Management. Teams must monitor their rules and the company's use of data. New employees, departing teammates, or organisation restructures could all put security at risk.
- Audit. As much as you might try to keep tight control over access, details may elude your attention. Regular audits ensure that you always know what's happening and that you can respond accordingly.
To someone attempting to access a resource, access control might look like this:
- Log in: The user gives a password, followed by another authentication method.
- Access: The user can see some servers and files. Others may remain hidden.
- Work: The user might attempt an action not allowed by authorisation rules, such as writing in a protected file. The system prevents that action.
If you've worked in an office environment within the last decade, all of these steps seem familiar. Countless employees have followed these same steps every day as they work.
Common Authorisation Types
Proper access control policies begin with strict authorisation rules. Sometimes, people refer to these things as "access control types." But make no mistake. These are rules that dictate what people can and can't do within a server. They are all about authorisation.
You might choose to allow access based on:
- Attributes. The time of day, a device location, or a person's geographic location could all help you understand if the system should allow a person in or keep them out.
For example, if you run a business in Boise that is only open until 5 p.m., but you have a login attempt from India at 11 p.m., you could set up the system to deny that user.
- Discretion. The person who owns the data decides how