Access control is a vital security framework that dictates who has access to particular authentication and authorisation resources. The access controls authenticate the rightful users by verifying the provided login credentials such as usernames, passwords, pins, and other biometric scans. Are you aware of the types of access control systems and how they work? Read on to find out!
Three major types of access control and how they work
There are various access control system models that a business can implement. The aim is to track and monitor who accesses what information, when they access it, and from what point. With the right system, a business effectively identifies suspicious activity and takes the appropriate action to prevent security breaches. Let’s look at the three major access control models and how they can work in your organisation.
1. Role-based Access Control systems (RBACs)
The RBAC security system is used by the administrators to restrict access to particular areas of an organisation based on the roles. By using RBACs, the authorised persons in administration can easily determine, specify, and define the roles of particular persons. After these roles are defined, the users get an assignment to the particular areas that their jobs or scope is concerned with.
The RBAC system minimises administrative work by enabling the people in charge to assign users a role with already-determined permissions. While RBAC allows the inclusion of users into various assigned groups, it is important to note that they can only be given one role.
This access control system works perfectly for small to medium organisations as the owner or administrator can select the employees and define the areas they can access. If your organisation has 2 to 200 people, this might be the most effective way to control access.
2. Attribute-based Access Control systems (ABACs)
The ABAC system is the direct opposite of the RBAC. It is a complex strategy that applies a huge variety of attributes for the resources and users. Even though it may be more complicated than RBAC, it allows the administrators better flexibility, especially in the decision-making process.
With this control system, a user or employee can only access a resource if they have the corresponding attributes. These attributes can be such as a job title, a security clearance level, or even the file type. If the attribute for a particular task has the passcode, only those with the particular passcode can access the given section. Once that project is over, the criteria change, thus highly adaptable.
The ABAC control system enables the administration to create whatever criteria and change as required depending on the task at hand. It allows organisations to implement very granular yet flexible security policies across various resources thus ensuring a higher –security level and unmatched adaptability. A user can access a particular resource but if the criteria change within the next hour, they are unable to access it. For this reason, the ABAC control system works best for growing or dynamic sets of teams.
3. Discretionary Access Control systems (DACs)
The last type is the DAC, which provides access rights depending on the rules that the administrators have set. The difference between this model and the previous two is that for DAC, every resource will have an owner or admin that decides who should get access and to what extent. The admins have an Access Control List (ACL) showing the allowed members and what access they have.
DAC is more decentralised when it comes to security concerns as the admins give access at specified levels. This system is very easy and convenient to use as long as the users and roles are correctly listed. Following its decentralisation, the owners or admins can add or remove permissions such as reading, making changes, and even file deletion.
While this method is easy to use and straightforward, it poses a security risk for organisations handling sensitive data. For instance, if you run a large organisation and have DAC in play, mistakes made by users can be detrimental in the end. To avoid this, the owners and administrators must make manual updates regularly.
Conclusion
As you can see, access control systems work in restricting particular persons from going to particular parts of the organisation. This beefs up your security as an organisation while ensuring the effectiveness of the systems. Each of these systems has its pros and cons thus the need to assess each before employing them in your organisation. DAC will work best for companies with limited risk and resources while organisations prioritising speed, flexibility, and speed are better off with RBAC and ABAC models. With Nedap Security Management, you have a free trial at each of the access control models to determine your most plausible solution. The best thing about them is that you can always adjust based on your workflow or growing concerns!
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