If your company is involved in information that is classified as confidential or proprietary, controlled access to the data is crucial. Access control is an essential requirement for any organization that has employees who are connected to the internet. The most basic definition of access control is the selective restriction of information to a specific individuals and under certain conditions as explained by Daniel Crowley, head of research for IBM’s “X-Force Red” team, which focuses on data security. There are two primary components, authentication and authorization.
Authentication is the process of verifying that the person to whom you’re trying to gain access to is who they say they are. It also includes the verification of a password or other credentials that need to be provided before allowing access to a network, application or file.
Authorization refers important link to granting access to a specific job in the company for example, marketing, HR, or engineering. Role-based access control (RBAC) is one of the most common and effective methods to restrict access. This type of access is based on policies that define the information needed to carry out certain business functions and assign permissions to appropriate roles.
If you have a uniform access control policy it is much easier to monitor and control changes as they happen. It is crucial to ensure that policies are clearly communicated to staff to ensure the proper handling of sensitive information, as well as to have an procedure for removing access when an employee leaves the business or changes their position, or is terminated.