If your company is involved in information that is classified as private or confidential, having control over access to that information is crucial. Anyone who has employees that connect to the internet must have strong access control measures in place. In its most basic form, access control is an individual restriction of information to certain people and under specific conditions, says Daniel Crowley, head of research at IBM’s X-Force Red team that focuses on data security. There are two major possible technologies in the future components, authorization and authentication.
Authentication is the process of verifying that the person to whom you want to gain access to is who they say they are. It also includes verification using a password, or other credentials needed before granting access to a network, an application, a system or file.
Authorization is the process of granting access to specific areas based on the specific roles within a business such as engineering, marketing, HR and more. The most efficient and well-known method to limit access is to use access control based on roles. This kind of access involves policies that identify information required to complete certain business tasks and assign permissions to the appropriate roles.
It is easier to monitor and manage any changes if you have a policy for access control that is standardized. It is crucial to ensure that the policies are clearly communicated to employees to encourage careful handling of sensitive information, and to have an procedure for removing access when an employee leaves the company and/or changes their job or is terminated.