Access control to data is essential for businesses that have sensitive or proprietary information. Access control is an essential requirement for any company that has employees who connect to the internet. Daniel Crowley, IBM’s X Force Red team head of research, explains that access control is a method to limit access to information only to specific individuals and under specific conditions. There are two primary components, authentication and authorization.
Authentication is the process of verifying that the person you’re trying to gain access to is the person they claim to be. It also involves the verification of the password or other credentials required before granting access to a network, an application, a file or system.
Authorization is the process of granting access to a specific job function within the company such as marketing, HR, or engineering. Role-based access control (RBAC) is one of the most widely used and effective ways to limit access. This type of access is controlled by policies that identify the information required to carry out certain business functions and assigns permission to the appropriate roles.
It is simpler to manage and monitor any changes when you have a policy for access control which is standard. It’s important to ensure that the policies are clearly communicated technologyform com to staff to encourage careful handling of sensitive information, as well as to establish procedures for revocation of access when employees leave the company or changes their position, or is terminated.