Access control is a critical concept in data security that limits and regulates who can access which business resources. On a broad level, access can either be physical or logical. Physical access control pertains to restricting access to physical assets (like computers and servers) or the rooms and buildings where the resources are located. Logical access control refers to restricting access to computers, networks, system resources, and more. The idea of access control is to minimize cybersecurity risks by preventing unauthorized access to organizational resources.
Access controls are designed based on certain fundamental rules and guidelines, known as access control policies. These policies are defined based on a multitude of factors, like business requirements, data sensitivity and priority levels, user roles, and a need-to-know basis. Access control policies enable IT admins to observe, track, log, and govern access to computers, networks, servers, resources, and even physical perimeters. In the long run, these policies can ensure organization-wide data security and privacy.
It is important to develop effective access control policies to ensure data security and confidentiality and to provide secure access to the organization's network and resources. Here are a few ways to create an effective access control policy:
The scope of an access control policy includes details like to whom the policy applies and what resources are covered. An access control policy can be applied to all the people associated with an organization, like employees, customers, and third-party vendors. However, the policy is defined uniquely for each of them. For instance, the rules defined for an employee differ from those that apply to a customer. The scope also elaborates on the kinds of resources to which the policy applies. Sensitive data is provided additional security with stricter access rules.
The idea of the scope of your organizational access control policy is to provide adequate clarity regarding whom and what the access control policy covers. This is what defines the entirety of how access is managed at the organization level and who can access which data and under what circumstances.
Ideally, for any access management question that comes up, an organization should have a policy in place. Access control policies must aim to cover all possible scenarios and necessities that are relevant to your organization. Depending on the countries or states that your business operates in, access control policies will have to meet the local compliance regulations. Organizations with international operations will be required to stay compliant with multiple regulations at the same time.
Thus, it becomes important to tailor your access control policies to the nature of your business and other applicable factors. Additionally, as newer technologies emerge, they must be included in the policies to keep them updated. The best policies are the ones with an up-to-date understanding of the industry, customer needs, and technology.
As additional changes are made to access control policies over the years, it becomes crucial to keep track of their evolution. Such documentation will help you build an audit trail of all policies, revisions, omissions, and inclusions made, including details of why the change was implemented, by whom, and when.
Tracking policy changes also builds accountability for policy-makers and helps the organization stay compliant with government regulations. Several data privacy regulations require businesses to share the details of their policy changes publicly and how they impact the respective stakeholders. In such scenarios, periodic documentation of policies proves to be of great use.
The idea of the least privilege method is to restrict individual user permissions by providing users with only those access measures they absolutely require to perform their respective roles and responsibilities. Under this method, users are provided with the minimal level of access rights when it comes to using organizational applications, resources, systems, networks, and devices. Additionally, restrictions are imposed in terms of the role-based authorizationsrole-based authorizations granted to each user.
In this digital era of rapidly emerging technologies, the method of least privilege is no longer an option but a necessity. Once the privileges granted at a user level are reduced and strictly monitored, it highly reduces cybersecurity risks and minimizes the organization's exposure to threats. The least privilege method lays the foundation for ensuring a Zero Trust environment.
The first step towards protecting sensitive data is to enable secure access through robust access control policies. These policies aim to minimize the cybersecurity risks that an organization gets exposed to because of unauthorized access to business data and resources. With the dynamically changing IT environment, it becomes challenging for IT admins to manage highly distributed user access. As businesses look to adopt a hybrid workplace model in the post-pandemic world, complications will keep increasing as users alternate between on-premises networks and remote networks. In such demanding circumstances, strategic, well-devised access control policies mitigate the risk of data breaches.