controlled access to confidential data
If your company has information that is classified as proprietary or confidential, limiting access to the data is vital. Any organization whose employees connect to the internet should have strong access control measures in place. 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 people and under certain conditions. There are two key components: authorization and authentication.
Authentication involves making sure that the person you’re trying to access is the person they claim to be. It also involves the verification of a password or other credentials that must be provided before allowing access to a network, application, file or system.
Authorization refers to the granting of access based on a specific job in the company for example, engineering, HR or marketing. Role-based access control (RBAC) is one of the most common and effective ways to limit access. This kind of access is controlled by policies that specify the required information to carry out certain business functions and assigns access to the appropriate roles.
It is simpler to manage and monitor any changes when you have a policy for access control that is uniform. It is important that policies are clearly communicated to employees to make them aware of how to be cautious when handling sensitive information. There should be an established procedure to revoke access to employees who leave the company, change their roles or are terminated.