Security & Compliance

  • 12 min read

4 Types of Access Control

Team Zluri

18th October, 2023

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As an IT manager, ensuring the security of your organization's sensitive data and resources is paramount. Establishing robust access control measures to enhance your organization's security framework is crucial.

By gaining a comprehensive understanding of access control and its implications, you will be better equipped to make informed decisions and implement effective strategies to protect your organization's valuable assets.

Picture this: You have a network of sensitive data, confidential documents, and high-security zones. How do you ensure that only authorized personnel gain entry? This is where access control systems come into play. At their core, these systems establish a security framework that determines who can access specific resources within your organization. 

But it's not just about granting or denying access; it's about implementing foolproof authentication and authorization rules that make your data impenetrable.

Authentication verifies users' identity, ensuring that only authorized individuals gain access to your organization's protected areas. Usernames, passwords, PINs, security tokens, and even cutting-edge biometric scans form the foundation of authentication. By implementing strong authentication measures, you create a highly secure defense system that allows entry into your organization's protected areas exclusively for authorized individuals.

Now, let's talk about authorization. Once your users have been successfully authenticated, they need appropriate privileges and permissions to access specific resources. Here, access control systems come into play, employing the power of authorization rules. These rules define who can access what based on their roles, responsibilities, and clearance levels. By finely tuning these rules, you empower your IT team to grant granular access privileges, minimizing the risk of data breaches and ensuring regulatory compliance.

But wait, there's more! Implementing an access control system isn't a one-size-fits-all affair. Your organization's unique requirements demand a tailored approach. 

As an IT manager, you need to consider factors such as the level of ownership you desire over the system and how to determine access privileges for different employee groups. Fortunately, a plethora of access control models exist, each offering distinct benefits. 

Whether it's role-based access control, attribute-based access control, or even the latest advancements in dynamic authorization, you have an array of options at your disposal.

Let’s take a look at the different types of access control and its specifics. 

4 Major Types of Access Control

Several types of access control mechanisms are commonly used to ensure authorized access and protect sensitive resources. These types can be categorized as follows:

1. Discretionary Access Control (DAC)

Among the various access control mechanisms available, one approach that stands out is discretionary access control (DAC). Unlike other systems, DAC places more control in the hands of leadership, allowing your IT team to determine resource access based on individual permissions, even if your IT admin has established a hierarchy of files with predefined access levels. This unique feature sets DAC apart from other access control systems.

DAC offers the advantage of granting access to resources based on the right credentials. By empowering leadership to define who can access specific data or systems, DAC enables a fine-grained level of control and ensures that only authorized personnel gain entry. This flexibility allows you to align access privileges with specific roles and responsibilities, ensuring employees have the access needed to perform their tasks effectively.

However, it is important to note that DAC also introduces certain challenges that require careful oversight. Since the responsibility for managing permissions lies with end-users, there is a need for constant monitoring and supervision to prevent unauthorized access or unintentional breaches. This heightened level of involvement in managing access rights can potentially create gaps or oversights if not diligently addressed.

While other access control models, such as mandatory access control (MAC), offer a rigid and low-effort approach to security, DAC provides a more dynamic and high-effort solution. By allowing leadership to determine and adapt access levels as needed, DAC offers greater flexibility in aligning security measures with an organization's evolving requirements. This adaptability is especially beneficial in environments where roles and responsibilities change frequently or a more collaborative approach to data access is preferred.

2. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

As an IT manager, you understand the criticality of efficient access management and robust security measures. One solution that perfectly aligns with your needs is role-based access control (RBAC). RBAC enables you to assign network access based on predefined user roles, providing a structured and streamlined approach to access control.

RBAC allows your team to categorize employees into roles such as managers, contractors, and department heads. By doing so, your team can ensure that permissions align with their job titles and responsibilities. This eliminates the need for constant oversight, enabling your team to focus on critical tasks while maintaining peace of mind.

RBAC doesn't impose rigid access privileges upon you. On the contrary, it offers the flexibility to customize profiles to meet your organization's unique needs. You have the ability to tailor access rights and exceptions as required, striking the perfect balance between control and adaptability.

For small and medium-sized businesses, RBAC brings added advantages. It provides the desired level of control without burdening you with excessive administrative tasks. Managing access at the role level can significantly reduce the administrative burden, improving operational efficiency and freeing up time for more strategic initiatives.

Moreover, since security is a top concern for you, and by implementing RBAC, you can ensure that only authorized personnel have access to sensitive data and resources. This minimizes the risk of security breaches, as unnecessary privileges are reduced or eliminated.

In addition, RBAC also simplifies the employee onboarding and offboarding processes. When new hires join your organization, assigning them role-based profiles guarantees they have access from day one. 

Similarly, when employees leave or change roles, their access rights can be easily adjusted or revoked. This capability eliminates potential security gaps and enhances the overall security posture of your organization.

3. Attribute-Based Access Control

The ever-evolving threat landscape and the growing need for more nuanced control have given rise to a more advanced approach: Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC). ABAC introduces a complex yet powerful strategy that applies a multitude of attributes to users and resources, enabling your IT admin to make access decisions based on contextual factors and dynamic risk levels.

At the core of ABAC is the concept of attributes. Users are granted access only to resources that possess corresponding attributes. These attributes encompass a wide range of factors, providing rich context and specificity to access control decisions. From user demographics like job title or security clearance to resource properties such as file type or creation date, and even environmental characteristics like access location or time, ABAC takes into account a diverse array of attributes.

The strength of ABAC lies in its granular approach, offering unparalleled flexibility for determining access rights. This allows access control policies to adapt to the unique requirements of each situation, ensuring that individuals have precisely the access they need when they need it. 

Instead of relying solely on predefined roles, ABAC empowers admins to consider a broader set of attributes that accurately capture the context and requirements of access requests.

Implementing ABAC requires thoughtful planning and consideration. Your IT admin must define the relevant attributes and establish their relationships with users and resources. 

Integrating ABAC capabilities into your existing systems or applications may necessitate technical adjustments and coordination. However, the investment in ABAC is undoubtedly worthwhile, as it provides a level of access control sophistication that aligns with the demands of modern IT environments.

4. Policy-Based Access Control

Policy-based access control (PBAC) is an advanced access control mechanism that is specifically designed to cater to your needs. It evaluates access rights and entitlements and provides a flexible framework for adjusting them in accordance with new corporate policies. This dynamic nature of PBAC makes it an invaluable tool for constantly evolving organizations.

Unlike other access control models, PBAC places a strong emphasis on policy enforcement. As organizations undergo changes, they often develop new policies to ensure that access rights remain consistent, appropriate, and secure. 

PBAC leverages these policies to enforce IGA solutions about what actions to take and how to enforce access. This proactive approach ensures that access management aligns with the evolving needs and objectives of the organization.

One notable distinction between PBAC and ABAC lies in their respective focuses. While ABAC primarily relies on attributes to determine access, PBAC takes a policy-driven approach. PBAC empowers you to define policies guiding the IGA solution enforcing access controls. This policy-centric design enables a more proactive and efficient access management process.

Implementing PBAC provides significant benefits. It offers granular security with precise access control based on roles and responsibilities, minimizing unauthorized access. PBAC is reactive to policy changes, ensuring up-to-date access rights. It simplifies compliance management, enforcing controls that adhere to regulations and standards. 

You can easily review and audit access controls, improving ongoing security. PBAC is standards-driven, ensuring compatibility and easy integration into existing infrastructure.

Flawed access control can have devastating consequences, as unauthorized individuals can view, modify, or delete sensitive content, perform unauthorized functions, or even gain control over site administration. To address this critical issue, Zluri offers comprehensive solutions designed to mitigate the risks associated with unauthorized access.

Use Zluri to Enhance Security Through Access Control

Zluri's IGA platform offers a powerful and unified approach to access management, eliminating the complexities of access permissions that often hinder productivity. With a robust framework in place, your IT teams can effortlessly manage user access, granting appropriate permissions and preventing unauthorized access attempts. 

The platform's intuitive interface ensures a seamless experience, reducing the burden on your team and freeing them up to focus on strategic initiatives. Zluri's IGA caters to the demands of the modern workforce by enabling secure access management from anywhere without compromising data security.

Let's explore the distinctive capabilities that set Zluri apart from other IGA tools.

Revolutionizing IT insights with Zluri's data engine: Embrace the power of intelligent discovery

As an IT manager, unlocking insights into your organization's application landscape and user-related data is crucial for ensuring security and compliance. Zluri's data engine offers cutting-edge discovery methods that empower your IT team, providing unrivaled insights into your SaaS apps.

With an array of five robust discovery methods at your disposal, including single sign-on, identity providers, finance and expense management systems, direct app integration, and optional desktop agents and browser extensions, Zluri's data engine provides a comprehensive view of your organization's application ecosystem.

By harnessing the power of these discovery methods, your team can swiftly identify users with specific application access, scrutinize permissions granted, and pinpoint critical users accessing the apps. The level of granularity offered by Zluri's data engine strengthens your organization's security posture and enhances compliance efforts.

Say farewell to tedious manual app categorization and user access recording. Zluri's data engine takes automation to new heights, effortlessly identifying managed, unmanaged, and shadow IT apps. This automation liberates valuable time and resources, enabling your IT team to manage your app ecosystem more efficiently.

Security is non-negotiable, and Zluri makes it a breeze for your IT team to maintain a secure access environment. With the intelligent IGA solution, you can ensure that the right employees have appropriate permissions for service accounts, mitigating the risk of unauthorized access. Embrace the future of IT insights with Zluri's data engine and unleash the potential of intelligent discovery methods. 

Optimize IT operations with Zluri's cutting-edge automation engine

With Zluri's automation engine, manual processes are a thing of the past. No longer will your teams waste valuable time on tedious tasks. Instead, they can focus on strategic initiatives and core responsibilities. Zluri empowers your IT department by automating complex access management procedures, leaving no room for errors or delays. 

The automation engine is not limited to basic user access management. It's designed to optimize the entire user lifecycle, ensuring your organization operates efficiently while upholding the highest data security standards. Granting appropriate access and dynamically adapting permissions as roles evolve – Zluri handles it all seamlessly.

Simplify User Access Provisioning with Zluri's Streamlined Onboarding Solution

Efficient user access provisioning is critical to any organization's security and productivity strategy. It involves granting employees the right level of access, ensuring they have the necessary resources to perform their job duties without compromising sensitive information. Zluri introduces a groundbreaking solution that redefines the onboarding process, making it seamless and efficient, freeing up the IT team from repetitive and time-consuming tasks.

One of the core features of Zluri is its ability to ensure that only authorized employees receive precisely the right level of access to essential SaaS applications and data. By doing so, the platform mitigates the risks associated with human errors and over-provisioning, which can lead to security vulnerabilities and potential data breaches.

Zluri's mission revolves around empowering IT teams, allowing them to control the onboarding process. The platform's intuitive interface enables IT professionals to effortlessly create and customize onboarding workflows tailored to each new employee's specific job entitlements, roles, positions, and departments. This level of customization ensures that new hires get access to the tools and data necessary for their roles and nothing more, thus enhancing security.

The efficiency of Zluri becomes apparent as it enables your IT team to grant secure access to multiple new hires simultaneously. With streamlined workflows and automated processes, the onboarding experience becomes efficient and secure, saving time and effort for both the IT team and the new employees.

Zluri further simplifies the access provisioning process by providing a user-friendly interface that allows IT teams to configure access privileges based on job roles and responsibilities with just a few clicks. This eliminates the need for complex workflow designs and reduces the chance of errors during the onboarding process.

As a result of Zluri's powerful workflow capabilities, your team can experience a remarkable increase in efficiency and enhanced employee productivity. Employees can focus on their tasks without unnecessary distractions or delays caused by access issues by ensuring that the right users have access to the right resources.

Simplify User Access Deprovisioning with Zluri's Streamlined Offboarding Solution 

Employee offboarding can be complex and time-consuming for organizations. However, Zluri offers a comprehensive solution through their offboarding playbook, simplifying and streamlining the deprovisioning process, making it effortless and highly efficient. Zluri's intelligent lifecycle management platform saves valuable time and effort and enhances the security of an organization's data.

One of the key benefits of using Zluri is its automatic revocation of access to all devices, apps, and systems when an employee leaves the company. Zluri promptly disables their access, ensuring they cannot gain unauthorized access to sensitive information. This swift and automated process minimizes the risk of data breaches or security incidents resulting from former employees retaining access to company resources.

Zluri also takes care of data backup and transfer to a new owner during deprovisioning. This feature ensures that crucial information is securely handed over to the appropriate personnel, facilitating a smooth transition even after an employee's departure. By mitigating the risk of losing essential data, Zluri provides added peace of mind for organizations during these sensitive situations.

In addition to safeguarding data, Zluri simplifies the revocation of employee licenses and eliminates their single sign-on (SSO) access. By doing so, the platform effectively blocks the ex-employees usage of any organization's applications, further enhancing data security and preventing potential misuse of company resources.

By adopting Zluri's straightforward approach to employee offboarding, organizations can ensure consistent and secure deprovisioning for all departing employees. This level of efficiency and security allows HR and IT teams to easily handle departures and confidently. As a result, administrative tasks become less burdensome, and organizations can focus on their core functions with the assurance that data security is maintained during potentially sensitive personnel changes.

Seamless access request management: Zluri's intelligent self-service solution

Handling access permissions during employee transitions can be a complex and daunting task. Balancing the need to grant appropriate access for new responsibilities while safeguarding sensitive data from unauthorized users is paramount. Fortunately, Zluri introduces a game-changing solution with its self-service model, the Employee App Store (EAS), which streamlines access request management, making the process efficient and secure.

Say goodbye to manual permission management! Zluri's EAS empowers both team members and approvers to seamlessly review and approve access requests customized for each employee's specific job roles. This granular approach ensures that employees have the right access level to perform their duties effectively while minimizing unnecessary access to sensitive information.

Zluri puts you in complete control of access privileges, creating a secure environment within your organization's boundaries. Leveraging cutting-edge technology, you can effortlessly safeguard critical data, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and maintaining full control over the tools and resources available to employees.

The EAS operates on a robust approval system with three distinct levels: app owners, reporting managers, and IT admins. This multi-tiered approach allows higher authorities to make decisive decisions, overriding choices made by lower-level admins or managers when necessary.

Every approval or rejection of an access request is accompanied by comprehensive explanations and comments, ensuring clarity and fostering collaboration within the organization's access management process.

But that's not all! Zluri's intelligent solutions enable approvers to modify specific access requests, tailoring permissions precisely to the organization's unique requirements. Transparency is vital, which is why Zluri's IGA solutions offer a comprehensive "changelog" feature. This allows users to track updates, from approvals and rejections to changes in license duration or tier.

The changelog feature captures valuable insights, including comments added by any admin, promoting a collaborative and well-informed approach to access management. With Zluri's EAS, managing access requests becomes efficient, transparent, and secure, allowing your team to navigate employee transitions confidently.

The benefits of Zluri's IGA solution extend beyond just speed and efficiency. Let’s see how!

Unified Access Management with Zluri's IGA Solution: A Comprehensive View of Digital Identities

Zluri's IGA solution offers a holistic and comprehensive approach to access management, providing organizations with a unified view of their entire access landscape. This platform consolidates and centralizes user access-related information from various sources, eliminating the need for administrators to navigate multiple directories or identity repositories. 

By doing so, Zluri's IGA ensures that all the necessary data to understand access privileges and user activities is readily accessible, promoting a seamless and efficient user experience.

• Access Directory: At the heart of Zluri's IGA lies its robust capability to capture and organize user information from diverse sources. The platform ensures that every user identity and associated access privileges are meticulously recorded and easily accessible for review. This meticulous record-keeping process leaves no room for incomplete or inaccurate records, ensuring that administrators have a reliable and up-to-date understanding of user access within the organization.

• Access Privileges: With Zluri's unified access approach, administrators gain unparalleled visibility and control over managing user access privileges across the entire organization. This enhanced oversight enables them to quickly identify potential access discrepancies or suspicious permissions. By maintaining a clear view of access rights, Zluri's IGA bolsters the organization's defense against cyber threats, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and data breaches. Moreover, this constant alignment of access rights ensures that users have the appropriate level of access needed for their roles, promoting efficient and secure operations.

• Activity & Alerts: Zluri's IGA solution takes a proactive stance on security by continuously tracking user activity in real-time. A robust alert system instantly flags any unusual or potentially malicious behavior. This vigilant alert mechanism acts as an early warning system, empowering administrators to respond promptly to potential security risks and take necessary action. By staying ahead of potential threats, organizations can mitigate the impact of security incidents and maintain the integrity of their digital identities.

Unlocking Efficiency & Strengthening Security: Embracing Automation with Zluri's IGA Solution

Traditional manual access review processes have often proven to be cumbersome, time-consuming, and prone to errors, which can significantly hinder an organization's productivity and compromise its security. 

However, Zluri's IGA solution introduces a revolutionary approach that leverages cutting-edge automation capabilities to transform access management. With Zluri's IGA, automation takes center stage, providing numerous advantages that empower organizations to operate more efficiently while bolstering security measures.

• Access Rules: Zluri's IGA allows you to exercise complete control over access rules and policies. By tailoring these rules based on roles, responsibilities, and specific business requirements, organizations can ensure that users have the appropriate access to perform their duties effectively without unnecessary access privileges. 
  
  Automation plays a crucial role in this aspect by enabling the platform to perform instant reviews and validations of user access against pre-established criteria. This means that every time a user requests access or changes their role or responsibilities, the system automatically checks if the requested access aligns with the defined policies. 
  
  This eliminates any ambiguity in the review process and ensures that access is granted only to authorized personnel, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and potential security breaches.

• Auto Remediation: One of the standout features of Zluri's IGA solution is its efficient automated remediation actions. In the face of security vulnerabilities or non-compliant access situations, the platform automatically takes remediation actions without manual intervention.
  
  These remediation actions can include revoking access, notifying users and their managers about access changes, or initiating access request workflows for approvals. By automating these responses to security threats, potential risks are mitigated promptly, and security incidents are addressed in real-time.
  
  The integration of automation into access reviews brings remarkable efficiency to the entire process, allowing organizations to optimize their resources for more crucial endeavors. With Zluri's IGA, the burden of manual intervention is lessened, greatly decreasing the chances of human errors and ensuring precise and consistent access reviews. 
  
  Notably, this automated approach also enhances security resilience within organizations. Through scheduled certifications, access permissions undergo continuous evaluation, enabling proactive measures against potential security risks and compliance concerns. By staying ahead of these issues, organizations can maintain a high level of security posture and confidently navigate the ever-evolving threat landscape.

By embracing Zluri's IGA solution, the power of automation revolutionizes the access review process, leading to a significant reduction in administrative burdens. The platform simplifies and automates key tasks, resulting in an impressive 70% decrease in manual efforts required for access reviews.

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Team Zluri

Team Zluri