When users need access to IT resources for a specific period, it makes sense to create policies for them. However, this can be a hassle.
1. Time-Based Access
Privileged access management (PAM) solutions that support just-in-time access controls help eliminate various issues. These controls limit risk by controlling where users can access privileged accounts and what actions they can take after gaining permission.
One of these is time-based access control. Time-based access control is a type of firewall protection that allows you to control traffic into your network based on a specific time. This can be useful when you want to restrict a specific group of users from accessing resources during certain times, such as lunch or after business hours.
Time-based firewall rules provide granular enforcement of your security policy, which is important for businesses that must protect sensitive information or other critical assets. These allow you to control when ACL entries are logged and sent to the server.
This type of control can help you avoid breaches by preventing hackers from using a time-of-day hack to access your network. It can also help you track when your network is most vulnerable so that you can take precautions to safeguard it against attack.
In this type of access control, you create rules that specify a combination of user attributes and actions (such as viewing, editing, or deleting data) to determine who can access resources. Administrators can evaluate these combinations before granting or denying access to specific users.
Time-based firewalls have higher scalability and can be applied more quickly to new applications and environments than other firewall rules. They also offer greater flexibility, which makes them a good choice for organizations with high-security requirements.
2. Location-Based Access
A location-based access control system allows employees to create different access permissions based on where they work. It can help organizations manage access across multiple locations, like schools, hospitals, and national offices. These systems allow users to access different facility areas using a key card or PIN.
This is a great way to ensure that people only have access to the places they need while preventing unauthorized individuals from entering. Access controls can also provide data on who is inside the building or area, which can be useful for investigating a crime like theft.
They also allow you to set access times for visitors, ensuring that only people who are supposed to be in the building or room can enter. This technology works by analyzing a user’s GPS locations and then mapping that to an authentication context policy used to make access decisions.
This can be useful in various environments, including financial services industries, which require users to access sensitive information only within a specific geographic region. In addition, a location-based access control system can control user access to tasks and data based on their roles and the IP addresses from which they sign in.
This means that users logged in from an office network have complete access to all the features and tasks, while those who sign in from a home network will only have access to their role-based tasks and data.
3. Action-Based Access
In action-based access control, the security system makes access decisions based on the subject, resource, and environment involved. These factors include the time and location of the access request, the subject’s device, and contextual information about the access attempt, such as authentication strength or risk signals.
For example, if a sales rep wants to access a W-9 file to identify a potential new customer, the system may only give them that access if they are in the accounting department. However, if that same sales rep is responsible for payroll, they could be given access to the W-9, provided their job role permits them to do so and that they are within a specific period or acting (viewing or editing) on that data.
Attribute-based access control (ABAC) allows for more granular controls and enables administrators to quickly update rules as new users join the organization or changes occur in their work. This makes it an excellent choice for large enterprises requiring strong access control features and organizations that want to implement a customized security solution.
4. Exception-Based Access
Exception-based access controls compare the data to a base set and flag those items that don’t match up. This is a great way to identify outliers early on and ensure they don’t happen again. The underlying principle of these controls is that users will only have access to the data they need when needed.
That is a far better approach than simply allowing users to access everything without any context as to why they need it. This is a good thing, but it also means that these systems need constant monitoring and management to ensure they work effectively.
Administrators must constantly check that the right users have access to the right information at the right time and that any issues are resolved promptly. To manage this, you can create a policy to specify which tables and views in the dataset are accessible to which users.
You can also use this policy to block users from viewing data that is not relevant to them. Exception-based access control is a powerful tool that enables you to limit user access to only those data sets they need. It helps to keep the system secure and avoid data leakage.
