Access control

Access control represents a security method that allows businesses and organizations to manage access to specific areas of the premises, corporate data, or resources. Access control can also limit physical access to entire buildings, campuses, and rooms.

Access control requires verification with versatile login credentials, from passwords and PINs to security tokens and biometric scans to allow people to enter certain spaces or view restricted data. Access control systems also commonly rely on MFA (multi-factor authentication), requesting the user to adequately respond to several different authentication methods to receive access.

There are four main types of access control: DAC, MAC, RBAC, and ABAC.

DAC or discretionary access control allows the system administrator to set the policies regarding access. MAC or mandatory access control grants access on information clearance, meaning that a central authority regulates access taking into account specific security levels.

RBAC or role-based access control considers business functions, not a person’s identity. This means that only individuals in certain roles can access certain premises or information, and the system is designed as a combination of authorizations, role-specific assignments, and permissions.

Lastly, the dynamic ABAC or attribute-based access control allows access only considering sets of pre-defined attributes and conditions.

Access control is managed through five elemental components: authentication, authorization, access, management, and audit.

Authentication establishes the identity of a user, and, although it’s the first step in the access control process, it’s not sufficient to protect organizations’ data or premises. That’s where authorization comes in, adding an extra layer of security by specifying access rights and privileges.

Identity verification occurs once an individual has completed the authentication and authorization steps, granting access to the resource or a room restricted to others.

Organizations manage their access control systems by adding and removing authentication and authorization. They can then commence the access control audit, enforcing the principle of least privilege to gather data on an individual’s activity and analyze it to discover potential access violations.

Access control is essential for businesses as it reduces security risks by protecting what matters most: valuable company data that isn’t meant for everyone to see.

Allowing rooms and information to be freely accessed by anyone makes companies vulnerable to data theft, privacy breaches, and hacking. A business can also suffer due to a violation of protection data laws.

Benefits of implementing access control systems are countless, the most notable among them being:

• Improved data monitoring and protection;
• Facilitating the offboarding processes;
• Clear insight into who looks at your data;
• Ease of adding, removing, and modifying user permissions;
• Improving regulatory compliance with data privacy laws.

CCTV access control is an integrated setup consisting of two security systems. It combines the best features of both, significantly improving a space’s physical security. Here’s how the integration works.

The access control event is related to a credential user and considers potential issues with their access to a certain area. If the case of a forced entry attempt, the CCTV system captures the person or people attempting to enter the area without authorization. A security manager can take over the case and investigate the event further or report the incident to the local police.

ACL, short for Network Access Control List, is designed and used to grant or deny permissions to certain digital environments. ACL helps control traffic flow, restricting it for better network performance. It also provides security for network access by specifying which areas can and cannot be accessed by individual users.

There are two types of ACLs: filesystem ACLs, which filter access to concrete files and directories, and networking ACLs, filtering access to the network.