Living in a world where everything has turned digital, it is imperative to safeguard sensitive information for every organization irrespective of whether it is big enough or small. As crimes such as cyber threats have been evolving with each passing day, organizations must have access to access control mechanisms that will keep all data safe and secure. Numerous hackers and cybercriminals are always on the go to develop new methods to infiltrate systems, enabling them to steal sensitive data from companies. Whether it be basic ransomware, phishing attacks or customer data breaches, the landscape of cyber threats is evolving each day.
These hard-posed crimes pose a significant threat to the company, and its data, and even target employees. To avoid any sort of disruption, it is essential for companies to have an Access Control Mechanism. As much as the name implies, the access control mechanism is a simple strategy that tends to control what is seen and accessed by whom. Access control mechanisms control the flow of data to your corporate resources and restrict movement for verification purposes. Let’s dive into how they work, their importance, and more below.
What is Access Control?
The access control mechanism is specifically designed for developers who wish to ensure the security of their systems thereby protecting and sealing the data only to the people who are allowed to view/access it. This particular process is used to manage, access, and regulate certain resources within a system. By implementing access control mechanism aspects in the right manner, a developer can easily enforce security policies and prevent the access of data to unauthorized users thereby mitigating any risk of data breaches.
In simple words, the access control mechanism is a perfect tool as it performs in its best terms to identify, authenticate, and provide authorization to users by analyzing credentials that may include not just a digit password but beyond the traditional methods of logging in.
This may include biometric passwords, scans, strong password pins, or various other authentication factors. Nowadays, it is also easy to keep risks at bay by using a two-factor authentication process, which requires two or even more than two authentication factors. In short, a layered defense mechanism to control access to your regular systems.
What exactly is an access control mechanism in cybersecurity?
As discussed above, access control mechanisms are simply the techniques that are broadly used to manage or control certain resources in a system. This simple mechanism has great abilities and capabilities to determine under what conditions and with what privileges one can access the given information. Whether it be for controlling access or abiding by the rules, this can easily be implemented on requirements based on what a system is demanding.
Types of Access Control Mechanisms
1. Role-based Access Control
This type of access control mechanism tends to assign access to resources based on the roles designated to system users or users within an organization, thus equipping administrators with optimized and efficient access management controls.
Key highlights:
- Simplified administration
- Robust scalability
2. Discretionary Access Control
Discretionary Access Control or DAC is an access control model where the owner of a resource has complete discretion over who can access it and what level of access they have. DAC allows fine-grained control to access permissions. Herein, the access decisions are completely based on the identities of a specific user or the group the user belongs to.
Key highlights:
- Enhanced flexibility
- Granular control over permissions
For instance, in the case of a file system that makes use of DAC, the owner can set different read or write permissions for different users as per his/her preference. These permissions can later be modified or removed by the owner for any of those users.
3. Mandatory Access Control
Mandatory Access Control or MAC is a strict access control model where permissions are determined by pre-defined security policies enforced by the system. This works quite differently than DAC does. MAC relies purely on centralized authority that can be used to access permissions. System users are assigned security clearances, and data is labeled with sensitivity levels. Access is granted only when a user’s clearance level is sufficient for the data they need.
For example, in a government system, documents might be classified as “Confidential” or “Secret.” Users with “Confidential” clearance cannot access “Secret” data, regardless of ownership.
Key highlights:
- Label-based access control
- Security clearances
4. Access Control List (ACL)
ACLs are essential aspects of the access control mechanism and they are mostly used to specify access permission for a specific individual or group, determining who can have complete access to a resource.
In simple terms, an ACL is a list that grants specific access rights to users or groups.
ACL can explicitly allow as well as deny access to a specific individual. This list is mostly used in network devices, file systems, and other systems where resource-level control is most required.
Implementation of Robust Access Control Mechanism for Better Security
Define Access Control Policies
As we begin the implementation, it is mandatory for us to classify and list down all the resources that require protection. Once those are identified, we must define the set of roles that can be assigned to specific individuals based on the POLP (Principle of Least Privilege).
Implement Authentication Mechanisms
Implementation of robust authentication mechanisms can be done in Six ways:
1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
This form of authentication is widely used to safeguard user or customer data. MFA requires multiple forms of verification from users, and it typically includes something that the user knows (for example, a password), something they have (for example, a security token), and something they are (for example, biometric verification).
2. Single Sign-On (SSO)
SSO allows the users to simply log in once and gain access to multiple systems without the need to log in again. This method surely simplifies the user experience while maintaining security across various platforms.
3. Biometric Authentication
Biometric authentication methods like fingerprint verification and facial recognition are powerful AI-driven methods specific to each individual. These technologies surely provide a high level of security by leveraging unique one or multiple biological traits.
4. Monitoring and Easy Auditing
Monitoring and auditing are some of the most critical components of a robust access control mechanism. They ensure that all the policies are adhered to and have the potential to detect and narrow down on the security breaches.
5. Logging
Logging provides easy access to details of records, which are essential for troubleshooting. Making extensive use of log security will help prevent your logs from being tampered with and having unauthorized access controls.
6. Real-Time Monitoring
Real-time monitoring and related activities enable the administrators with the power of immediately detect and response to suspicious activities and unauthorized attempts to access data or resources.
Access Control Mechanism Excellence: Reasons to use
1. Security
Implementing access control mechanisms ensures that all data, whether small or large, is completely secure. Whether it’s sensitive information or just protecting data against breaches, it is going to be very helpful for all causes.
2. Flexibility
As mentioned above, usage of the access control mechanism gives you the full right to choose and tailor access permissions to individuals based on their appropriate usage.
3. Improved collaboration
If you make use of access control mechanisms in the right way, you can easily facilitate secure collaboration within your team, departments, and even your external partners.
4. Enhanced user experience
Once you clearly define access rights, you will reduce the complexity that may arise in user management and user interfaces. This makes the processes more accurate, streamlined and easy to use.
Access Control Management with SentinelOne
SentinelOne customers can now customize permissions so that the user experience is optimized for diverse groups of personas in the organization. It implements the principle of least privilege for all clouds, identities, and endpoints, and fine-tunes the right level of access for entities using the minimum set of resources to do jobs effectively.
You can select the appropriate scope, set custom roles, and assign new users to the right roles. As an extra level of convenience, users can duplicate custom roles, delete, reassign, and reuse them. Singularity™ Control gives the best breed of cyber security and native access management features. Augment your team with holistic management, control network flows, and incorporate granular visibility.
You can identify unprotected, out-of-compliance devices automatically to ensure compliance with organizational risk management KPIs.
Other features offered by SentinelOne for access management are as follows:
- Touchless location-awareness
- Dynamic network control assignments
- Tagging mechanisms and customized policy-based control with hierarchical inheritance
- Supports read-only operations for Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with Singularity™ USB Device Control support.
- Rogue device discovery
- Identity attack surface management prevents credentials harvesting and scans Active Directory
- Ranger offers Rogue functions and adds extensive network discovery and fingerprinting of all IP-enabled devices. It prevents unauthorized lateral movement and protects SentinelOne devices from non-managed network-connected devices
Conclusion
With this 101 guide, we are pretty sure that all your basic questions such as the implementation of an access control mechanism, what is access control mechanism and many more have been answered! These mechanisms are carefully crafted in a very structured manner with permissions of who and when these can be used.
These mechanisms make sure that all kinds of sensitive information is safeguarded keeping data integrity, availability, and confidentiality in place. With proper planning, measures, and implementation of the mechanism, organizations can work well, thereby sustaining an exceptional defense against upcoming unauthorized threats.
Access Control Mechanism: FAQs
1. Which access control mechanism identifies a user of a system?
The answer to this clear question is–Authentication. Since authentication is a critical process when it comes to safeguarding important information, it is designed in a manner that verifies and confirms the real identity of a user before they proceed to log in or gain access to any system. Authentication allows only authorized individuals to access the protected resources to use sensitive information. There is not just one but numerous ways via which one can enter as an authorized individual under an access control mechanism. This involves knowing the right PIN, using smart cards, security tokens, biometrics, or even getting through multi-factor authentication.
2. What are the four mechanisms of access control?
By now, we all know how imperative the access control mechanism is, but to interact well with technology, we must understand its four primary mechanisms:
- Discretionary access control: When it comes to DAC, herein, the owner of the resource has a clear hand to determine who is going to access what. In simple words, the identity of the person who’s going to access the data completely depends on permissions that are given by the owner.
- Mandatory access control: With MAC, the rules vary a bit. Here, policies are predetermined and are set by the authority rather than just an individual. The access rights are assigned according to security levels and permissions.
- Role-based access control: RBAC tends to give access based on roles rather than just authority. Specific roles are assigned only to specific individuals along with limited permissions.
- Attribute-based access control: ABAC is the fourth known mechanism that decides permission to access depending on the resources, environment, and attributes of the user. Here, the attributes may involve resource type or the role of a user. All the access control systems mentioned above, can either be used independently or together as well if at all one needs to develop a robust access control strategy that can be used for the security of any specific organization.
3. What are the types of Authentication Mechanisms?
Since the access control mechanism is vast, there are various types of authentication mechanisms. Out of all many, below are the most common ones listed:
- Passwords: This is one of the most commonly used methods that enables a user to get through and gain access to the system once known. It can be either in the form of digits or phrases or even a single word, which is strong enough. Some passwords can be simple but also require a user to have met the security policy needs such as including special characters or maintaining little complexity.
- Biometrics: With advanced AI features, biometrics are now gaining widespread importance. These may include fingerprints, facial recognition, or even iris scans. These provide an impeccable level of security and are dependent only on the accuracy of the system.
- Two-factor authentication: Another added layer of security aspects can be two-factor authentication. This requires the password (which you may already know) alongside the code that would have been sent to your mobile device. These two, when combined, give extravagant authentication and top-notch security.