Access control solutions are commonly used to protect against data breaches. If you have sensitive or personal data, you may not want everyone to access it. With an access control solution, you can specify who can and can’t access the data. Role-based access control (RBAC) is one such type of access control solution. It’s characterized by the use of roles. For a better understanding of RBAC and how it works, keep reading.
Overview of RBAC
RBAC is an access control solution that restricts access to data based on a user’s role. Also known as role-based security, it’s distinguished from other access control solutions by its roles. RBAC lives up to its namesake by using roles. All users who are given access to a dataset are assigned roles. Some of these roles may have higher permissions than others, meaning those users can access more data.
The 3 Rules of RBAC
There are three primary rules associated with RBAC: role assignment, role authorization and permission authorization. Role assignment means that each user must be assigned a specific role. Users can only access data if they’ve been assigned a particular role. Role authorization means that a user’s role must be authorized for the data he or she is trying to access. Permission authorization, like role authorization, means a user can only access data if his or her role has been authorized for that data.
How RBAC Protects Against Data Breaches
You can use RBAC to protect your business from data breaches. It’s a versatile, effective cybersecurity solution that can lower the risk of data breaches when implemented.
All access control solutions are designed to restrict who can and can’t access data. RBAC is simply a special type of access control solution that revolves around user roles. When implementing it, you must assign roles to users. As a business owner, you can give yourself the highest role, such as admin, so that you can access all stored data. But you may want to assign other employees lower-level roles. RBAC gives you the freedom to assign different roles with different levels of permissions.
Another benefit of using RBAC is the ability to monitor user actions. You can see which users logged in to the database and what data they accessed during their sessions. If a particular user’s account has been compromised, you can analyze the activities of his or her account. There are other access control solutions available, but RBAC is a popular choice because of its role-based approach.