When protecting your home, office and the occupants of your building, access control will give you peace of mind. Access control is not just about allowing people onto your property, it’s about protecting your data and the people on your property by regulating who is allowed onto the premises and to your server. There are different types of access control systems and understanding them will help you understand which system will work best for your business.

Discretionary access control

This system requires the owner to grant specific people access to the property or your server. This is by the means of a key, key card or access code. This isn’t recommended for a large business with highly sensitive data. The end-user or the person who you have given access too can always share the means of access. Either by sharing the access code with others or by giving someone their key.

Mandatory access control

Mandatory access control is a control system that requires the owner and custodian to manage the access control. This is done by establishing security guidelines and granting personnel with a status. These statues will determine where they are granted access and are specific only to them meaning that they are not able to share their access with others. This access control system is usually used in organizations that have data that is highly confidential and classified. An example of this would be a military institution. This form of access control means that staff turnover needs to be low as new staff would need to be granted access individually.

Role-based access control

This system is an access control system that is operated by a system administrator. Access is determined by the system administrator based on the role that an individual plays in the organization and the extent of their responsibility. This is useful because instead of granting individual access you grant access according to their position which will eliminate the end-users ability to share access control. This form of access control means that people are only granted access to areas relevant to them. This also means that the administration doesn’t need to grant individual access, purely access based on their role, making turnover simpler.