5 Essential Role-Based Access Control Best Practices for Secure Data Handling

Role-based access control restricts system access based on a user has a role within an organization. This model decreases the risk of security breaches and data leakage by ensuring that only those who need access to sensitive information have it.

This can also streamline workflows by connecting permissions to specific roles that can be changed when an employee changes positions.

Define Roles and Permissions

Role-based access control (RBAC) assigns permissions to those positions by classifying workers according to their organizational responsibilities. It also allows administrators to easily reassign workers from one role to another and grant new permission levels as data platforms, programs, and sources are added.

One of the role-based access control best practices is to start with the least access a worker needs to do their job and then add layers of protection. This will keep security tight without disrupting employee productivity.

When creating roles, it is important to consider what a person might need to do their work and the tasks they may complete. This will help avoid a common security problem known as role explosion. When a company creates a role for every possible job function, the number of roles quickly adds up, making managing them difficult. This also makes it harder to monitor and enforce policies. It is essential to have a system to manage and update the roles regularly, especially as organizational needs change.

Limit Access to Sensitive Data

Keeping access to sensitive data restricted to those who need it helps minimize the risk of breaches. This can be physical, such as limiting who can access rooms or files, or logical, such as ensuring that employees only can edit a file they’ve been given read-only access to.

Similarly, requiring that employees use strong passwords and change them frequently can prevent them from sharing their credentials with co-workers or posting them in visible areas. Requiring that they store papers, CDs, floppy disks, zip drives, and backups that contain PII or confidential company information in locked file cabinets can also help limit the damage done by a malicious actor who might gain access to these items.

Using RBAC to set permissions for each role preemptively can eliminate bottlenecks when admins have to ask users to continually update their permissions. It also allows you to set a standardized enforcement policy for demonstrating compliance and simplifying onboarding, offboarding, and other provisioning/de-provisioning activities, such as when contractors or third parties need temporary access to the company network.

Ensure End-to-End Encryption

A crucial security component that shields data from assaults while it is being sent is end-to-end encryption. As information moves through servers, routers, and other network devices, it can be intercepted by malicious actors looking to steal sensitive data. This is why ensuring your collaboration tools use end-to-end encryption for all interactions is important.

The advantage of using a collaboration tool with end-to-end encryption is that the data only ever has access to its private key (stored on your device) — no one else’s public key will work to decrypt your message or access your file. This ensures that no data is compromised if the company server gets hacked and helps limit the “blast radius” of any breach in case it does happen.

Role-based access control is a popular method of managing permissions in business systems because it offers many advantages for users, IT administrators, and the organization itself. It enables organizations to securely manage permissions in a way that makes sense for the company’s operations, minimizes the risk of internal bad actors, and improves compliance with regulatory policies.

Monitor Access to Sensitive Data

Whether stored on paper in file cabinets, digitally in local drives, remote servers, or cloud storage, sensitive data presents an enormous risk to organizations. Hackers seek to access personal or confidential information like credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, and more for identity theft, sale, or otherwise exploit. This puts organizations at major risk for loss of trust, whether from staff or clients.

One solution to this problem is to deploy a border firewall where your network connects to the internet. This will prevent hackers from getting into a computer on the network where they might find sensitive data. Another way is to ensure all remote systems are password-protected and the credentials are regularly changed.

However, neither of these methods solves the bigger issue that employees may access data in locations that are only sometimes connected to the corporate network. Monitoring access to sensitive data requires a comprehensive list of all the systems, databases, and external applications (including cloud services) your users can access. It also requires that those systems can record when and how data was accessed and who did so.

Automate Access Control

When you have your business set up with an access control system that requires a means of verification like a programmable key card, personal identification number, PIN, or fingerprint to gain entry into sensitive areas, this helps to prevent unauthorized access to data and equipment. This automation also makes it easy to cancel or change access rights if employees leave the company or their credentials are lost.

In addition to enabling you to follow the principle of least privilege, RBAC also enables you to grant access on a board-level or granular basis, depending on an individual’s job function. This allows you to create more targeted security policies.

While RBAC is considered a coarse-grained approach to access control, other systems offer more granular approaches. For example, attribute-based access control (ABAC) evaluates attributes on a user, data object, environment, and intended action to make more nuanced decisions. This kind of system is often seen in government and military environments. It can be a more effective way to secure sensitive data while allowing for rapid business growth and expansion.