What is RBAC in information security?


RBAC stands for Role-based access control. It also known as role-based security. It is an access control method that creates permissions to end-users depends on their role within the organization. RBAC supports fine-grained control, providing a simple, controllable method to access administration that is less error-prone than individually assigning permissions.

This can decrease cybersecurity risk, protect sensitive information, and provides that employees can only access information and perform actions they required to do their jobs. This is referred to as principle of least privilege.

Roles are based on multiple elements in RBAC, such as authorization, responsibility, and job specialization. Organizations generally designate roles for several users, such as an end-user, an administrator, or a specialist user. The capability to view, make or change files within a role can also be limited for definite tasks.

In an RBAC system, user access provisioning depends on the needs of a group (e.g. marketing department) based on common responsibilities and requirement. This means each role has given a group of permissions, and individuals can be created to one or more roles.

For example, it can designate a user an administrator, a specialist, or an end-user, and limit access to definite resources or tasks. Inside an organization, different roles can be provided write access while others can only be provided viewing permissions.

The user-role and role-permissions relationships make it simply to execute role assignment because individual users no longer have unique access rights, rather they have privileges that conform to the permissions assigned to their definite role or job service.

Role-based access control allows us to improve the security posture, comply with relevant regulations, and decrease operational overhead. However, implementing role-based access control across an entire organization can be complex, and can result in pushback from stakeholders.

Access control measures regulate user permissions, including who can view sensitive data on a computer system or who can run specific service in a CRM. They are an important part of minimizing business risk. Access control systems can be physical (limiting access to buildings, rooms, or servers) or logical controlling digital access to information, documents, or networks).

The methodology of Role Based Access Control grants access to a cloud computing resource (or group of resources) depends on a user's role within the organization. With individuals in each role granted only enough flexibility and permissions to implement the tasks required for their job, the organization decrease the complete attack surface and level of vulnerability for cyber-attacks.

In RBAC, each IT organization is free to create its own features for each role. Roles on the network can correspond directly to job roles inside the organization, or they can simply define sets of permissions that may be assigned or authorized for individuals based on other element.

Updated on: 10-Mar-2022

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