Secure Access Control in Annapolis and the Baltimore Area
Increase Your Network Security With BL Technical Services
Gain better control what people and devices access your network with access control services from BL Technical Services in Annapolis and the Baltimore area. Giving users access to your system is a binary decision without an access control system. You either give them access to everything or nothing. This has resulted in countless data breaches where malicious actors piggyback on authorized users’ access. With access control, you can give limited access to each user or employee based on the level of access they need. Protect your network from unfetter access and malicious programs with an expertly designed access control system.
What Is an Access Control System?
Access control is a system that determines who is authorized to see or use certain information or programs within your network. Authenticating the identity and role of each user, an access control system is a fundamental part of any strong network security strategy. This is more important than ever now that more and more businesses trust employees to work from home with their own devices. Network access control can be set up in several different ways, depending on the goals of your business. You can authenticate each user or determine access based on the user’s role within the company. By intelligently designing an access control system, you can protect your network without negatively impacting your team’s performance.
Uses for Access Control
Certain circumstances call for access control more than others. If your network is regularly accessed from a different location or by different people, you should seriously consider setting up access control protocols. Some organizations may not need access controls as much as others, but every business would be safer regulating the access to their internal system. The main uses of access control are:
- Employees Using Personal Devices – If you allow employees to use their personal devices to access your network, access control can help ensure it is really them. When your network allows unfamiliar devices into the system, it struggles to identify if it is really the person logging in or someone else. Access controls can help authenticate their identity.
- Non-Employees Accessing Your Network – When you allow other organizations access to your networks for collaboration, you don’t have to give them the same level of access as your standard employee. Access controls can block off what those organizations can access and when they can access it.
- Remote Working – By restricting the type of information employees can access from home, you can reduce the damage done when someone else finds their way into the system. You can also preauthorize your worker’s devices to ensure that it is actually them entering your system.
Types of Access Control Systems
There are four main types of access controls. Depending on your business’s needs, one is likely better than the others. If your access control is too restrictive, it can become a nuisance and negatively impact productivity. If your access controls are too lax, they will make you vulnerable to malicious actors. The types of access controls are:
- Discretionary Access Control – This system allows you to establish policies that govern who can access what.
- Mandatory Access Control – Common in the government and military, this form of access control assigns a security level to each user and allows them access based on their security level.
- Role-Based Access Control – This method assigns a role to each user based on their position and routine tasks. Each role is allowed access to the specific data and programs they need to do their job, but not more than that.
- Attribute-Based Access Control – Some access control systems can grant access based on a number of fluid circumstances such as location, date, or time of day.
Why Your Business Needs Network Access Control
The term access control comes from physical ways to control who enters a professional building, like scanning a keycard or inputting a security code. This is an excellent way to think about access control for your network. There are countless dangers of failing to control who enters your system and what they can access. It only takes a single bad actor to maneuver their way into your network to cost your business significantly. An advanced access control strategy will ensure that the only people logging into your system are authorized users. Even better, it will ensure that no user is accessing information or data that they shouldn’t.