Value to business

Access Management provides the following value:

• Controlled access to services ensures that the organization is able to maintain more effectively the confidentiality of its information
• Employees have the right level of access to execute their jobs effectively
• There is less likelihood of errors being made in data entry or in the use of a critical service by an unskilled user (e.g. production control systems)
• The ability to audit use of services and to trace the abuse of services
• The ability more easily to revoke access rights when needed – an important security consideration
• May be needed for regulatory compliance (e.g. SOX, HIPAA, COBIT).

4.5.4 Policies/principles/basic concepts

Access Management is the process that enables users to use the services that are documented in the Service Catalogue. It comprises the following basic concepts:

• Access refers to the level and extent of a service’s functionality or data that a user is entitled to use.
• Identity refers to the information about them that distinguishes them as an individual and which verifies their status within the organization. By definition, the Identity of a user is unique to that user. (This is covered in more detail in paragraph 4.5.7.1.)
• Rights (also called privileges) refer to the actual settings whereby a user is provided access to a service or group of services. Typical rights, or levels of access, include read, write, execute, change, delete.
• Services or service groups. Most users do not use only one service, and users performing a similar set of activities will use a similar set of services. Instead of providing access to each service for each user separately, it is more efficient to be able to grant each user – or group of users – access to the whole set of services that they are entitled to use at the same time. (This is discussed in more detail in paragraph 4.5.7.2.)
• Directory Services refers to a specific type of tool that is used to manage access and rights. These are discussed in section 5.8.

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 987