What Is Access Control?

Proper security is crucial for any type of business these days. It is vital that your company can protect both its own internal data and its customer’s data, as well. If your company practices proper data security, then both your employees and your customers can rest assured that unauthorized access to their data is unlikely. Of course, no security system is perfect, but taking steps to protect this data adds to your company’s trustworthiness.

One part of proper data security is access control. Access control is an important part of security that you should know about to protect your company. Rockford access control is one form of access control service that can help with this. Read on to learn more about access control.

Access Control 101

It is important to define access control before moving on. Access control, in the context of data security, refers to a process that users go through to get certain privileges and access to information, resources, or systems. If a company uses an access control system, it means that users have to present their credentials prior to being granted access to the system. Naturally, this makes the company’s system more secure. That is why many companies use an access control system for their data.

Access Control Can Also Mean Restricting Access To Physical Resources

While access control often refers to restricting access to virtual resources, this is not the term’s only meaning. Access control can also mean a system that restricts access to physical resources, too. Depending on the kind of physical resources that your company has, this form of access control can be quite useful.

It is important that your company restricts access to physical resources in a sensible way. You don’t want unauthorized people to access your company’s physical resources. For this reason, it is important to have an access control system in place to protect physical resources in place. This plan should be tailored to your company’s security needs.

Access Control Often Involves Multi-Factor Authentication

In a zero trust architecture, strong authentication, such as multi-factor authentication is a critical element. You likely know that two-factor authentication is standard for most virtual security systems. This is because one-factor authentication does not provide strong security. The one factor in question, which can be a virtual factor like a password or a physical item like a key card, can be stolen or transferred. Two-factor authentication requires someone who wants access to show their credentials and provide a second factor to prove their identity.

A PIN, an access code, and some form of biometric reading are three examples of these second factors. Any one of these can work. Three different kinds of factors can work for authentication: something only the user knows like a PIN or password, something that the user owns like a card, and something that can be considered as part of the respective user, like a fingerprint. You should also know the difference between access control and authentication.

What Is The Difference Between Authentication & Access Control?

Authentication and access control are similar, but not the same thing. The first part of verifying a user’s identity is authentication, which means ensuring that the user is not providing a false identity. Access control means that you add extra authentication measures to protect valuable physical or virtual resources. In other words, the difference is that authentication refers to the first step of verifying user identities while access control refers to additional steps implemented more specifically to protect valuable company resources.