Attribute-Based Access Control: Preparing For Implementation

Appsian21 Dec, 2020Technology

ABAC is a model that can manage the complexities of the IT world today, where legacy role-based access controls are unable to adapt to the IT environment that is rapidly evolving. It operates by using attributes to construct policies that provide control of contextual, risk-aware access. ABAC may describe authorization in terms of multiple dimensions, e.g., the user and the resource being accessed, the relationship between the resource and the user, the behavior, and contextual details such as device, time, risk, and location, unlike RBAC, which is strictly identity-centric. Attributes may include organizational positions, teams, and place, time of day, account balance, risk ranking, care relationship, and much more within an organization. Usually, a key-value pair is an attribute, which means that attributes come in sets: an identifier and the value or values associated with it. The fact that we can use attributes that characterize almost anything makes ABAC multi-dimensional.