Access Control

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Access Control Practical Connection Paper

Access control can be typically attributed to granting entrance to a building or resources to individuals by authorizing and authenticating them, with the main aim of ensuring that only the required individuals are granted permissions to the intended places and resources (Norman, 2017). I am a software developer. The main activities linked with this career include analyzing the user’s needs and designing, constructing, and testing end-user applications that will meet the current business needs using the software programming languages. In my current workplace, the access control concepts and skills have been beneficial when it comes to enhancing the security of the developed programs to ensure that the programs are not subjected to potential cyber breaches. We often utilize access control skills when developing software programs that meet the current designs and support architecture.

Unlike before, where software developers mainly focused on aspects such as deadbolt lock coupled with its respective matching brass key as a standard of access control, today, the modern business model requires more techniques and approaches of controlling access to the developed programs. Nowadays, business needs a stringent way of controlling who passes the doors to access the office space and wants to manage and control real-time access. I can relate this to the way we now utilize the computer-based electronic access control systems, which is capable of providing convenient and quick access to authorized individuals while at the same time denying access to unauthorized persons.

A software developer’s critical role involves developing such software programs and linking them with the computer-based electronic access systems capable of controlling and monitoring access. This is done by coming up with a sequence of instructions that will automate the task performance on a computer. Notably, the use of critical thinking skills is paramount, especially when it comes to identifying the weaknesses and strengths of alternative approaches to problems and solutions in the workplace’s daily performance. To be at par with the requirements of the current business needs, software developers focus on designing access cards and ID badges that are used by individuals to gain access to a secured workplace. Someone may think that the access control system is only made up of cards, and the card reader often mounted on the walls, but this is not the case. There exist numerous components that work collaboratively and designed by software developers to make the magic of granting access to the right person a reality (Speed, 2016).

In this course, it was interesting to learn about the three main types of access control, which are significant in every workplace, especially when it comes to protecting the employees, information, equipment, patrons, and other critical assets. With the availability of a strong access control system, it becomes easy to identify individuals assigned to specific tasks and would be authenticated before being provided with the right key to access particular resources. This course provided further insights about the three variations of the access control systems, including the Discretionary Access Control, Mandatory Access Control, and the Role- Based Access Control (Davis, 2020). We recently developed a role-based access control, which allows a system administrator to assign access based on the subject’s specific role within an organization. Most of the restrictions are based on the limitations defined by their job responsibilities. Although I have gained knowledge in various aspects elaborated in this course, I am still learning more about the cloud-based access control systems.

References

Davis, S. (2020, May 29). 3 types of access control: Which is right for your building? Retrieved from https://www.tedsystems.com/3-types-access-control-which-right-building/

Norman, T. L. (2017). Access control system servers and workstations. Electronic Access Control, 299-319. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-805465-9.00018-x

Speed, T. J. (2016). Access control. Asset Protection through Security Awareness, 275-281. doi:10.1201/b11355-18