Instructor: Access controls. 2 2
In this lesson we are going to start talking about 3 3
access controls and how we can use those 4 4
to protect our information. 5 5
Now, an access control model can be applied 6 6
to any type of data or software resource. 7 7
There are lots of different ways of doing this 8 8
including looking at things on our file systems, 9 9
our network storage, or our database security. 10 10
Now, when we do this, usually we're going to use something 11 11
like an ACL, and each record in an ACL 12 12
or access control list is known as an access control entry. 13 13
This is very commonly used inside of file systems, networks, 14 14
and even inside a databases. 15 15
Now, if you're doing it inside of a file system, 16 16
you're going to have to have a file system 17 17
that supports ACLs. 18 18
This includes things like NTFS inside of Windows Systems, 19 19
EXT3 or EXT4 inside of Linux Systems, 20 20
or the new ZFS file system inside of Linux Systems. 21 21
Now, if you're going to be doing this inside of your 22 22
database, your database security can allow 23 23
for more fine grain permission configuration. 24 24
Now, this is really nice because inside of your database 25 25
you can actually control information 26 26
on the data itself based on it's tables, it's views, 27 27
it's records, it's fields, and things like that. 28 28
But you can also apply access control 29 29
to the different statements you can apply to a database, 30 30
such as the select, insert, update, or delete statements. 31 31
And so you really do have a fine grain permission 32 32
configuration inside of a database 33 33
that you don't have with files. 34 34
Now, another area that we can talk 35 35
about access control is geographic access requirements. 36 36
Now, with geographic access requirements, 37 37
these primarily are going to fall into two different types. 38 38
This might be talking about the storage location 39 39
or the employees themself. 40 40
When we talk about storage locations 41 41
we have to consider data sovereignty issues. 42 42
This includes if I'm going to put my server 43 43
in a particular location, because based on that, 44 44
there's going to be different laws that I'm going to have to 45 45
figure out and which ones I'm going to comply 46 46
with based on that location. 47 47
And so there's different privacy around the world, 48 48
as we've talked about before. 49 49
But in addition to that, we might also be thinking 50 50
about the geographic access requirements 51 51
from an employee standpoint. 52 52
For instance, if I have an employee who takes their laptop 53 53
and they go on travel, can they connect back to our network? 54 54
Well, sometimes employees need access 55 55
from multiple geographic locations. 56 56
For instance, I tend to travel a lot for work, 57 57
so I might be in America this week, 58 58
in Europe next week, and in Asia the week after that 59 59
and so I might have to access it 60 60
from different locations around the world. 61 61
And so we have to keep that in mind 62 62
as we're designing our systems. 63 63
Now, one way you can accomplish this is 64 64
by using cloud-based systems where you have multiple nodes 65 65
around the world. 66 66
But this is something you have to consider when 67 67
you're thinking about your employees or even your end users 68 68
and how they're going to access your systems. 69 69
In addition to that, 70 70
you want to think about from the security side too. 71 71
If you don't have a need 72 72
for people to access your systems from around the world, 73 73
you can geographically block people and say, you know what? 74 74
We're only going to allow Americans to access our service, 75 75
or only people in Florida to access or service, 76 76
or even only people in Orlando, Florida 77 77
to access our service. 78 78
And you can really narrow it down based on the security 79 79
and the requirements for your own organization.