One of the most frustrating situations is when you lose a password to some important data that you need right now. Protecting your data is not just about keeping people away from your private data but also keeping access to data that you need to get to, when you need it. We’ve all had situations where we have found out that the server is down, or our USB drive has failed. Our data is inaccessible, and we end up in a mess because of it. Controlling data access is a combination of protecting it from the wrong people, keeping it available to the right people, and knowing the difference between the two, while having the ability to control it.
Sometimes data access controls is a fine balance between permitting and denying access – too far one way and the wrong outcome will eventuate. Data access is sometimes a process of thinking through how data will be used once it is accessed – an example, although it’s appropriate for Billy who works on the road to have access to a critical restricted document, they may miss the meeting where it’s restriction is discussed and they inadvertently pass the document on to Robbi, who should not have access to it.
Protecting the accessibility of data can be as simple as considering who has access to Dropbox or OneDrive and how they will access the data remotely. For example, a document loaded in OneDrive is useless to a user who can’t access it while out of Internet range unless they grab it before leaving. Similarly, a restricted document uploaded to a folder which is publicly shared could result in public disclosure.
Lesson Takeaway – Accessibility is about making sure documents, files and systems are stored appropriately with controls which allow enough access to the right people.
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