What does ABAC mean in COMPUTING

ABAC works by assigning roles, policies, and attributes to each user. The roles are used to limit which operations the user can perform, the policies dictate who can access what resources, and the attributes define who has permission to view certain types of information. These rules are evaluated in real-time to grant or deny access when a user requests a resource.

ABAC offers organizations enhanced visibility into who has access to their data and greater flexibility in configuring authorization policies for specific users or groups. This allows organizations to have fine-grained control over their data, which helps them comply with regulatory standards such as GDPR and HIPAA.

Attributes used in ABAC can include things like job title, security clearance level, location, time of day, IP address range, and device type. These attributes can be combined with other conditions such as roles or group membership to create even more specific policies that ensure only authorized users have access to sensitive data.

Yes, some regulations such as GDPR require organizations to implement technologies such as ABAC in order to help ensure customer data is properly protected. Additionally, many industry standards such as ISO 27001 recommend implementing an attribute-based approach when it comes to controlling user access rights.

While traditional authentication methods like passwords use static factors like usernames and passwords for authorization purposes; ABAC relies on dynamic factors such dynamic properties like role membership or IP address range for authorization decisions instead. This provides organizations with added flexibility when it comes to constructing authorization policies.