Access types

Physical access

• Physical contact between a subject and object of interest.

  • Facility, room, network, computer, storage device, authentication token, etc.

Informatic or electronic access

• Information-oriented contact between a subject and the object of interest.

  • Contact through request-response dialogs.

• Contact is mediated by:

  • Computers and networks.

  • Operating systems, applications, middleware, devices, etc.

Definition

The policies and mechanisms mediate a subject's access to an object.

Normal requirements

• Authentication

  • With some Level of Assurance (LoA)

• Authorization

• Accountability -> Logging

Subjects and objects

• Both are digital entities.

• A subject can be something exhibiting activity:

  • Processes,

  • Computers,

  • Networks.

• Objects can be the target of an action:

  • Stored data,

  • CPU time,

  • Memory,

  • Processes,

  • Computers,

  • Network.

An entity can be both a subject and an object.