Management of Information Technology Access Controls

System access control directs, regulates, and coordinates the logical, physical, and administrative protection capabilities pertaining to interactions with an information system IS. System access control, a subset of information technology IT and general business controls, are IS securitys critical first line of defense. It has traditionally progressed by increasing the speed and memory, and decreasing the size of centralized IS. However, recent movements toward distributed IS and the accompanying architectural changes present new management challenges, especially in the area of controlling system access. Distributed IS magnifies potential control problems because it relies upon inherently less secure hardware and software, and increases potential system access points through local and telecommunication interconnection. However, the biggest threat to system access control is found within the organizations own workforce. These issues motivated the development of an Access Control Management Model.