Accessibility Weight Baselines for Balanced Sensitive Data Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing user access to sensitive information in enterprise computer systems is challenging due to the difficulty in tracking permissions and access across hierarchical groups and roles, leading to potential excessive access and security risks.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an organization-wide baseline policy that uses an Accessibility Weight (AW) to enforce balanced access management by associating AWs with system resources, calculating access amounts, and determining if user provisioning actions comply with defined access baselines to prevent violations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If users are granted broad access to system resources for operational efficiency, then productivity improves, but security risks increase due to excessive permissions
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically changes the parameter of access permissions by calculating accessibility weights and comparing them against baseline thresholds. This allows the system to adjust effective access levels based on current system state and policy requirements, resolving the contradiction between broad access for productivity and restricted access for security.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback by monitoring user access patterns, calculating accessibility metrics, and enforcing baseline policies in real-time. This feedback mechanism ensures that productivity-generating access is maintained within security boundaries, automatically adjusting or blocking access when thresholds are exceeded.
2Reliability
If detailed tracking of user permissions is implemented to enhance security, then security monitoring improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the complex problem of tracking detailed user permissions into a simplified parameter-based system using accessibility weights and baseline thresholds. By changing the representation from granular permission tracking to aggregated weight calculations, the system achieves effective security monitoring with reduced complexity.
3Reliability
If access baselines are strictly enforced to prevent security violations, then security reliability improves, but user flexibility decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs dynamic access enforcement where baseline policies are applied adaptively based on current system state and user context. Rather than rigid static rules, the system dynamically evaluates accessibility weights and enforces baselines in a manner that maintains security reliability while allowing legitimate user flexibility and adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for managing user access to information in a computer system comprises associating an Accessibility Weight (AW) with computer system resources, calculating an access amount for each user by aggregating AWs for each system resource available to the user, calculating a total accessibility weight in the system by aggregating the AWs for all system resources, calculating an access percentage for each user, identifying an access baseline for one or more access ranges in the computer system, and determining, by an identity and access management system, whether a user provisioning action would violate the defined access baseline. The resources may be accessed via an API.