Overview#
Determining what an authenticated entity is allowed to do. Often enforced through roles, attributes, and policy decisions evaluated at runtime.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Authorization for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Authorization activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Authorization works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Authorization, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Authorization healthy.
- Map Authorization practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Authorization might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Authorization failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Authorization continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Authorization with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Authorization improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.