The haunting disadvantages of isolated authorization: Why policy-driven authorization is a treat

Dive into the disadvantages of isolated authorization and discover how policy-driven authorization can help you avoid the pitfalls of an isolated approach.

Axiomatics   ·   Thursday, October 31st, 2024   ·   Reading Time: 3 minutes

As ghosts and ghouls come out to play, there’s something even scarier lurking in the shadows of your IT infrastructure: isolated authorization. In the beginning, it might seem like a good idea to handle access controls on a per-application basis, but much like the group that splits up in your favorite horror movie, it often ends in disaster.

Let’s dive into the disadvantages of isolated authorization and discover how policy-driven authorization can help you avoid the pitfalls of an isolated approach.

The horror of isolated authorization

Isolated authorization is the monster under the bed waiting for the perfect moment to strike as it creates a patchwork of policies across your organization, each one unique to the application it governs. This isolation can quickly turn into a governance nightmare.

When each application operates in its own silo, it’s like trying to keep track of a haunted house with a thousand rooms – each with its own set of rules.

The lack of a unified strategy can lead to oversight issues:

• Ghosted by Zero Trust: Zero Trust is a necessary security model in today’s threat landscape that requires continuous verification of every user and device attempting to access resources. However, isolated authorization makes achieving Zero Trust nearly impossible. When access controls are managed separately across various applications, it creates gaps and inconsistencies in your security posture – like leaving windows open in a supposedly secure house. These gaps can be exploited by malicious actors, turning your organization into a haunted house where security breaches lurk around every corner.
• Non-compliance: The compliance curse: Isolated authorization can lead to serious compliance issues, especially in industries where regulations are strict and ever-evolving. When each application has its own set of rules and policies, it becomes difficult to maintain a consistent approach to compliance. The result? A tangled web of policies that fails to meet regulatory requirements inviting hefty fines and penalties.
• The monster of costly complexity: Managing isolated authorization is not just a logistical headache – it’s also expensive. The more isolated your authorization policies are, the more resources you need to manage and maintain them. This includes additional staff, more complex infrastructure, and the inevitable cost of resolving security incidents that arise from inconsistent policies. The costs add up quickly leaving your organization vulnerable to financial stress.

The treat: Policy-driven authorization

While isolated authorization may seem convenient in the short term, it’s clear that the long-term risks are haunting. But, no worries, there’s a treat to this trick: policy-driven authorization. This type of infrastructure breaks down the silos so your team no longer has to build custom policies for each application.

A policy-driven approach also:

• Guarding the crypt: Aligns with the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP): Users and devices have access only to what they need – no more, no less. By centralizing the control of authorization policies while allowing decentralized authoring, you can enforce the principle of least privilege consistently across the organization.
• Summoning Zero Trust: By continuously validating access requests and ensuring that each policy is aligned with the broader security strategy, you create a robust defense against threats. This approach allows you to verify every access attempt, regardless of where it originates, ensuring that your security posture remains impenetrable.
• Warding off risks with enhanced compliance: With a unified approach, policy-driven authorization makes it easier to maintain compliance with industry regulations and standards. By centralizing control and ensuring consistent policy enforcement, you can avoid the penalties that come from not adhering to necessary guidelines–it’s a win-win for your organization and your customers. It also streamlines incident response when something goes bump in the night.
• Bewitched control: Decentralized policy authoring: While accountability is centralized, policy-driven authorization allows for the decentralization of policy authoring and governance. This means that the people closest to the data and applications are empowered to create and manage policies.

Don’t get spooked – choose policy-driven authorization

Don’t let the fear of isolated authorization keep you up at night. By embracing policy-driven authorization, you can centralize accountability while empowering your teams to manage policies in a way that’s both secure and flexible. It’s the treat that keeps the tricks at bay, ensuring your organization stays protected from the real horrors of isolated authorization.

Ready to gain more knowledge on policy-driven authorization? Here are some additional resources that look at this topic:

• You’re either in or you’re out: The challenges of Authentication
• Why traditional IAM solutions are no longer enough
• State of Authorization: Playbook Edition