What Are The Different Types of Access Control?
Our access control experts will answer any more questions you have and guide you through the various options you have under each of the three common types of access control. Contact us here for a free consultation.
Access control systems give you centralized control over who enters and moves through your building. There are three main types of access control every Kitchener business looking to secure their buildings should know about.
Access control has other benefits besides securing your assets and giving your staff and customers a sense of safety while they are on your premises. The best access control systems collect data that allow you to track and review the movement of people through your doors. From this data, you are able to tell:
- Who entered through what door and at what time,
- How much time a person spent in a restricted area,
- What time a visitor or staff member existed your building.
Having the above information on disk becomes indispensable in the event of a security breach or theft at your business. You can use it to concentrate your investigations around a group of people you know to have been in a specific part of the building when the theft or security breach is known to have happened.

The 3 Main Types Of Access Control
Knowing what types of access control there are allows you to compare their different features against your business’ unique needs. Each one of them assigns a specific level of control to the system administrator and is suitable for different businesses and security requirements.

Here are the three main types of access control businesses in Kitchener are using:
Discretionary Access Control
This type of access control gives the administrator complete control over who accesses a building and what permissions there are on the system. DAC groups people into access control lists (ACLs) for which permissions to access different parts of the building are then assigned.
This is the most commonly used type of access control. The biggest drawback for DAC systems is it allows users to indirectly pass permission to other people or to change other users’ access permissions, which opens the whole system to breaches.
Discretionary access control contrasts with Mandatory Access Control, which gives control of the system to one person, typically the owner. Other users cannot pass on or alter other users’ security clearance.

Role-based access control
This is a straight-forward type of access control that assigns a user’s level of access to their role within an organization or household. This type of access control assumes that a person’s level of authority, which typically derives from their position in a company, determines which parts of the building you can allow them to access.
The implication is that all people who hold the same position or grade within a company, like engineers, bookkeepers, or departmental heads, will have the same access levels. So this system grants permission and the associated level of access to a role or job title and not to an individual. The person would lose their level of access clearance if they get demoted or reassigned.

Rule-based access control
This type of access control builds on the basic principle on which a discretionary access control system works. It assigns access levels to groups or Access Control Lists, but it goes a step further and enforces rules on what specific times of the day or days of the week a user has access.

Boost Security At Your Business In Kitchener With An Access Control System
Access control systems are an indispensable security tool for the modern organization. It gives you control over who enters your building, which boosts security and gives you peace of mind. Which system do you think would serve your business’ security needs best?
