Building an Access Control System
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The are a number of resources that institutions and companies need to ensure that are accessed by the intended individual only and also that the intended individuals or users access the resources at a particular level to enable them execute the intended task (Ramachandran, 2002). Such resources may be informational, physical, or personnel. Informational resource may include confidential data or intellectual property. Personnel resource may include contractors and employees, while physical resource may include expensive equipment, a sensitive room or even a particular facility. The purpose of an access control system is protecting the resources of in the system from access by undesired or inappropriate users. Access control system is a mechanism that is concerned with determining activities that are permitted to users who are legitimate. Every attempt to access a resource by a user is also mediated by the system.
A consideration of three abstractions of control should be given priority when setting up an access control system. These three abstractions include: mechanisms, access control policies, as well as models. To begin with, access control policies requirements that are sophisticated and that stipulate access management, the person who may be allowed access to a particular resource and the circumstances under which such a person can be allowed access to a particular resource. Often times, access control policies are application specific and therefore, the application vendor can take into consideration such policies that will satisfy the needs of such an organization. In the case of access to the dormitory the application vendor should consider policies pertaining to the dormitory access based on authority (Jaeger and Tidswell, 2001). There is also the need to have a mechanism through which access control policies can be enforced at a high level. Such mechanisms are such that they can translate the requests by users to access the resource through a structure that is provided by the system. There are a number of structures that a system may utilize such as facial recognition may be undertaken deny or grant access to a particular facility. A model on the other hand, is a presentation regarding the system security policy and this presentation gives theoretical limitations of the security policy that the system may encounter.
Access control system has three important elements which include: identification, authentication, and authorization. According to Ramachandran, (2002) the first component of an access control system is identification which involves presentation of information by the subject for purposes of identifying the subject at the authentication service. Such identification mechanisms may include access card, username among others. Authentication is the second process of an access control system which involves verification of the identity presented by the subject. Authentication mechanisms may include: passwords, pin numbers and so forth. Finally, authorization is the last process where the system determines whether or not the subject will be given access. A particular set of criteria that are predefined forms the basis of authorization. Such criteria are enforced through user profile, security labels, or access control list. All the three elements found in an access control system work hand in hand to achieve the purpose of the system.
The access control system of a dormitory is used for purposes of controlling the entry into the facility. For this reason, the system provides at most security of the facility by restricting access to individuals who are unauthorized while at the same time allowing convenient access to authorized individuals. The basic components of the dormitory access control system are access cards, card readers, Electric Lock Hardware, Access Control Field Panels, and Access Control Server Computer. The purpose of an access card is to be used as an electronic key by the authorized students to gain access through the access control system of the door. It should be noted that every access card has a unique encoding and most of them have an approximate size of credit card. This makes it easy for students to carry their access cards in their purse or wallet (Sandhu and Samarati, 2004).
Card readers on the other hand, are electronic devices that are used for purposes of reading the access cards. Card readers are of two types, that is proximity type and insertion type. The proximity type requires the card swiped near it to read the information while the insert one requires the card to be inserted. Normally, card readers are fixed on the exterior side.
According to Jaeger and Tidswell, (2001) the purpose of an Electric Lock Hardware is to unlock and lock the door electronically. Electric lock hardware is of different types which include among others; electric strikes, and electric locks electromagnetic locks. The use of a particular type of this hardware is determined by the door construction condition. The access control field panels are used for purposes of processing all the activities of the access control system. The number of access control panels is determined by the number of doors using the access control system. Finally, the access control server computer is the central file and database administrator of the system.
An illustration of a typical Cisco physical access control system
References
Jaeger, T., and Tidswell, J. E. (2001) “Practical Safety in Flexible Access Control Models,” ACM Transactions on Information and System Security, 4 (2), 158- 190.
Ramachandran, J. (2002). Designing Security Architecture Solutions. London: John Wiley & Sons.
Sandhu R. S., and Samarati, P. (2004). “Access Control: Principles and Practice”, IEEE Communications, 32 (9), 23-35.
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