Auditors are not asking you to be perfect. They are asking you to be able to describe what you do, show that you actually do it, and produce evidence a third party can check.
This piece walks through how we think about it at Paycux, what we have changed our minds about, and where the sharp edges are.
What is ABAC?
Consider what is abac?. Evidence is the deliverable. Not the policy document — the artifact that shows the policy was applied on a specific date to a specific system, produced without anyone editing a spreadsheet.
Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Examples of ABAC
That brings us to examples of abac. Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Evidence is the deliverable. Not the policy document — the artifact that shows the policy was applied on a specific date to a specific system, produced without anyone editing a spreadsheet.
- Keep audit events append-only and separate from user records
- Describe each control in one sentence before automating it
- Produce evidence automatically, not by hand
- Decide retention per data category, in writing
When should you use ABAC?
When should you use ABAC? deserves its own treatment. Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Write down the control before you automate it. A control nobody can describe in a sentence will not survive its first review, no matter how well it is implemented.
In complex and dynamic environments
That brings us to in complex and dynamic environments. Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Write down the control before you automate it. A control nobody can describe in a sentence will not survive its first review, no matter how well it is implemented.
Write down the control before you automate it.
In highly regulated industries
In highly regulated industries deserves its own treatment. Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
If users have diverse roles and responsibilities
If users have diverse roles and responsibilities deserves its own treatment. Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Evidence is the deliverable. Not the policy document — the artifact that shows the policy was applied on a specific date to a specific system, produced without anyone editing a spreadsheet.
If you need fine-grained access control
If you need fine-grained access control deserves its own treatment. Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Separate the record from the data. Audit events are append-only and describe what happened; user records are mutable and describe who someone is. Keeping the two apart makes retention a job over a timestamp and erasure an operation on a row, instead of a negotiation between them.
Where this leaves us
The pattern repeats across every system we have looked at: the hard part is not the mechanism, it is keeping the mechanism honest as the surrounding assumptions change.
If you are working through the same problem and want to compare notes, the docs cover the mechanics and the console shows the behaviour on your own data.
Everything here, already built
Sign-in, enterprise SSO, directory provisioning, roles and an audit trail behind one API.