Assessment of a Spatiotemporal Access Control Framework Against Security Compliance Objectives

Companies are looking for ways to reach an effective level of security and that requires them to focus on certain cybersecurity principles. Authorization and authentication are two of the most fundamental concerns for any organization seeking to secure data, equipment, or physical spaces. Access control models are typically the backbone of an organization's efforts to crack down on its authorization and authentication needs. However, most access control models still lack the level of granularity, flexibility, scalability, and scope needed to fully address the security compliance objectives outlined in standards such as HIPAA and GDPR. Failure to properly address authorization and authentication in a holistic and compliant manner can lead to organizations suffering great losses in the form of data breaches, social engineering attacks, and internal sabotage. 

This project aimed to develop and test a novel access control framework that would successfully meet the core principles of various security compliance standards. The proposed access control framework achieved this goal by integrating location and time elements into its design. The framework also underwent several assessments, in the form of scenarios and code evaluations, that took note of its granularity, flexibility, scalability, and scope capabilities. The results of the assessments conducted on the proposed access control framework have indicated that it can be used to sufficiently meet the security needs of most small to mid-size organizations. These findings support the notion that the implementation of this spatiotemporal access control framework can help organizations fulfill their authentication and authorization needs so that they can meet their security compliance objectives.