Authorizing data access

After you configure your user authentication for the InfoSphere® MDM implementation, you then can control which users and applications have access to your data.

About this task

Depending on how you authorize access to data, you can later audit access with the InfoSphere MDM audit and logging tools.

Procedure

  • If you have not already, design a classification system for your data.
    Your plan works in concert with the user authentication system that you set up separately. In particular, think of the people and applications that might handle your data: data owners, data stewards (custodians), and data users (business analysts, data scientists, report users, and so forth).
  • Control data visibility and access with data level entitlements that are set through the rules of visibility. You can also control data access with record-level authorization that is provided by access tokens. You must examine your custom applications and modifications in addition to the provided InfoSphere MDM functionality.
  • For InfoSphere MDM web applications, verify that the access remains secure in these ways:
    • Resource level (URL, page) that can be configured through the deployment descriptor
    • Data level (field on page) that can be implemented in these modes:
      Reactive mode
      When users edit data, only upon submit, the operational server tells users that they do not have access to the field. When users read data, users see a blank value for the field because the operational server does not allow users to see it.
      All physical MDM web applications are all implemented in this way.
      Proactive mode
      When users edit or view data, the web application pre-checks the user authority and does not even show the fields to users.
  • For the application server and its web services, see its documentation about trusted communication, authentication, and access control.