Be whoever you need to be: Ellenex Role-switching workspace

May 16, 20244 min read

RBAC (Role-based Access Control) market size exceeds $9.2 billion dollars, it is anticipated to grow on over 10% of CAGR till 2032.

The importance and dominance of Role-based Access Control (RBAC) is paramounts to the Security in IoT applications

Why are Roles used in Modern Cyber Security?

In the contemporary digital landscape, safeguarding sensitive data and resources holds utmost importance for organisations spanning various sectors. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a prevalent access control framework where permissions are allocated according to predetermined roles within an institution.

For instance, within a healthcare setting, roles like "Physician," "Nurse," and "Administrator" are established, each endowed with distinct access rights to patient data and administrative features.

These roles correspond to job roles or duties, and users are affiliated with these roles. Rather than assigning permissions directly to users, they are instead linked to roles, streamlining access governance and minimising administrative burdens.

Since 2020, RBAC stands as the prevailing access control mechanism, with approximately 80% of organisations employing some variant of RBAC to regulate access to their sensitive data.
RBAC ranks as a paramount concern for IT security and risk management practitioners, as evidenced by 63% of respondents emphasising its crucial role in fortifying their organisation's overall security stance.

The void in Industrial IoT applications that RBAC helps fill

In the context of IIoT environments, the complexity of access controls for industrial applications becomes even more difficult where numerous devices and systems requires precise interaction with hundreds of users.

As an end-to-end solution provider for a variety of Industrial IoT applications, RBAC serves as a pivotal component in ensuring secure and efficient device management across diverse and expansive environments. With RBAC, organizations can establish granular access controls that align with the unique requirements of their operations. This not only enhances security by limiting access to authorized personnel but also streamlines management tasks by delegating responsibilities based on expertise

RBAC helps mitigate security risks by systematically defining and managing access permissions based on predefined roles. This ensures that only authorised personnel can access specific resources or perform certain actions, reducing the potential for unauthorised access, data breaches, and operational disruptions.

Unauthorised Access: RBAC can ensure that only authorised users or devices have access to IoT resources, preventing unauthorised access attempts.
Data Privacy: By assigning roles and permissions, RBAC helps in controlling access to sensitive data generated and processed by IoT devices, ensuring privacy compliance.
Device Management: RBAC can regulate the management and control of IoT devices, allowing only authorised personnel to configure, update, or disable devices.
Securing Remote Access: With RBAC, remote access to IoT devices or systems can be securely managed, reducing the risk of unauthorised access or manipulation.
Minimising Insider Threats: RBAC can mitigate insider threats by restricting access based on predefined roles, minimising the risk of malicious actions by privileged users.
Compliance Requirements: RBAC facilitates compliance with security standards and regulations by providing a structured approach to access control, which can be audited and documented.
Dynamic Access Control: In dynamic IoT environments, RBAC can adapt access permissions based on changing circumstances or user roles, ensuring security without hindering operational efficiency.
Resource Allocation: RBAC helps optimise resource allocation by ensuring that IoT resources are accessed only by users or devices with appropriate roles, reducing the risk of resource misuse or overload.

Scale your IoT Solutions with RBAC Controls

For enterprises that requires application of remote monitoring across vast and remote environments, the device management over dozens even hundreds of devices are inevitable. Beyond what an administrative personnel can handle, the access and configurations to devices require distinct dissections with their associated expertises. This is where RBAC providing valuable deployment efficiency:

Flexibility and Agility: Assigning roles based on responsibilities or regions will provide clear management tasks, timely create and configure roles while your IoT ecosystems expand.
Granular access control: Allows for fine-grained permissions tailored to specific requirements, accommodating diverse needs as IoT deployments grow.
Centralised access control: Reduces administrative overhead, promoting scalability by providing a unified framework for inventory management.
Interoperability and integration: by offering a standardised approach to access control across diverse IoT platforms and ecosystems.

Embrace the benefits of RBAC through Ellenex software platform

At Ellenex, we believe that sensors and measurement systems are the most important parts of any process system and production line. Backed by more than 25 years of experience in this area and recent developments in IoT (Internet of Things) networks, we designed and manufacture one of the widest ranges of end-to-end industrial LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) for mass IoT applications. Our new range of products opens up new opportunities for industries to implement the industrial internet of things (IIoT) in their production plants and service system easily with the lowest cost and minimum integration, regardless the technical choice you chose with us, we provide you with the professional and standardised RBAC controls that you truly requires

As an end-to-end solution provider for a variety of Industrial IoT applications, Ellenex serves RBAC as a pivotal component in ensuring secure and efficient device management across diverse and expansive environments.

With RBAC, out industrial clients can establish granular access controls of a subset of connected IoT devices that align to their business roles or operational responsibility, effectively split up the administration workload to smaller sections that can be more efficiently managed.

Screenshot of the RBAC features and switching mechanism for isolated workspaces on Ellenex Platform

With simplicity and pre-configuration commitment in mind, Ellenex software platform pre-assign a role of "Power User" upon signing up.

For individuals and smaller groups, they will be able to monitor all their devices straight away.
- No setup required - users will not need to set up any roles because it will be configured beforehand based on their requirements.
For large organisation, our administration features enabling the creation of arbitrary subscriptions for each subscribed roles, where each role possess an isolated workspace environment on the software platform.
- With these role-based workspaces, your administrative personnel may decide which device can be register and managed under which roles.
- Users may switch swiftly to other workspaces that they are allowed to access, boosting your monitoring efficiency within an organisational context.
- Granular control over the specific platform features on Ellenex can also be tuned through the concept of "Policy", effectively allowing and disallowing the access to specific API endpoints.