Access Control Systems Problem-Solving and Analytical Questions

1. A company has three departments: Sales, IT, and HR, each with its own access levels for sensitive documents. Explain how you would design an access control list (ACL) to ensure that each department can access only the data relevant to their function while preventing unauthorized access.

2. You have a digital access control system where users are assigned roles that determine their permissions. If you have roles for Admin, User, and Guest, and you must ensure that Guest users cannot see sensitive records, how would you structure the roles and permissions?

3. A user reports they can access a file meant for the Finance department, despite not being part of that department. How would you approach this investigation, and what steps would you take to solve the issue?

4. In a multi-user system, if a single user attempts to log in with multiple devices simultaneously, how would you design the access control mechanism to handle this situation while preventing potential security breaches?

5. A colleague accidentally granted excessive permissions to a contractor. What process would you implement to quickly audit user permissions and ensure compliance with the least privilege principle?

6. If your organization stores sensitive user data and needs to mitigate risk during a data breach, describe how you would utilize role-based access control (RBAC) to limit exposure.

7. You are tasked with developing a policy that controls access to a cloud-based application. What criteria would you consider for granting access, and how would you ensure that these criteria are regularly reviewed?

8. In a scenario where an employee leaves the organization, what systematic approach would you take to revoke their access rights promptly and ensure that no residual access remains?

9. A complex dataset contains user access logs with varying levels of administrative access. How would you analyze these logs to identify potential insider threats or unauthorized access?

10. If you discover that a specific access control mechanism is frequently bypassed in user feedback, how would you approach the challenge of redesigning this mechanism to improve security while maintaining user convenience?