Case Study: Apple clarifies access control strategies with WorkOS

Apple secures access controls with WorkOS in 2020

The case study discusses how Apple, a customer of WorkOS, faced the challenge of implementing a robust and scalable authorization system to control access to sensitive company information, such as its payroll and top-secret code. The challenge was to choose between two major access control models, Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), to best suit their complex security needs and company size.

The solution from WorkOS involved leveraging ABAC to define highly granular permissions based on a variety of user, resource, and environmental attributes. This allowed Apple to implement a policy-based security model that could restrict access based on factors like job function, team, device type, location, and time of day. This approach provided Apple with a more detailed and scalable method of authorization than RBAC alone could offer, ensuring strong security for sensitive data.

Apple