Which acronym corresponds to Access Control in security controls?

• A. AC - Access Control
• B. AU - Audit & Accountability
• C. IA - Identification and Authentication
• D. SC - System & Communication Protection

Answer: (A)

Access control is about restricting who can access which resources and under what conditions. The acronym that represents this family of security controls is AC, standing for Access Control. This set covers the policies, procedures, and technical measures that grant or deny permissions so that only authorized users, processes, or devices can perform specific actions. The other acronyms point to different control families: Audit & Accountability (AU) handles logging and traceability; Identification and Authentication (IA) covers proving who you are before access is granted; System & Communications Protection (SC) focuses on safeguarding the system and its communications. A concrete example of an access control measure is applying permissions or an access control list so that only authorized users can read or modify a file.