In an insightful episode of the Risk Management Show, Boris Agrinovich welcomes Jake Moshenko, the co-founder and CEO of AuthZed.
The discussion delves into the crucial role of authorization in application security, the common challenges organizations face in implementing robust authorization mechanisms, and the innovative approaches AuthZed is taking to address these issues.
Jake emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between authentication and authorization, the potential and limitations of AI in authorization, and the specific challenges and misconceptions surrounding modern authorization systems.
The episode is a deep dive into how AuthZed's solutions are streamlining the permissions management process, enabling companies to focus on their core competencies while ensuring their applications are secure and scalable.
Importance of Authorization in Application Security
- Focuses on application authorization over workforce authorization.
- Essential for building secure products efficiently and addressing the brittleness and riskiness of permissions code.
Challenges in Authorization Implementation
- Organizations often encounter issues with the inflexibility of predefined roles and access scenarios.
- Real-world permissions needs often exceed the initially designed system's capabilities, necessitating a more adaptable approach.
AI's Role in Authorization
- Advises against relying on AI for making authorization decisions due to the lack of explainability and determinism.
- AI's potential lies in aiding development and providing scaffolding for authorization models, not in making live authorization decisions.
AuthZed's Target Audience and Customers
- Primarily serves larger organizations with platform teams responsible for managing permissions across applications.
- Focuses on companies that face significant pain points in permissions management, rather than startups.
Authentication vs. Authorization
- Differentiates between identifying who is accessing the system (authentication) and what they are allowed to do (authorization).
- Both are crucial for secure application design.
Benefits of Modern Authorization Solutions
- Reduces operational costs and accelerates time-to-market by simplifying permissions management.
- Enables businesses to adapt quickly to new customer needs without extensive rewrites of permissions code.
Misconceptions in the Field
- Challenges the notion that eventually consistent systems are sufficient for authorization, advocating for strongly consistent systems.
- Clarifies that not all authorization solutions are interchangeable and emphasizes the specialized nature of different authorization types.
