[cap-talk] In Defense of Identities - not

[Sandro Magi]

Jed at Webstart wrote:
> Oh my gosh, amen to that!! I happen to be in the loop (as a sysadmin)
> when people try to apply the ACL approach to access control.  The basic
> problem with an ACL approach is the question of who controls the
> ACL?  If only a sysadmin can do the work then any effective sharing
> effectively grinds to a halt.  It's also of course subject to the
> "fatal conceit" that Marc Stiegler mentioned.  Why is it that as
> a system admin. anybody would get the impression that I would
> have a better idea how to delegate access than somebody who
> was actually delegated the permission (rather than just having it as
> some sort of superuser status) and has local knowledge (e.g. was
> told policies or whatever regarding how to exercise the permission)?
>   

Exactly. Maybe I should have brought up this analogy before: why don't
businesses have sysadmins for delegating access to paper and pens ? They
are just as much business assets as computer resources (server and desktop).

A business delegates certain resources to its employees (computerized or
concrete), in order for them to do their jobs. Sometimes that job
requires them to further delegate their own resources to another party.
As has been said many times here, the key is to ensure that the user
knows what they are doing when delegating (ie. they know that they are
delegating, to whom, the consequences, etc.).

Sandro