Principle of Least Privilege vs Separation of Duties

Developers should learn and apply this principle to build secure systems, especially in environments handling sensitive data or critical operations, such as financial services, healthcare, or cloud infrastructure meets developers should learn and implement separation of duties when building systems that handle sensitive data, financial transactions, or require high security, such as in banking, healthcare, or government applications. Here's our take.

Principle of Least Privilege

Nice Pick

Developers should learn and apply this principle to build secure systems, especially in environments handling sensitive data or critical operations, such as financial services, healthcare, or cloud infrastructure

Pros

• It helps prevent privilege escalation attacks, reduces the impact of compromised accounts, and aligns with security best practices like zero-trust architectures and regulatory requirements (e
• Related to: access-control, zero-trust

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Separation of Duties

Developers should learn and implement Separation of Duties when building systems that handle sensitive data, financial transactions, or require high security, such as in banking, healthcare, or government applications

Pros

• It is crucial for compliance with regulations like SOX, GDPR, or HIPAA, as it helps prevent insider threats and ensures audit trails by distributing authority across roles like development, testing, and deployment
• Related to: access-control, least-privilege

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Principle of Least Privilege is a concept while Separation of Duties is a methodology. We picked Principle of Least Privilege based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Principle of Least Privilege wins

Based on overall popularity. Principle of Least Privilege is more widely used, but Separation of Duties excels in its own space.