Separation of Duties¶

Critical operations should require multiple parties, preventing any single entity from having complete control and requiring collusion for abuse.

Tension Addressed¶

Security vs. Usability

Recognizable As¶

Dual authorization for sensitive operations; code review requirements; multi-party approval workflows; separate development and production access; break-glass procedures requiring multiple approvers; key escrow with multiple custodians.

Canonical Sources¶

Saltzer & Schroeder, "The Protection of Information in Computer Systems" (1975); Clark-Wilson security model (1987)

Transfers To¶

Financial controls (dual signatures), organizational governance (board oversight), legal systems (separation of powers), cryptography (threshold signatures)

Separation of duties is a human-centric control acknowledging that insider threats exist and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.