Glossary

Separation of Duties

Compliance and Regulations

What is Separation of Duties?

Separation of duties (SoD) is a cybersecurity and governance principle that requires dividing tasks and access privileges among multiple individuals to reduce the risk of error, abuse, or unauthorized activity. By ensuring that no single user has unchecked control over critical systems or processes, SoD strengthens accountability and helps prevent insider threats, fraud, or accidental misconfigurations.

Why is Separation of Duties Important?

Separation of duties is a fundamental control across many regulatory frameworks, including NERC CIP, IEC 62443, NIST 800-53, NIS2, and TSA SD02E. It helps protect against the misuse of privileges by ensuring that sensitive tasks, such as configuring systems, approving access, or deploying updates, require involvement from more than one authorized person.

This control is especially important in high-risk environments such as critical infrastructure, industrial control systems (ICS), and operational technology (OT), where privileged access can affect physical processes, safety, and regulatory status. Without SoD, a single compromised or malicious user could make undetected changes to access policies, system configurations, or data integrity

Regulations typically require organizations to define roles, enforce access boundaries, and implement auditing mechanisms to ensure that duties remain appropriately segregated over time, even as roles change or personnel shift.

How Does Xona Help with Separation of Duties?

Xona enforces separation of duties through role-based access control (RBAC), time-based restrictions, and policy-driven access governance. Each user is assigned only the minimum necessary privileges to perform their function, and all access is logged and auditable. Administrative functions, multi-level access approvals, and session oversight can be distributed across different roles to ensure accountability.

Additionally, Xona's credential injection capability prevents users from seeing or reusing shared credentials, reducing the risk of privilege escalation. With session recording and real-time monitoring, organizations gain the transparency needed to prove enforcement of SoD during audits and respond effectively to incidents.

This structured approach helps meet compliance requirements for separation of duties while maintaining operational efficiency in secure remote access workflows.

Frequently Asked Questions

What regulations require enforcement of separation of duties?

Separation of duties is a foundational control mandated by several cybersecurity frameworks, including NERC CIP, IEC 62443, TSA SD02E, NIST 800-53, and NIS2. These standards require organizations to prevent excessive privilege by dividing responsibilities across multiple roles, especially in high-risk operational environments like critical infrastructure.

Why is separation of duties critical in OT and ICS environments?

In OT and ICS environments, a single privileged user making unauthorized or mistaken changes to control systems could cause production outages, safety hazards, or regulatory violations. Enforcing SoD ensures that no individual can unilaterally execute, approve, and deploy sensitive operations, which protects against both malicious insiders and accidental missteps.

What does an effective separation of duties policy typically include?

A strong SoD policy defines clear user roles and responsibilities, ensures access is granted based on function, not convenience, and incorporates safeguards such as dual approvals, time-limited access windows, and audit logging. Over time, these controls help organizations reduce access creep, enforce least privilege, and maintain oversight of privileged activity.

How does Xona enforce separation of duties in access control workflows?

Xona uses role-based access control (RBAC) and time-based access (TBAC) to limit what users can do and when. Administrative functions like access approvals, policy changes, and session oversight can be assigned to distinct roles. Every session is logged and available for real-time monitoring or post-event review, ensuring clear accountability for each action taken.

Can Xona prevent privilege misuse caused by shared or static credentials?

Yes. Xona eliminates the need for users to know or manage shared credentials through credential injection. Credentials are securely stored and automatically injected into sessions, preventing unauthorized reuse, password sprawl, or escalation of privileges which are common violations of SoD principles.

How does Xona support audit readiness for demonstrating separation of duties?

Xona captures rich session metadata including who accessed what, when, and for how long, alongside full video recordings of each session. These records are stored immutably and can be exported to SIEM or GRC platforms to support internal reviews or formal audits, making it easy to validate that SoD policies are being enforced and followed.