Least Privilege

Least privilege is a simple rule that gives every person only the screens and buttons their own job needs, and nothing more. The delivery driver sees today's addresses, the bookkeeper sees the invoices, and neither of them can open the other's screen. Said out loud it sounds harsh, yet in daily use it is the quietest way to keep a business out of trouble.

Think about a cashier who can void a sale, because voiding is a normal part of any day. A customer changes their mind, an item scans twice, or a price is wrong, so the button has to exist. The real question is who else has it and whether anyone ever looks. Linkysoft has walked into shops where every member of staff could void and nobody could say who pressed the button. The gap only showed up at stocktake. Least privilege answers both halves, because it gives the button to the two people who need it and stamps every void with a name.

The second reason is a stolen account rather than stolen cash, since a password can be guessed, copied off a phone, or typed into a fake login page. The thief then walks in as that person, and what happens next depends completely on what the account was allowed to touch. A stock clerk with three screens costs you three screens. A shared manager login that everyone uses costs you the whole business in a single step.

The mistake we see most often is not being generous on the first day, it is never taking anything back. Someone covers for a colleague on leave, gets extra access for two weeks, and still has it four years later. Access only ever grows, unless somebody sits down and takes it back. That is why a custom web application should show everything one person can reach on a single screen, and let you remove a piece of it in one click.

Storek comes with roles already drawn around real shop jobs, so a new cashier starts with the right screens instead of all of them. When Linkysoft builds a system from nothing we ask one uncomfortable question early. If this account were stolen tonight, what could a stranger do with it by morning? The answer usually shortens somebody's permission list before a line of code is written, so ask your own supplier the same question. If they cannot answer it in a minute, they do not know either.