authorization

Authorization is the decision and process that determines what actions a user, system, device, or service is allowed to perform within an information system or operational environment after its identity has been authenticated.

Core meaning in industrial and regulated environments

In manufacturing, OT, and regulated IT systems, authorization commonly refers to:

• Defining which roles, users, applications, or equipment may access specific data, functions, or physical assets
• Configuring and enforcing access control rules (for example, view-only vs. edit vs. approve)
• Recording decisions that a connection, transaction, or command is allowed to proceed

Authorization typically builds on authentication (verifying who or what is requesting access) and is implemented through mechanisms such as role-based access control (RBAC), attribute-based access control (ABAC), and network or firewall rules.

Operational context

In industrial and compliance-driven settings, authorization shows up in several ways:

• Application and MES permissions: Controlling who can release production orders, modify recipes, change batch records, or close quality events.
• System-to-system access: Allowing specific services, such as an MES, historian, or ERP integration service, to read or write particular data sets or APIs.
• Network and OT security: Determining which devices or segments may communicate, and under what conditions, especially when connecting plant systems to cloud services.
• Approval workflows: Enforcing that only authorized roles can approve deviations, CAPAs, engineering changes, or document releases.

Authorization in compliance frameworks (including FedRAMP / NIST)

In cybersecurity and regulatory frameworks, the term is also used more formally:

• Access authorization: Technical and procedural controls that ensure only authorized accounts and services can use a system or data set, as described in many NIST SP 800-53 control families.
• System authorization: A management decision that a system or cloud service is approved to operate within a defined risk posture, often documented as an authorization to operate (ATO). FedRAMP and similar programs use this concept to indicate that a cloud service has been assessed against a defined control baseline.

In plant or enterprise contexts, access authorization is relevant to user and service permissions, while system authorization (such as a cloud provider’s ATO) is a higher-level management determination and does not by itself ensure compliance across local OT or manufacturing environments.

What authorization is not

• It is not identity verification itself; that is authentication.
• It is not a guarantee of regulatory compliance; it is one element of a broader control and governance framework.
• It is not the same as accounting, audit logging, or traceability, although those may record authorized actions.

Common confusion

• Authorization vs. authentication: Authentication confirms who or what is requesting access. Authorization decides what that authenticated entity is allowed to do.
• Authorization vs. approval signatures: In quality and document control workflows, electronic signatures may represent approval or sign-off. These signatures rely on underlying authorization rules but are not the authorization logic itself.