Segregation of duties (SoD), also called separation of duties, is a fundamental aspect to sustainable internal controls and risk management. SoD is designed to prevent fraud and errors by ensuring at least two individuals are responsible for separate areas of a task. By dispersing the critical functions of any process into multiple segments, it ensures that no single person is completely in control of the process. With this, it limits the amount of control over a task and prevents a single person from conducting unauthorized or illegal tasks, such as perpetrating fraud or embezzling organization funds.
Consider what would happen if a single person was responsible for a weapons system— error, emotion, blackmail, and fraud could lead to a disastrous outcome. While this is a more extreme example, it shows the importance of segregation of duties: preventing one-sided actions from happening in crucial areas.
To comment on this post
Login to NextLabs Community
NextLabs seeks to provide helpful resources and easy to digest information on data-centric security related topics. To discuss and share insights on this resource with peers in the data security field, join the NextLabs community.
Don't have a NextLabs ID? Create an account.