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Vol. I · No. 251
Mon · 8 Jun
A Daily Lexicon of Trustworthy Data
The Lexicon

005·8

break-glass access

/breɪk ɡlɑːs ˈæksɛs/ - n.

1 [colloq.] An emergency-only door, propped open since the incident in March, with the review still pending.Keep. Punchy.This is the problem.

Working definition

2. An emergency mechanism granting exceptional access in a crisis, designed to be heavily logged and reviewed afterward.

Filed
See also
  • access controlsA least-privilege model in which forty-one people have privilege, because requesting removal is harder than requesting access.
  • audit trailA complete and immutable record of every action, retained for exactly thirty days, then quietly rotated out.
  • least privilegeA principle interpreted as 'the least we can grant without anyone filing a ticket,' which trends upward.