What is the principle of separation of duties?

The principle of separation of duties involves dividing responsibilities among different individuals to ensure that no single person has control over all aspects of a critical process. This practice is essential in mitigating risks associated with fraud, errors, and the abuse of authority. By distributing responsibilities, organizations draw on a system of checks and balances, which makes it significantly more difficult for any individual to exploit their position without collusion with others. For example, in a financial context, one person may handle the approval of transactions while another processes them, which helps to ensure transparency and accountability.

The focus on separating duties aids in creating an environment where oversight is built into processes. This principle is key in fields such as finance, cybersecurity, and operations, as it can help to quickly identify inconsistencies or suspicious activities due to the multiplicity of individuals involved.

In contrast, consolidating all responsibilities in a single role can increase the risk of fraud and make detection of errors more difficult. Regularly rotating job roles can help mitigate risk, but it is not the core of the separation of duties principle. Assigning all tasks to an automated system lacks the human oversight that separation of duties aims to enforce.