What is the principle of separation of duties, and why is it important?

• A. Dividing critical tasks among multiple people to prevent fraud and errors.
• B. Centralizing all critical tasks to a single person.
• C. Outsourcing security operations.
• D. Automating all approvals with no human oversight.

Answer: (A)

Dividing critical tasks among multiple people creates checks and balances that limit opportunities for fraud and errors. Separation of duties means different individuals handle initiation, authorization, execution, and recording for a given process. For example, in procurement, one person might request a purchase, another approves it, and a third processes the payment and records the transaction. This division makes it harder for a single person to both commit and conceal a misdeed, and it strengthens accountability because each step has an independent review. It also aids auditing, as responsibilities are spread across roles and can be traced through logs and records. Centralizing tasks would remove these safeguards, while outsourcing security operations or automating all approvals without human oversight would eliminate the necessary checks and balances that SoD provides.