What process involves granting users permission and specifying their access levels and capabilities?

The process that involves granting users permission and specifying their access levels and capabilities is authorization. Authorization occurs after a user has been authenticated, which means their identity has been verified. In this context, authorization is the mechanism through which specific permissions are assigned to users based on their identity and the roles they might hold within an organization.

This process ensures that users can access only those resources and perform only those actions for which they have been explicitly granted rights. For example, an employee might be authorized to access confidential files but not to modify system settings. Thus, authorization plays a critical role in ensuring security and compliance within information systems.

While concepts such as access control encompass broader strategies for managing and regulating access within a system, authorization specifically focuses on the rights granted to individual users. Role assignment is related but refers more to the categorization of users into groups that share common access rights rather than the act of granting those permissions itself.