Version
Edit (11/11/2025)

Security Compliance

Overview

Security is fundamental to Kinana's operations as an educational platform handling student data. This document outlines security policies, access controls, and audit procedures to protect user data and platform integrity.

Security Framework: Defense in depth, least privilege, continuous monitoring
Compliance: UAE PDPL, Egypt Law 151/2020, educational data protection standards
Detailed Policies: YHT SharePoint IP Governance repository

Security Policies

Policy Framework

Location: YHT Corporate SharePoint - IP Governance repository
Access: All development team members
Review: Annual or when threats/regulations change

Core Security Policies

Referenced from SharePoint:

  • PL-IP-003: IP Protection Policy (includes security measures)
  • D-IP-006: Incident Response Plan for IP Infringement
  • Additional security policies maintained by Corporate IT

Application Security Policy

Secure Development Lifecycle:

  • Security requirements in PRD phase
  • Threat modeling for new features
  • Secure coding practices enforced
  • Code review includes security checks
  • Security testing before deployment

Security by Design:

  • Encryption by default
  • Least privilege access
  • Input validation and sanitization
  • Protection against common vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10)
  • Secure session management

Data Security Policy

Data Classification:

  • Public: Marketing materials, public documentation
  • Internal: Development documentation, non-sensitive operations data
  • Confidential: User personal data, authentication credentials, business secrets
  • Restricted: Trade secrets, IP (SharePoint: F-IP-006 Trade Secret Register)

Protection by Classification:

  • Public: No encryption required
  • Internal: Access control, standard protection
  • Confidential: Encryption at rest and in transit, access logging
  • Restricted: Highest level encryption, strict access control, audit trail

Data Encryption:

  • At Rest: AES-256 encryption for databases and file storage
  • In Transit: TLS 1.3 for all network communications
  • Backups: Encrypted with separate key management
  • Key Management: Azure Key Vault for encryption keys

Access Security Policy

Authentication:

  • Strong password requirements (minimum 12 characters, complexity)
  • Password hashing: bcrypt with appropriate work factor
  • Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for admin roles
  • Session timeout after inactivity (30 minutes)
  • Secure password reset procedures

Authorization:

  • Role-based access control (RBAC)
  • Principle of least privilege
  • Regular access reviews
  • Automatic de-provisioning on role change/termination

Access Control

User Roles & Permissions

Role Hierarchy

Student:

  • Access assigned content
  • View own progress and grades
  • Submit assignments
  • Cannot access other students' data

Teacher:

  • All Student permissions
  • Access student data in assigned classes
  • Grade assignments and provide feedback
  • Manage class content and assignments
  • Cannot access platform administration

Parent:

  • View own children's progress (linked accounts)
  • Read-only access to student content
  • Cannot modify student data
  • Cannot access other students' data

School Administrator:

  • All Teacher permissions
  • Manage school users (teachers, students)
  • Access school-wide reports
  • Configure school settings
  • Cannot access other schools' data (in multi-tenant scenario)

Platform Administrator:

  • Full system access
  • User management across all schools
  • System configuration
  • Access to audit logs and monitoring
  • Cannot access without audit trail

RBAC Implementation

ABP.io Permission System:

// Permission definition
public class KinanaPermissions
{
    public const string Students_View = "Kinana.Students.View";
    public const string Students_Edit = "Kinana.Students.Edit";
    public const string Teachers_Manage = "Kinana.Teachers.Manage";
    public const string Reports_ViewAll = "Kinana.Reports.ViewAll";
    public const string System_Configure = "Kinana.System.Configure";
}

// Permission checking
[Authorize(KinanaPermissions.Students_Edit)]
public async Task<StudentDto> UpdateStudent(Guid id, UpdateStudentDto input)
{
    // Only users with Students.Edit permission can access
}

Permission Groups:

  • Students: View, Edit, Delete
  • Content: View, Create, Edit, Delete, Publish
  • Reports: View Own, View School, View All
  • Users: View, Create, Edit, Delete
  • System: Configure, Audit, Backup

Multi-Tenancy Security

Tenant Isolation:

  • Complete data separation per school/organization
  • Tenant context enforced at database level
  • Cross-tenant access prohibited
  • Separate encryption keys per tenant (where applicable)

Tenant Admin Limitations:

  • Cannot access platform infrastructure
  • Cannot view other tenants
  • Cannot modify global system settings
  • Limited to tenant-specific configuration

API Security

Authentication:

  • JWT (JSON Web Tokens) for API access
  • Token expiration: 1 hour (access token), 30 days (refresh token)
  • Token revocation supported
  • API keys for service-to-service communication

Authorization:

  • Permission-based API access
  • Scope limitation for API tokens
  • Rate limiting per user/IP
  • API versioning for breaking changes

API Security Best Practices:

  • Input validation on all endpoints
  • Output encoding to prevent XSS
  • CORS policy restricting origins
  • HTTPS only (no plain HTTP)
  • API documentation private (not publicly accessible)

Database Access Control

Database Users:

  • Application user: Limited to CRUD operations
  • Read-only user: For reporting and analytics
  • Admin user: For migrations and maintenance (restricted)
  • No direct database access for developers (use application layer)

Database Security:

  • Network isolation (private subnet)
  • Firewall rules (Azure NSG)
  • Encrypted connections required
  • Audit logging enabled
  • Regular security patches

Infrastructure Access Control

Azure Access:

  • Role-based access control (Azure RBAC)
  • Solution Architect: Owner/Contributor
  • Senior Developer: Contributor (staging), Reader (production)
  • No team member has direct access to production database

Kubernetes Access:

  • kubectl access limited to Solution Architect and Senior Developer
  • Namespaces for isolation (dev, staging, production)
  • Service accounts with minimal permissions
  • Secrets management via Azure Key Vault

GitHub Access:

  • Team members: Write access to repositories
  • Solution Architect: Admin access (repository settings, branch protection)
  • Branch protection: dev and main branches protected
  • Required reviews before merge
  • No force-push to protected branches

Audit Reports

Audit Logging

Events Logged:

  • Authentication (login, logout, failed attempts)
  • Authorization (permission checks, access denials)
  • Data access (viewing sensitive data)
  • Data modifications (create, update, delete)
  • Administrative actions (user management, config changes)
  • Security events (password resets, MFA changes)
  • API access (all requests to protected endpoints)

Log Format:

  • Timestamp (UTC)
  • User ID and username
  • Action performed
  • Resource accessed
  • IP address
  • User agent
  • Result (success/failure)

Log Storage:

  • Azure Log Analytics for centralized logging
  • Retention: 2 years (for security logs)
  • Encrypted at rest
  • Access restricted to Platform Administrators and auditors

Audit Trail Requirements

Compliance Requirements:

  • UAE PDPL: Audit trail for data processing
  • Egypt Law 151/2020: Record of data access
  • Educational standards: Student data access logs

Audit Trail Features:

  • Immutable log records
  • Comprehensive activity tracking
  • User-friendly reporting interface
  • Export capabilities for audits

Security Monitoring

Real-Time Monitoring:

  • Failed authentication attempts (alert after 5 failures)
  • Unusual access patterns (ML-based anomaly detection)
  • Privilege escalation attempts
  • Unauthorized API access
  • Suspicious data export activities

Monitoring Tools:

  • Azure Monitor for infrastructure
  • Application Insights for application-level monitoring
  • Azure Security Center for security recommendations
  • Custom dashboards for security metrics

Alerting:

  • Email alerts for critical security events
  • Teams notifications for high-severity incidents
  • Escalation to Solution Architect and Product Manager
  • Incident response procedures (SharePoint: D-IP-006)

Security Audit Reports

Automated Reports

Daily Reports:

  • Failed login attempts summary
  • API rate limit violations
  • Error rate by service
  • Resource utilization

Weekly Reports:

  • User access patterns
  • New user registrations
  • Permission changes
  • System configuration changes

Monthly Reports:

  • Comprehensive security metrics
  • Compliance status
  • Vulnerability scan results
  • Incident summary

Manual Audit Reports

Quarterly Security Review:

  • User access review (active users, stale accounts)
  • Permission audit (ensure least privilege)
  • Third-party service review
  • Security policy compliance check

Annual Compliance Audit:

  • Full security posture assessment
  • Penetration testing results
  • Vulnerability assessment
  • Compliance gap analysis
  • Recommendations and remediation plan

Prepared by: Solution Architect with QA/PM
Reviewed by: Product Manager and external auditor (recommended)
Audience: Internal (IP Governance Committee), External (regulators, if required)

Incident Reporting

Security Incident Categories:

  • Data breach (unauthorized access to personal data)
  • System compromise (malware, unauthorized system access)
  • Denial of Service (availability impact)
  • Policy violation (insider threat, misuse)

Incident Response Process (Reference: SharePoint D-IP-006):

  1. Detection: Automated alerts or manual discovery
  2. Assessment: Severity and scope determination
  3. Containment: Immediate actions to limit damage
  4. Eradication: Remove threat and close vulnerabilities
  5. Recovery: Restore normal operations
  6. Lessons Learned: Post-incident review and improvements

Incident Reporting Obligations:

  • UAE PDPL: 72 hours to Data Protection Office (for personal data breaches)
  • Egypt Law 151/2020: Similar breach notification requirements
  • Internal: Immediate escalation to Product Manager and CEO
  • Users: Notification if their data was compromised (without undue delay)

Security Training

Developer Security Training

Onboarding:

  • Secure coding practices
  • OWASP Top 10 awareness
  • Platform-specific security patterns
  • Incident reporting procedures

Ongoing:

  • Annual security refresher
  • Training on new threats and vulnerabilities
  • Lessons learned from incidents
  • Security tool training (SAST, dependency scanning)

User Security Awareness

For Administrators:

  • Account security best practices
  • Recognizing phishing attempts
  • Data handling procedures
  • Incident reporting

For End Users:

  • Password security
  • Privacy settings
  • Reporting suspicious activity
  • Safe browsing practices

Third-Party Security

Third-Party Services

Security Assessment (before integration):

  • Vendor security questionnaire
  • Review of vendor's security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2)
  • Data processing agreement review
  • Privacy policy assessment

Current Vendors (documented in SharePoint: F-IP-008):

  • ABP.io: Framework vendor, commercial support
  • Nutrient (PSPDF): PDF processing vendor
  • Microsoft Azure: Infrastructure provider (ISO 27001, SOC 2 certified)
  • GitHub: Code repository (enterprise security features)

Ongoing Monitoring:

  • Regular vendor security assessments
  • Review of vendor incident reports
  • Contract renewal security reviews
  • Alternative vendor evaluation

Security Resources

Security Standards & Frameworks

Security Tools

  • Azure Security Center: Cloud security posture
  • OWASP ZAP: Penetration testing
  • npm audit: Dependency scanning
  • SonarQube: Code quality and security

Internal Resources

  • SharePoint IP Governance: Security policies and procedures
  • Incident Response Plan: D-IP-006
  • IP Protection Policy: PL-IP-003
  • Trade Secret Register: F-IP-006

Security Contacts

  • Internal: Solution Architect (first point of contact)
  • Escalation: Product Manager and CEO
  • External: Azure Security Support, Corporate IT Security

Last Updated: November 2025
Version: 1.0
Note: Detailed security policies maintained in SharePoint IP Governance repository

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