Administrative boundaries define who is authorized to configure, monitor, or change a system, and where that authority ends. They may separate teams, agencies, vendors, or environments, with permissions enforced through accounts, roles, and policies.
Clear boundaries reduce the chance that an unauthorized person—or an account with excessive privileges—can alter security settings or access sensitive data. In practice, organizations should assign only necessary permissions, review them regularly, and define which administrators can manage vendor services, logs, and configurations. When deploying a new security tool, agencies should establish these responsibilities before adoption and ensure that vendor access is limited and monitored.