Information Rights Management (IRM) is a technology that provides persistent data protection by embedding access and usage rights directly into the digital content itself. Its primary advantage is enabling the content owner to define and enforce granular policies on how information is used, regardless of where it is stored or transmitted. For XYZ Media, this means they can control who can open, modify, print, forward, or copy their intellectual property (movies, music), and even revoke access remotely or set expiration dates. This control is the core function of IRM.

A. It ensures that digital content is always encrypted.

Encryption is a mechanism used by IRM to enforce control, but the control itself (the rights and policies) is the primary advantage, not the encryption alone.

B. It automatically classifies all digital content.

IRM enforces policies that are often based on data classification, but it does not perform the classification. Classification is a separate, prerequisite process.

D. It allows unrestricted access to all digital content.

This is the opposite of IRM's purpose. IRM is designed specifically to restrict access and usage based on predefined policies set by the content owner.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). (2016). Guide to Enterprise Telework

Remote Access

and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Security (NIST Special Publication 800-46 Revision 2). "Digital Rights Management (DRM) technologies can be used to enforce access and usage policies for digital information... DRM can restrict activities such as viewing

copying

printing

and forwarding of documents." (Section 4.4.3

Page 4-16).

2. Microsoft Corporation. (2023). What is Azure Information Protection? Official Microsoft Learn Documentation. "Azure Information Protection (AIP) is a cloud-based solution that enables organizations to discover

classify

and protect documents and emails by applying labels to content... Protection technology uses Azure Rights Management (often abbreviated to Azure RMS). This technology uses encryption

identity

and authorization policies." This documentation highlights that the purpose is protection through policies

using encryption as a tool.

3. Park

J.

& Sandhu

R. (2004). The UCONABC Usage Control Model. ACM Transactions on Information and System Security

7(1)

128–174. This foundational academic paper on usage control

the principle behind IRM

describes models for "controlling the usage of digital objects" beyond simple access control

including ongoing controls after access is granted. (Section 1

Paragraph 1). https://doi.org/10.1145/984334.984339