A security manager at a local hospital wants to secure patient medical records.

The best option is Mandatory Access Control (MAC). In MAC, access decisions are centrally controlled by the system or administrators, not by individual users. This ensures that healthcare staff who enter patient information cannot grant access to others, thereby preventing accidental or malicious disclosure. MAC enforces strict policies based on data sensitivity and user clearance, which aligns with compliance requirements like HIPAA.

Option A (rule-based) defines access through specific rules but is not as rigidly enforced as MAC. Option B (attribute-based) is flexible but could still allow dynamic grants of access. Option D (discretionary) explicitly allows users to assign access rights, which is exactly what must be avoided in this scenario.

CAS-005 stresses using centralized, non-discretionary controls when protecting sensitive medical data, making MAC the correct choice for hospitals.