In the previous chapters, you learned how to store data in Jira by creating issues. As you can see, as an information system, Jira is all about data. It should come as no surprise to you that security plays a big role in Jira, to ensure that only the right people will get access to your data. This is achieved by providing a flexible and robust way for you to manage access control. It is able to integrate with your existing security practices, such as a password policy, and allows both centrally controlled permissions and delegating and empowering your project owners and users to manage permissions for their own projects.

By the end of this chapter, you will have learned about the following:

• User directories and how to connect Jira to LDAP
• General access control in Jira
• Managing fine-grained permission settings
• How to troubleshoot permission problems

Before we delve into the deep end of how Jira handles security, let's first take a look at how Jira maintains user and group memberships.