Techniques to facilitate controlling access to objects associated with an industrial automation environment are disclosed. In at least one implementation, a policy set associated with an object type is created, wherein the policy set defines one or more actions that are allowed for at least one user group to perform with respect to the object type. An object of the object type is identified for security configuration, and a selection of the policy set associated with the object type to apply to the object is received. In response to the selection of the policy set, security is configured for the object by applying the policy set associated with the object type to the object.