Improper user access review management can have huge consequences — including being the victim of data breaches. Following a clear protocol can improve your company’s cybersecurity posture.
This article will provide you with an insightful view into how to conduct the user access review process, along with a checklist and user access review template to use.
User Access Reviews (UAR) play a crucial role in maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture for organizations. Here are the key reasons why properly managing privileged access and conducting user access reviews serves as a “necessity” for your organization’s cybersecurity:
User access review helps quickly identify and revoke unnecessary access, minimizing the risk of unauthorized persons to sensitive data and critical systems.
Regular reviews ensure that only authorized personnel have access to specific assets, reducing the likelihood of an organization suffering a data breach.
Insider threats, whether intentional or unintentional, are a substantial risk to organizations. User access reviews aid in the detection and prevention of employee access rights misuse.
By recognizing and managing over-privileged accounts, dormant users, and unauthorized access, UAR reduces the risk of insider threats such as data manipulation, fraud, and unauthorized system activities.
Compliance requirements with industry norms and standards are critical for organizations looking to a trustworthy reputation.
User access reviews help to align user access with regulatory requirements, ensuring compliance requirements with standards such as GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and more. This enables firms to demonstrate their commitment to responsible data handling.
Regular access reviews improve the overall security posture by proactively detecting and correcting security problems.
Rapid identification of abnormalities and immediate response to policy violations help to create a more robust cybersecurity environment, lowering the chance of security breaches.
UAR optimizes resource allocation by ensuring that users have only the access privileges needed for their job responsibilities.
Removing unnecessary access privileges through regular reviews lowers the risk of human error, system misuse, and potential security risks, resulting in more efficient resource utilization.
Cyber threats evolve, and organizational structures shift over time. UAR encourages continual monitoring to ensure that access remain in line with changes in the company’s staff.
Organizations can maintain an adaptive and resilient cybersecurity posture by identifying and addressing policy deviations promptly.
UAR can help reduce costs by identifying and eliminating unnecessary access, hence minimizing licensing prices.
Identifying and deleting unused accounts or subscriptions during evaluations helps to reduce overpaying on resources that are not actively utilized.
User access reviews are critical to ensuring organizational security and compliance. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to implement user access reviews effectively:
Start by compiling a comprehensive inventory of all tools used in your organization.
This comprises mainstream applications and specialized tools. At the same time, identify both internal and external users linked with each tool, ensuring a holistic view of user access.
Move beyond mere identification of former users; actively confirm the status of their accounts and revoke access credentials quickly.
Updating offboarding protocols is critical to providing a seamless and timely access revocation upon an employee’s departure, hence limiting potential security concerns.
Identify shadow admin accounts or non-admin accounts with sensitive privileges. The review should go beyond simple identification and include a comprehensive consideration of whether these accounts truly require such privileges or not.
It is critical to take decisive action, such as revoking unnecessary rights or relocating accounts for increased monitoring.
Recognize the dynamism of your employees’ roles and departments. Detect instances of privilege creep, which occurs when permissions build over time.
The purpose is to align access permissions with current job responsibilities, ensuring that users have access to exactly what they need for their tasks while avoiding irrelevant access.
This critical step involves evaluating user access rights based on established roles and responsibilities within the company, which is also known as RBAC ( Role-Based Access Control ). According to the principle of least privilege, users should be given the least amount of access necessary for their tasks.
This process establishes a clear hierarchy of access levels, which simplifies access management and ensures compliance with industry standards.
Determine whether users require permanent access to applications and data or if they only need the access for a limited amount of time.
This strategic approach not only improves security by removing unneeded extended access to apps and processes the users won’t need soon, but also adheres to the principle of least privilege.
Documenting the review cycle is more than just keeping records, it’s crucial in ensuring organizational transparency and accountability.
Detailed documentation, including reviewer comments, approver decisions, and other relevant details, serves as a valuable audit trail for internal reviews and compliance checks.
Embrace an automated approach for periodic review using automation tools, ensuring systematic and efficient reviews. Implement tools that can scan and assess user accounts and access rights on a regular basis—whether daily, weekly, or monthly.
This automation not only improves productivity but also allows for continuous monitoring, adapting to corporate expansion while keeping the auditing process efficient.
Here’s a 9-step extensive user access review checklist to help you systematically analyze and manage user access privileges, permissions, and accounts across your organization’s systems, applications, and resources:
Identifying and addressing access anomalies remains a challenge in user access review, requiring robust software solutions.
Mikkel P , Head of Global Sales Enablement, Heimdal®
As you’ve understood the importance of UAR and how to approach it, here’s a done-for-you User Access Review template to make your work even easier.
This template will help you:
Privileged accounts are highly appealing targets for threat actors, and they should be monitored closely. This is where Heimdal® will make a difference for your organization.
Heimdal®’s Privileged Access Management PAM solution is the only tool on the market that automatically de-escalates users’ rights on threat detection and at the same time makes you achieve two vital things: full compliance, being NIST AC-5 and NIST AC-1,6 compliant, and also increased productivity.
Moreover, a cool centralized dashboard will allow your sysadmins to manage access granting efficiently and offer you a complete overview of your users’ activity.
