With increasing burdens of securing myriad systems, applications, and platforms, safeguarding sensitive business data creates an ever-growing responsibility in the current challenges facing organizations within today’s electronic environment. Given these increased demands on regulating access to such critical information, businesses will be faced with the task of dealing with the intricacies of regulatory compliance as well as industry mandates.
Every business has specific regulatory requirements to be met—be it HIPAA, SOX, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and so much more. The problem is that these can be long processes, especially in proving compliance, and can be even worse when trying to demonstrate management of access controls and reporting to independent auditors or regulators. If your business organization does not fall under any legal obligation by said mandates, the practices by such organizations in conforming to those best practices are rapidly becoming indispensable for internal and third-party audits.
With increasing complexity in rules and regulations, a mere passing of the compliance test might not be enough for remediation of the growing Critical Access Risks. Achieving the least privilege in a system where identity governance and administration (IGA) and privileged access management (PAM) are not conducted properly would be impossible with varying privileges. Let’s break down the five Critical Access Risks you should address before being caught while audit closeness is turned up on your operations.
Over-Provisioned or Under-Provisioned Users
Access rights can easily get out of hand, especially in a telecommuting scenario, an organizational change, or a merger. There is a scenario known as over-provisioning whereby access is granted to a user in excess, sometimes much more than what they would require in doing the given role. Over-provisioning often results in “access creep,” which means increased privileges over time.
On the other hand, under-provisioning can be a limiting factor in productivity, with employees frustrated when they do not have adequate access to perform their work productively. This may inadvertently introduce security risks through such factors as shared passwords or accounts for access where needed, which then causes problems of accountability.
Privileged Accounts
Privileged accounts have much power; they can view sensitive data, run applications, and perform transactions. These accounts, however, are often not monitored and might number in the hundreds, staying at various other organizations. There is significant potential for exploitation or misuse; therefore, more controls need to be in place so that these accounts can be better managed.
Orphaned Accounts
Orphaned accounts are accounts that lack a valid business owner, normally due to workers leaving the organization without removing the related access in time. These accounts might pose serious security vulnerabilities because they rarely get reviewed, and thus, unauthorized access could lead to potential data breaches.
Abandoned Accounts
Abandoned accounts are those that have been assigned to former workers, contractors, or even temporary workforces but remain active and unmonitored. These are a high-risk factor and, therefore, show the presence of broken processes in access management. Regular reviews and frequent account disabling can reduce exposure to threats from inactive accounts.
Nested or Hidden Access
Many organizations focus primarily on how to present or enable direct user access and lack a discussion or maturity in terms of dealing with nested or hidden access. Stacked entitlements provide users with more access than anticipated. Without adequate visibility into these nested relationships, an organization can’t manage or measure access risks.
The Effects of Ignoring Access Risks
Failure to identify and mitigate such access risks can have extremely negative effects on your organization. As the 2021 Identity and Access Management Report indicates, the result of unauthorized access may include disrupted business activities (22%), system downtime (21%), or decreased productivity of employees due to a reduction in their workload (20%). The stakes are very high.
The Role of Identity Governance and Privileged Access Management
Thus, organizations fight these risks with IGA and PAM solutions. IGA prevents unapproved access and promotes compliance with relevant regulations but enables organizations to manage in response to audit requests appropriately. With appropriate tools, you can regularly assess the appropriateness of access and prevent risks from turning into any unwanted negative impact.
The case is the same with PAM solutions, which also simplify overseeing and managing privileged access across IT systems. Effective PAM means the elimination of password sharing, enforced by least privilege access, meaning that the user will only receive access that is needed.
Conclusion
Go through the perimeter of identity access risks and fortify your organization against sensitive information so that it stays secure and confidential regarding regulatory compliances. Businesses can avoid such probable risks, increase productivity levels, and avoid attacks that might involve auditing procedures to demonstrate weaknesses.
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