In order to protect sensitive data and critical assets, it is important for companies to regularly review user access. This is particularly relevant for long-time employees who have knowledge of the company’s processes but may also have access to sensitive information. By using a user entitlement review checklist and adopting best practices, companies can ensure an efficient audit process and mitigate the risk to their critical assets.
Why are User Entitlement Reviews Important?
A user entitlement review, is a crucial part of managing user accounts and controlling access within an organization. It involves periodically reviewing the access rights of employees and third parties to reduce the risk of security breaches and protect critical data and resources. While security measures like the principle of least privilege, zero trust architecture, and granular access management are important, skipping access reviews can lead to incidents like the Cash App breach. This breach occurred when an ex-employee accessed and downloaded sensitive internal reports containing information on millions of users. Conducting a user entitlement review helps address issues such as privilege creep, privilege misuse, and privilege abuse. It ensures that employees have the necessary access rights and privileges based on their current roles and responsibilities.
Many international IT security standards, including those issued by NIST, PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, and SOX, require organizations to conduct regular reviews of user access rights. These reviews are essential for maintaining data security, managing access to critical information, and reducing the risk of reputational and financial losses. Organizations can create their own schedules for conducting these reviews and may use software solutions to assist with the process. Failure to comply with these standards can result in severe penalties and fines.
Difference Between User Entitlement Reviews vs User Access Reviews
A user entitlement review is a process of reviewing the access rights that a user has to resources, such as applications, data, and systems. The goal of a user entitlement review is to ensure that users only have access to the resources they need to do their jobs, and that they do not have access to resources that they should not have.
A user access review is a process of reviewing the access that a user has to a specific resource, such as an application or a system. The goal of a user access review is to ensure that the user’s access is appropriate and that it is aligned with the user’s role and responsibilities.
In other words, a user entitlement review is a broader review of a user’s access rights, while a user access review is a more focused review of a user’s access to a specific resource.
Here is a table that summarizes the key differences between user entitlement reviews and user access reviews:
| Feature | User Entitlement Review | User Access Review |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Reviews all of a user’s access rights | Reviews a user’s access to a specific resource |
| Frequency | Typically performed annually or biannually | Typically performed more frequently, such as monthly or quarterly |
| Purpose | To ensure that users only have access to the resources they need | To ensure that a user’s access to a specific resource is appropriate |
| Methods | Typically uses automated tools | May use automated tools, but may also involve manual review |
Challenges in Reviewing User Entitlement
Below are some of the most notable challenges associated with conducting user entitlement reviews:
Time and resource consumption: Examining user access rights and permissions can be a tedious task, especially for larger companies.
Complexity of IT systems: Many companies have complex IT infrastructure, with numerous applications, databases, and systems that make it difficult to identify and review all user access rights.
Lack of access control tools: Organizations often lack visibility into the systems and apps that employees can access, making reviews time-consuming and prone to errors.
High employee turnover: Tracking access to specific systems and applications is challenging when organizations experience frequent changes in personnel, and access may not always be revoked in a timely manner.
Disgruntlement over access changes: Users may be unhappy if the review results in changes to their access rights, leading to decreased productivity and dissatisfaction with the organization.
Compliance with regulatory requirements: Meeting the necessary compliance standards for securing user access poses an additional challenge, as regulations vary by industry and location and may evolve over time.
Checklist for Reviewing User Access
Using the checklist below, organizations can conduct thorough and efficient user entitlement reviews to reduce the risk of cybersecurity threats.
Define the scope of the review: Determine the specific systems, applications, and data that will be included in the user entitlement review process.
Revoke permissions for former employees: Identify and terminate any access rights or permissions granted to individuals who are no longer employed by the organization.
Remove shadow admin accounts: Identify and eliminate any unauthorized administrative accounts that may have been created without proper authorization or documentation.
Check for accumulated access permissions: Review and address any instances where employees have accumulated excessive access privileges over time.
Minimize privileges for employees and vendors: Restrict access rights to the minimum necessary for employees and vendors to perform their job duties effectively.
Verify the necessity of permanent access: Assess any accounts or permissions that have been granted permanent access and ensure they are still necessary and appropriate.
Analyze the results of the review to make improvements: Evaluate the outcome of the user entitlement review to identify areas for improvement in the access management process and implement necessary changes.
Regularly update your access management policy: Continuously update your policy as your organization grows to ensure the right level of access to data assets. Include a list of protected data, user roles, access controls, and procedures for granting, reviewing, and revoking access.
Review the user access audit procedure: Keep your procedure for accessing user rights up to date. Establish a schedule, identify responsible security officers, set notification periods, and define report contents and reporting periods.
Implement role-based access control (RBAC): Create user roles and assign access rights to each role. This speeds up the review process as roles are reviewed instead of individual profiles.
Involve regular employees and management: Engage employees in the review process to speed it up and raise awareness of its importance. Request input from users and their managers to identify unnecessary access rights.
Document each step of the process: Keep detailed records of challenges and results in an access review workbook or documentation asset. This helps understand the procedure, demonstrate compliance, and identify flaws.
Educate personnel on the importance of access reviews: Communicate the principles and importance of user access management during cybersecurity training. Educate the relevant employees on cybersecurity threats related to access rights.
Conclusion
A user entitlement review is an important part of managing access to sensitive resources. Using a solution that offers strong access management capabilities can help to simplify the process. Such capabilities should include; providing visibility into user access permissions, implementing granular access control, strengthening security with two-factor authentication, and managing passwords. Additionally, your chosen solution should allow you to monitor and respond to user activity, and generate detailed activity reports that can be delivered to a relevant authorities.
How Lepide Helps with User Entitlement Reviews
The Lepide Data Security Platform uses advanced machine learning techniques to analyze user access patterns across various systems and applications within your organization. By monitoring user activities, our solution helps to identify whether users have appropriate access privileges or if there are any questionable access attempts.
Our solution also provides automated alerts and detailed reports, streamlining the review process and reducing manual effort. Overall, our solution helps organizations mitigate security risks, improve compliance, and ensure that user access privileges align with the principle of least privilege.
If you’d like to see how the Lepide Data Security Platform can help to perform user entitlement reviews, schedule a demo with one of our engineers.