Human mistake is at the root of many cyberattacks and data breaches. Automated processes that follow strong account lifecycle management best practices prevent rogue contractors, disgruntled employees, and adversaries from exploiting dormant or stale user privileges.
ILM processes ensure user accounts are properly onboarded, updated as their roles change and terminated when employment ends. These processes also help to avoid the accumulation of unnecessary privileges through periodic review and monitoring.
Creation
A powerful policy engine is a hallmark of identity lifecycle management (ILM) solutions. This allows centralized, automated control of resource access that helps companies mitigate risk while providing high productivity for end users.
Reduce user access complexity with automated provisioning, de-provisioning, centralized monitoring, and entitlement verification. This ensures that only authorized users have access and access credentials are properly terminated when employees leave the organization.
When new employees join a business, they must be able to begin using apps and IT systems immediately.
A user account lifecycle management solution streamlines and automates manually intensive and error-prone provisioning processes, allowing new hires to get work done quickly. You can browse https://tools4ever.com to learn more about its purpose. The solution also automatically reviews and updates accounts to prevent privilege creep, mitigating security risks and freeing IT teams to focus on more pressing priorities. These include integrating with HR and directory services to onboard employees seamlessly and constantly monitoring systems to withdraw access when an employee no longer needs it.
Review & Update
Whether human or nonhuman, the level of access privilege granted should always follow the principle of least privilege. Too often, bulk approvals for access requests, frequent changes in roles and departments, and the lack of proper review processes lead to excessive entitlements, magnifying risk throughout the enterprise.
With so many cyberattacks and data breaches resulting from user error, a key role of identity governance is constantly monitoring systems to withdraw services and resources no longer needed by users. For this reason, accurate account provisioning and on-demand reporting are critical aspects of effective ULM methods.
Deactivation
As users exit the organization, their accounts need to be deactivated. Without a strong identity governance system, a former employee’s login credentials may continue to reside in applications and be used for data breaches. An IAM solution will help you quickly de-provision accounts in a single action, helping to reduce risk.
Reviewing and updating accounts is cyclical, and getting ahead of the curve can take time. Theoretically, by the time you finish one round of reviews and updates, 20% of all user accounts must begin their cycle again.
Identity governance solutions automate these processes and provide tools to manage and track updates. They can also certify ongoing access, support segregation of duty policies, and rework account information across disparate directories and databases. They can even free up staff time by providing self-service portals that allow employees to update their accounts without needing to call a help desk. And they can deliver centralized monitoring and reporting capabilities that reduce time to evaluate and respond to security incidents and compliance audits.
Monitoring
Identifying user account management best practices and encouraging adoption across the organization helps to protect against insider threats, the primary cause of data breaches. Educating employees about security standards and data management is important to avoid risky actions with privileged credentials.
Identity governance solutions help IT teams quickly detect and respond to risks, using centralized visibility to pinpoint potential issues. This includes identifying risky employee populations, policy violations and inappropriate access privileges that put the business at risk.
An integrated identity governance solution can also automate the provisioning of roles and access rights, enabling businesses to reduce costs and improve productivity. It can be configured to automatically withdraw services and resources that are no longer needed by an employee, minimizing the risk of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. It can also provide detailed records of access to sensitive data to support compliance with regulatory requirements. Lastly, it can be configured to enable safer remote and hybrid work by allowing employees to work on their preferred devices from anywhere.
