Why access rights may be your biggest problem for data security in the enterprise

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.appstechnews.com/news/2015/oct/15/why-access-rights-may-be-your-biggest-problem-data-security-enterprise/

While there are many factors that can contribute to the success of an
organisation, a huge threat to its health can be security risks. A security
issue can often affect an enterprise more than even a period of low sales
or decreasing growth rate.

The fact is, though, organisations tend to not focus on security measures
until a breach or a significant hack takes place and by then it is too
late. Hackers can steal company or customer data, which can have a big
influence on profits and the image of the company. The organisation then
needs to do major damage control to fix the issue, and will spend more on
fixing the issue than they would have if they has put security measures in
place from the start.

Of course, we are all aware of the major security breaches of large
multinational companies, such as at Target and Sony. Both were breaches of
customer data, costing each firm millions of dollars and a slew of negative
publicity. Though your enterprise may not be affected on such a large
scale, even smaller breaches can cost the organisation a great deal of
money and negativity.

Security breaches can happen in several different ways. The most obvious is
a breach from the outside where a hacker gains access to the organisation’s
network. This can also happen from internal employees, though, which is why
it is important for organisations to have proper security and access
management measures in place.

Common issues that lead to security breaches

So what are some of the common security issues that often lead to breaches
for enterprises?

First off, employees can gain too many access rights accidentally from the
beginning when their account is created, or they can accumulate access
rights over time.

For example, they may be provided access for a certain project and it is
never revoked. This is extremely common for a contractor or temporary
employee who needs access to only a limited amount of resources, and is
only going to be working with the organisation for a limited amount of
time. Additionally, one of the most common security issues is an
ex-employee left active on the company network when they are no longer with
the organisation.

Of course, many enterprise organisations often do not focus on internal
security as much as other potential areas of growth for their company. The
best way to ensure that security issues do not have a huge impact on your
organisation is to put measures in place to secure against several weak
points.

Preventing security issues

Many identity and access management (IAM) solutions allow for automated
account management, which simplifies the process and ensures that all
access is correct, to help prevent against a security breach. This makes
the task of granting and removing access simple, ensuring that it is done
correctly.

A role-based access control (RBAC) matrix can also aid in ensuring correct
rights are assigned to individuals going forward. The organisation draws up
an authorisation matrix, recording in detail which systems/applications and
rights within applications a specific employee type should have. Then when
an employee is hired he or she is entered into the HR system, and with user
provisioning, a functionality of an identity management system, a network
account is created automatically for that employee.

The identity management software reads the authorization matrix for this,
and knows exactly which authorisations must be assigned to the account.
RBAC ensures that employees are given the correct rights from the beginning
and don’t receive too many rights. This also allows the organisation to
easily generate a report of access rights to have a clear overview of
everyone’s rights in the company. They can then correct any errors for
existing employee's access rights based on the norm.

IAM solutions can also ensure that access is revoked for employees no long
with the enterprise. As an example, it is ensured that a contractor or
ex-employee that leaves the organisation can no longer access any
resources. A manager can easily disable access from one place in employee’s
profile in the source system, and all access is immediately revoked.

Security issues are probably the biggest threat to enterprise organisation.
This is why they should place as much energy on ensuring security as they
do on profits and growth. By ensuring that the proper security measures are
in place, organisational leaders can rest assured that a security breach
will not be a huge detriment to the enterprise.

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