What is Access Risk Management?

What is Access Risk Management?

Access Risk Management refers to the process of identifying, evaluating, and mitigating risks associated with user access to systems, applications, and data within the IT infrastructure of an organization. The goal of Access Risk Management is to ensure that users have the right level of access to perform their job functions while minimizing the risk of unauthorized or excessive access. This principle of least privilege is foundational to an Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution that can effectively and efficiently mitigate the threat of security breaches, compliance violations, or operational disruptions.

Key Components of Access Risk Management

Access Controls

This is the process of defining and enforcing policies governing which employees, contractors, partners, vendors, and applications can access which resources and under what conditions. Examples include Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), which enables organizations to assign users to more than one role assigned; and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), a method that makes access control decisions by evaluating various attributes of users, resources, and the current context.

Risk Identification

An Access Risk Management process identifies risks such as segregation of duties (SoD) conflicts, excessive privileges, or unauthorized access. SoD facilitates the division of tasks and responsibilities among multiple individuals to reduce the risk of error, fraud, or malicious activity. The mechanism is designed to ensure that no single individual has control over all aspects of any critical process, such as a user having the ability to both create and approve financial transactions.

Assessment and Analysis

A process for evaluating the impact and likelihood of risks associated with excessive user privileges and unauthorized access. Access Risk Management utilizes specific IGA, User Behavior Analytics (UBA), and Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools to analyze user permissions and detect anomalies.

Access Reviews

To execute effective Access Risk Management, access program managers must conduct periodic audits to validate that access rights align with job responsibilities, such as ensuring that when users no longer need access to the organization’s IT infrastructure or when users’ roles change their access rights are promptly updated.

Access Provisioning and De-provisioning

Access Risk Management manages the entire lifecycle of user, machine, and AI-generated identities within an organization. Identity lifecycle management includes processes and policies to initiate, maintain, and delete user identities securely and efficiently. This ensures effective control over user onboarding (provisioning), changes, and offboarding (de-provisioning).

Mitigation Strategies

Implementing corrective actions like enforcing SoD, limiting excessive permissions, or using multi-factor authentication (MFA).

Monitoring and Reporting

Access Risk Management ensures the continuous monitoring of access activities to detect and respond to unauthorized actions and generates reports to demonstrate regulatory compliance.

The Importance of Access Risk Management in IGA

Access Risk Management within a greater IGA solution provides critical benefits such as:

• Demonstration of Compliance: Helps organizations meet regulatory requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, and ISO 27001.
• Improvement Organization-Wide Security Posture: Reduces the risk of insider threats such as attempts to access unauthorized applications or data and installing unauthorized software, as well as external breaches.
• Ensuring Operational Integrity: Access Risk Management prevents errors and fraud by ensuring proper checks and balances.
• Driving Efficiency: Automates and streamlines access provisioning and reduces time spent on manual audits.

Where to Learn More and Get Help

As a company focused on identity and access governance solutions for over 20 years, Omada has developed and defined Access Management best practices in IdentityPROCESS+. Following IdentityPROCESS+ enables organizations to control the granting of access rights and manage risk while ensuring that they do not violate any security and compliance policies such as SoD. Learn more.