Access Governance is the Cornerstone of GDPR Access Compliance

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has been effective since May 2018, but organizations are still struggling to meet and prove compliance.  According to a new global study, a staggering 70% of employees have unauthorized access to confidential business data and in most organizations, the required data access governance processes for compliance are not implemented. In terms of the GDPR, this lack of governance oversight could have significant ramifications. With Omada, organizations can quickly implement a full-featured Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution to help enforce least privilege and prove GDPR compliance.

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Achieving GDPR Compliance with Omada

Organizations realize that solid data access governance is a vital prerequisite for GDPR compliance. Two GDPR articles highlight where access governance is vital – article 5 and article 24.

Article 5, among other things, states that personal data must be:

• Processed lawfully, fairly, and transparently
• Only collected for specific purposes
• Limited to adequate scope
• Kept up to date and only for the right period
• Processed to ensure security and protection against unlawful or unwanted processing, accidental loss, or damage

Article 24 takes into account the types of data processed, and how the controller must implement appropriate organizational, technical, and other measures to demonstrate compliance.

Not only do organizations need to have efficient and effective data access governance in place, but they also need to be able to clearly demonstrate compliance. Examples of things that organizations have to do in order to be compliant include:

• Ensure that data collected is business-essential, and only kept for the time required
• Assign a Data Protection Office
• Conduct security awareness training
• Document the process for notification of any data breach to authorities and individuals
• Prepare for Privacy by Design and Priv Eacy by Default requirements
• Prepare for Privacy Impact Assessment requirements
• Review and update Data Processor agreements

The Future-proof Solution for GDPR Compliance

Omada’s approach allows our customers to be up and running within 12 weeks, supporting a fast track to get in control of data and demonstrate compliance with easy-to-use, easy-to-manage processes and dashboards.

The Omada Compliance Dashboard

At the heart of the solution is an interactive Compliance Dashboard, that provides a complete overview of all systems that contain critical data, with actionable workflow-based remediation functions. Built-in analysis and reporting features deliver identity intelligence and provide an overview of ‘who has access to what’, ‘who approved that access,’ and for what reason.

The Compliance Dashboard renders compelling insights about systems and protected data, indicating the compliance level for each application and system. It provides a high-level overview with approvals indicators and the ability to drill down into detailed access data. With a single click, it is possible to instantly execute remediation activities for critical findings. Teams also save huge amounts of time that otherwise would be spent manually pulling data and reports from disparate systems, with Omada’s centralized dashboard.

A Solution Delivering a Step-by-Step Approach to Access Compliance

The Omada solution provides a well-proven step-by-step approach to get you in control of the data that your enterprise collects.

Initial Preparation

The essential first step is to identify where privacy data is stored, and locate all internal and external repositories and data stores containing relevant data. These systems are then tagged as containing GDPR-sensitive data for continuous monitoring.

Data Import and Data Matching

An organization’s HR system tends to contain critical identity data across the business. The Omada solution imports this data, making it visible in our user-friendly Compliance Dashboard, providing a fast overview of the actual state of identities and their access across the business, immediately highlighting access risks and providing reports for auditing and stakeholder purposes. This identity data is automatically matched with access data from multiple systems such as ERP software, directory services like Azure Active Directory, and more. Account ownership is also established and determined in this step, as well as surfacing unowned, or orphaned accounts to be assigned or deleted.

Initial Access Compliance Overview

Access risks and toxic combinations of access rights are highlighted in the Compliance Dashboard, as the data is automatically compared with built-in best practice access rules and policies and any company policies added. When the policies are applied to the data, inconsistencies and critical observation points are automatically highlighted. Non-compliant access is identified and removed. Rich reporting capabilities support both audit and business requirements, and processes are established to minimize the time spent proving compliance.

Validation of Account Ownership

Orphaned or unowned accounts identified in step two are automatically sent to the assumed owners for confirmation. Accounts that cannot be confirmed are seamlessly deprovisioned or deleted, all while continuously monitored from the Compliance Dashboard.

Access Review and Certification

Certification of access verifies that users only have the access they need and when they are entitled to the access. This eliminates non-compliant and excess access and enhances the overall security of the organization. In this step, managers review and attest to employee access rights across GDPR-sensitive applications, and then follow this with automated or manual removal of excess and non-compliant access.

Validation

The compliance status is validated and can be monitored in the Compliance Dashboard. Data is continually imported into the Omada solution to validate that all required actions such as deprovisioning of non-compliant access have been taken, and companies can drill directly into the details from this dashboard to understand compliance in depth.

Continuous Compliance, Governance and Overview

The Compliance Dashboard provides a continuous overview, insights into access rights for all identities, including third-party contractors, and auditable access control, allowing enterprises to confirm and certify GDPR compliance. The solution provides full-featured identity management and access governance functionalities to provide 360-degree access visibility across your hybrid IT environments for all identities.

Meeting the vast requirements of GDPR takes a top-down, organizational approach, and no one tool alone can help an organization check all of the boxes that auditors have. However, by implementing modern identity governance, organizations can stay out of the headlines, avoid fines, and improve security by having stringent rules around who has access to what types of data, documenting access rights throughout the organization, and creating a strong culture of cybersecurity and adherence to compliance mandates. In this solution brief, you’ll see how Omada, the leader in modern identity governance, helps customers achieve all of this and more.