Situations in which access reviews are done manually, and often with faulty results which cause auditors to raise a lot of red flags, are a dime a dozen. You probably have experienced in your business, or somewhere else you have worked frequent access review policy violations, which cause a lot of complications and frustrations with your auditors. Fear not, Cross Identity ARaaS (Access Review as a Service) solves these critical needs.
The Challenge of Manual Access Reviews
Access reviews are vital to organizational security today. For instance, HR systems carry many inputs of highly sensitive data ranging from basics like name and designation to salary details and performance review notes from managers, etc. Likewise, manufacturing companies might have all kinds of other sensitive data like production data and inventory. Corporate mail systems also have information that could get into the wrong hands and wreak havoc. So, all these systems need to have their access rights reviewed periodically, to ensure that only the right people have access to the right kind of apps and information, and at the right time. This is the purpose of access reviews.
A Multifold of Problems
The problem begins with the periodic nature of access reviews. This mandates that an organization can’t have a dedicated access review team, as the staff would not be doing any useful work during non-review periods. What is the default option? Manual access reviews by existing staff at designated intervals. The issue with such a procedure is multifold:
- Accesses are sent as spreadsheets to managers: This is cumbersome and time-consuming.
- Access details are in IT format, with batch numbers, etc. in the code. This is a challenge for managers to make sense of.
- Managers are not trained in access review. It is simply added on to their job descriptions
The result is always the same: managers simply validate all accesses to save time and confusion. But this is a security overhead. Auditors typically find up to 25% of accesses exist when they should not, and this is a result of the rubber-stamping procedure mentioned where managers just approve all existing accesses.
Regulated Industries Experience Even Larger Challenges
These challenges are compounded in highly regulated industries such as Banking and Healthcare, where inappropriate accesses can cause millions of dollars in damages, and reputation means a whole lot. In addition to general laws and guidelines, these industries have specific access review laws that simply cannot be fulfilled with manual access reviews.
Full-suite Solutions are a Poor Answer
Where do businesses typically turn for a solution? Identity and Access Management is the field that deals with Access Reviews, namely IGA (Identity Governance and Administration). But purchasing heavy IGA solutions just for Access Reviews is prohibitive on many levels. First off, needing to purchase a full suite solution just for one feature is a massive overhead. Approvals for new solution license purchases are also another problem as getting signed off by higher-ups is always a painful task, and the cost of full-suite solutions is often high.
A Shining Answer to the Access Review Conundrum
Cross Identity solves all these problems, and more, with its ARaaS offering. Since the offering is s bespoke service, it is purchased through our partners for pennies, and you pay for what you consume, not for an entire license. The solution integrates with our or any other IAM products for your fulfillment needs after accesses are signed for approval or revoking. If you need automatic fulfillment of your access reviews, this can be done just as easily as manual fulfillments. Any IAM suite under the sun can be integrated with!
Conclusion
Access Reviews remain a challenge today and a costly one, particularly for regulated industries. Manual processes are cumbersome and prone to rubber stamping, and purchasing full-suite IAM solutions for this one feature is prohibitive. The solution lies in Cross Identity ARaaS, Access Reviews, and Recertifications offered as a service through our partners, which can be built upon with other of our ‘As a Service’ components and will integrate readily with any solution for the fulfillment process. Check out Cross Identity ARaaS today!
