User access reviews are periodic evaluations of access rights to ensure they align with users' roles, reducing security risks and helping maintain regulatory compliance. The main goal of user access reviews is to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information, systems, or resources by regularly verifying and adjusting user permissions.
When and where are UARs needed, and what are the key objectives for UAR? How do you implement an effective UAR program? We'll answer these questions in this article, along with providing a step-by-step guide for you to follow to implement UAR. Then, we'll take a look at how Hyperproof can help streamline your UAR processes.
User access reviews are critical in ensuring access to sensitive systems and data is properly managed in an organization. In highly regulated sectors like fintech and healthcare, user access reviews help organizations meet compliance requirements like ISO 27001 and HIPAA. By regularly conducting user access reviews, compliance heroes help prevent unauthorized access to financial systems and protect their organizations from potential data breaches.
User access reviews are vital for preventing insider threats within large enterprises and government agencies. As employees change roles or leave the organization, user access reviews ensure that access rights are promptly adjusted, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access to sensitive data.
For example, during mergers and acquisitions, user access reviews are crucial in determining access across newly formed entities. This ensures that only appropriate personnel have access to critical information.
The rise of cloud services and remote work has also made user access reviews increasingly important. In cloud and SaaS environments, they help manage access to applications and data. This means that only authorized users can access these resources. Additionally, with more employees working remotely, user access reviews are essential for securing corporate data and preventing unauthorized access from various locations and devices.
Industries like energy, manufacturing, defense, and R&D also rely heavily on user access reviews to protect critical infrastructure and sensitive information. In these high-security environments, regular access reviews help prevent disruptions, safety incidents, and unauthorized disclosures. User access reviews are not only a compliance measure, but also a strategic tool for managing risk, safeguarding valuable assets, and ensuring that access controls remain aligned with an organization's security and operational needs.
The primary objectives of user access reviews include:
Creating an effective user access review (UAR) program is essential for organizations aiming to enhance their security posture, ensure compliance, and mitigate risks associated with unauthorized access. Here's how you can establish and maintain a robust UAR program:
Setting up and executing user access reviews in Hyperproof is simple:
Hypersyncs bring organizational information, including employee names, emails, departments, job titles, statuses (active vs. terminated), managers and managers' emails into the platform.
Hyperproof imports records of users with access to that app, automatically matches these records to the employees in the directory, and appends information like job titles and statuses to each record.
You can delegate a set of records to review to colleagues outside the security/compliance team.
Each Reviewer will receive an email that invites them to complete their review in Hyperproof. The Reviewer can only see the items assigned to them and can verify whether each user's access level should be maintained or changed. If a user's access level should be changed, the Reviewer can make a change request to the Sysadmin in Hyperproof.
The Sysadmin can see all change requests, make the changes if necessary in the source application, and then use Hyperproof to attest that the changes have been made.
Once an access review campaign is marked complete, Hyperproof will automatically generate a report that captures the workflow for the reviewed accounts, making demonstrating compliance easy. A compliance manager can even link each access review campaign to controls to make compliance reporting easier.
Stay ahead of potential threats, meet compliance requirements, and free up your teams to focus on more strategic tasks. If you're looking to modernize your access review process please reach out to our team or request a demo for more information.
An effective user access review program is not just a checkbox but a critical part of an organization's overall security and risk management strategy. By following the steps outlined above, you can meet regulatory requirements and protect sensitive data and systems from unauthorized access.
Hyperproof offers a comprehensive and scalable solution for managing user access reviews, making it easier for organizations to stay compliant, reduce risks, and maintain control over user access. By leveraging Hyperproof's User Access Reviews module, you can streamline your UAR processes to stay ahead of your compliance and security demands and get real-time visibility to avoid delays that can leave your systems vulnerable.