User access management is a practice of controlling the piece of information every team member can access. To manage access or assign new access for users, companies establish identity and access management (IAM) policies. User management includes best practices that must be adopted across the enterprise. They include the following:
Centralising Business Data
Enterprise networks have information such as users, databases, applications, and data traffic flows that can be compromised without an effective IAM implementation. Paying attention to all these moving elements simultaneously and considering identity security take so much of the IT team’s time and resources. But, centralisation makes it possible to view all of this information straight. A great IAM system provides a solution that centralise the view, controls, and authority over the identities of users.
Controlling Access Based on Roles
Role-based access control means permissions given to users are restricted to their roles within the enterprise infrastructure. It permits users to access only to what they need to do their job functions. Also, this approach helps in facilitating identity security, cybersecurity visibility, and business processes. Assigning clearer, delineated roles to users is part of a company’s best access management best practices. With this access management approach, no role must get permissions outside their roles. If temporary permissions are required, they must expire within a set time limit.
Considering the Principle of Least Privilege
In a lot of ways, this IAM approach works like role-based access control. They both work to restrict privileges users get in the IT environment. With the Principle of Least Privilege, employees must only possess the necessary permission to do their jobs. But, unlike role-based access control that concentrates on identity governance, the Principle of Lease Privileges focuses on the granted initial permissions.
Automating the Onboarding Process
An IAM solution lets organisations automate their onboarding process, ensuring employees begin their tasks on the right foot with the right permissions. As a result, the IT department don’t have to worry about onboarding every new employee. Also, onboarding automation shortens the onboarding process from months to just hours.
Detecting and Removing Orphaned Accounts
Proper employee offboarding is important to avoid new identity management issues. As employees leave the company, their accounts must be removed. Unremoved accounts become orphaned accounts that the company may ignore for years until they are used by hackers for bypassing their digital perimeter. Thus, organisations must look for IAM solution that helps in discovering and removing these accounts on their networks.
