Access Governance – Managing Access Rights
Access Governance focuses on one essential question: Who had access to which resource at what time, and was that access appropriately approved?
Appropriate Access Assignment with Access Management
- Who has (or had) access to what and when?
- What is the origin of this access right?
- Who approved it?
- How is the appropriateness of this access ensured?
These are questions frequently asked by internal and external auditors. Answering them manually for a single random case can take days of research. With modern IGA systems, such information becomes available instantly at the push of a button.
Compliance is additionally supported through processes such as periodic recertifications and revalidations of external users.
Recertification
Access recertification is a routine review process in which supervisors verify and confirm the appropriateness of a person’s assigned business roles, user accounts, or access permissions.
RBAC and Business Role Models – Why a Role-Based Approach?
When introducing an IAM system, the term business role appears frequently. But what exactly are business roles?
Business roles represent typical job functions within an organization (e.g., Accountant) and consolidate all IT permissions required across systems to perform that job. They:
- Combine all permissions needed for a given function
- Are independent of underlying platforms or applications
- Are automatically synchronized and updated through the IAM system when job changes occur
Benefits of a Role-Based Model
- Consolidating individual permissions into roles creates the standardization required for automated access management
- Reduces administrative effort
- Enables easy implementation of Segregation of Duties (SoD) because distinct activities map to distinct roles
- Improves compliance through better transparency and auditability
- Clear, descriptive role names are ideal for self-service environments
Segregation of Duties (SoD)
A well-defined role model enables effective Segregation of Duties. By defining conflicts of interest, the IAM system prevents the concurrent assignment of incompatible roles—known as toxic combinations.
Example: Employees in accounts receivable must not receive the same access rights as employees in accounts payable to avoid potential conflicts.
Benefits of SoD
- Reduced liability risks through targeted compliance measures
- Supports the principles of Least Privilege and Need-to-Know
- Helps meet various regulatory and compliance requirements
- Contributes significantly to overall IT security
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