Mastering User Access Control: How to Safeguard Your Organisation from Security Breaches
Mastering User Access Control: How to Safeguard Your Organisation from Security Breaches
Introduction
In 2024, Comcast Xfinity faced a major security breach due to poor user access control management. By using credential-stuffing techniques, the attackers took advantage of the reused passwords from other platforms and exposed the sensitive and transactional data of 35 million customers. This breach led to two class-action lawsuits, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational damage for Comcast Xfinity.
According to Cybersecurity Dive (2024), incidents like these occur even today due to insufficient access controls, which is the leading cause of recurring data breaches. Amidst the growing cyber threats, clients and customers expect organisations to maintain robust security measures, such as user access control (UAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA), to ensure secure and trustworthy services. Specifically, user access control is essential for maintaining an organisation’s data security, preventing unauthorised access, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
This blog dissects the strategies for mastering user access control by covering the following information:
- Overview of UAC
- Functionalities
- Significance
- Different variants of UAC
- Implementation techniques
- Best practices
- Effective tools and technologies
The primary step in mastering UAC is understanding user access control (UAC). Below is an overview of UAC and its kinds.
User Access Control: A Brief Overview
User Access Control (UAC) is a security feature that protects the operating system of the organisations by managing access based on permissions, roles, and privileges. A built-in notification system in UAC alerts users whenever system changes occur. This allows the user to approve or deny permission to make modifications that may compromise the computer’s stability and security.
UAC restricts administrative privileges upon initiating changes, thereby limiting access to tasks like software installation and critical system settings to only authorised individuals. This feature helps to mitigate the risk of malware gaining elevated privileges.
There are two kinds of user access control that organisations are expected to implement in order to ensure two-tier security such as physical access control and digital access control.
Physical access control:
Physical access control refers to any mechanism that secures tangible resources to ensure double protection beyond the digital realm. This can include biometric scanners, security guards, and electronic access systems. This system enhances security for sensitive areas such as hospitals, government offices, and corporate spaces by avoiding theft and vandalism.
Proxy metric access control, biometric access control, card-based, and keypad access controls are some of the prevalently known physical access control types. Physical access control can be expanded without any extensive change in infrastructure. Unlike digital access control, physical access control allows for expansion without requiring extensive infrastructure changes.
Digital access control:
Digital access control is a technology-driven solution that ensures that resources and data in the digital realm are safeguarded through sophisticated mechanisms by restricting access to unauthorised users and managing permissions.
By integrating with IoT, access control methods, and authorisation methods, digital access control gatekeeps the system with groundbreaking technology that also showcases who, when, and how the data has been used and what has changed. For example, it maintains logs of who accessed what areas and when aiding in accountability and security audits.
How User Access Control Works:
Access control is the foundation of modern cybersecurity, ensuring that only authorised individuals can access specific systems, data, or resources. It operates by validating identities and enforcing permissions based on predetermined policies, creating a structured approach to safeguarding sensitive information. By integrating a combination of authentication, authorisation, and monitoring mechanisms, access control mitigates risks associated with unauthorised access, insider threats, and data breaches. This section delves into the principles and processes underpinning access control, illustrating how it serves as a vital line of defence in securing organisational assets.
User access control serves as an essential framework for data security in an organisation. Based on certain predefined policies, UAC operates by verifying identities and granting permissions to access sensitive data and resources. It combines processes of authentication, authorisation, and monitoring.
It is essential for organisations to understand the step-by-step process of how UAC works in order to appreciate the security of its functionalities. Before implementing UAC software, organisations are expected to set up certain policies and protocols to program the access permissions.
1. Access policies:
Organisations must adjust their access policies based on users’ privileges. These policies define authentication and authorisation processes and vary depending on security levels, compliance requirements, and organisational needs.
2. Protocols:
After deciding on the access policies, it is mandatory to work on the protocols to activate the policies of security. Several protocols facilitate user access control, enhancing both interoperability and security:
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP): A protocol used for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an IP network. It manages user credentials and permissions through a centralised directory.
Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML): An XML-based standard that enables the secure exchange of authentication and authorisation data between an identity provider (IdP) and a service provider (SP). SAML supports Single Sign-On (SSO), allowing users to authenticate once and access multiple applications without re-entering credentials.
3. Authentication:
With the list of access policies and protocols, UAC proceeds to authenticate the access process. Authentication is the process of verifying a user’s identity to authenticate their access. This process initiates the security system to verify the identification of the users. Common methods of authentication include:
- Biometric authentication
- Username and password
- Token-based authentication, such as an identity card
4. Authorisation:
UAC uses access policies to determine which data and devices a user can access based on their defined roles and permissions. After authentication, authorisation grants the verified user permission to access certain resources, depending on factors like department, location, or clearance level. This process prevents unauthorised users from accessing sensitive data, simulttanisiously streamlining workflow.
Companies typically consider the following types of authorisation for secured IT infrastructure:
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)
- Rule-Based Access Control
5. Monitoring access:
Monitoring successful and unsuccessful access helps the organisation to analyse and track potential threats and suspicious behaviour that could compromise the safety of security audits and other data. By instantly responding to these incidents, organisations could escape far more complicated security breaches.
By meticulously following all of these processes, User access control secures the organisation’s data and physical spaces. In addition to securing data, UAC offers other benefits that are paramount to the organisation’s systems.
The Need for User Access Control in Your Organisation:
Data protection:
UAC’s core responsibility is safeguarding data by controlling access. Unauthorised users cannot edit, comment, manipulate, or view any data.
By restricting access, the organisation escapes the risk of exposure to potential breaches by malicious insiders and attackers.
By adopting the principle of least privilege [PoLP], which refers to granting limited users access to perform their necessary tasks, organisations can avoid granting too many permits to unapproved users.
Compliance with regulations:
Many industries are subject to stringent regulatory requirements regarding data protection, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Failure to adhere to these regulations can result in severe penalties.
User Access Control (UAC) plays a crucial role in ensuring compliance by enforcing policies that restrict access based on user roles and responsibilities.
Effortless integration:
UAC ensures security and operational efficiency by integrating the organisation’s control mechanisms with existing IT infrastructure, applications, and services. For instance, by integrating SSO [single sign-on] solutions, organisations that adopted UAC can allow multiple systems to be accessed by a single set of credentials.
UAC simplifies the integration process by unifying systems using robust security mechanisms, thereby allowing organisations to detect malicious and unusual activities in real time.
Enhancing operational efficiency:
User access control enables operational efficiency through the following services:
Streamlined security management:
Centralised UAC enables administrators to grant, revoke, and manage access remotely, eliminating the need for manual intervention and saving valuable time. This allows the organisation to experience robust security while ensuring streamlined operations.
Scalable access management:
UAC is designed to scale as the business grows. It can seamlessly accommodate new networks, systems, devices, and users without requiring a complete system redesign, allowing businesses to expand without compromising operational excellence.
Reduced IT support load:
UAC prevents users from raising issues like forgotten passwords or improper access. By automating access control and providing self-service options for users to reset passwords or request access, IT teams can focus on more critical tasks.
Types of User Access Control
1. Discretionary Access Control (DAC):
- DAC is a decentralised access control model that allows only owners to grant or revoke access permissions.
- This model allows for user discretion, making it the most flexible type of access control.
- For instance, in Google Docs, the user can permit access to anyone by granting them permission to edit, view, or comment on the document.
2. Mandatory Access Control (MAC):
- MAC, a highly rigid access control model, enables the centralised authorities of the organisation to determine access rights based on the predefined security policies in the mandatory access Control model [MAC].
- Due to its high level of security, this model can be used in government and defence environments. While it offers robust protection, it tends to be less flexible compared to other models.
3. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):
- As the name suggests, the RBAC model grants access permissions to users based on their roles and positions within an organisation.
- Each role predefines access rights, enabling users to access only the resources essential for their specific job responsibilities.
- For example, consider a scenario where the manager distributes a folder containing crucial information to the team members. He/she can restrict access to the members as to who can edit, view, or comment on the document based on their positions.
4. Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC):
- Attribute-based access control (ABAC) uses the attributes (characteristics) of users, resources, and the environment to make access decisions. This model allows for more granular control compared to RBAC and DAC.
- This model is highly flexible and context-aware. For instance, granting access to cloud resources according to user location, device security, and project requirements.
Key Strategies to Implement User Access Control to Safeguard Your Organisation:
Securing user management:
Creating, assigning, and managing accounts for users entering or exiting the organisation’s network is the primary step in implementing user access control. This process involves building and managing user accounts, ensuring strong authentications, implementing password policies, and protecting user data.
- Registering and creating accounts: Use secure and encrypted platforms to recreate and register accounts while securing connections through HTTPS and SSL certificates.
- Deactivating accounts: When setting up a user access control system, it’s wise to program it to deactivate inactive accounts (orphaned accounts) or those belonging to users who have left the organisation. This prevents the system from storing unnecessary data, thereby optimising storage and enhancing scalability.
- New accounts: When registering new accounts, the organisation should build a secure verification process that includes email, phone number, or a third-party identification provider to analyse the user’s credibility.
Adopt the principle of least privilege (PoLP):
By embracing the principle of least privilege (PoLP), organisations can avoid the initial step of data leakage, i.e., granting access to many users. PoLP advises the system owner to grant minimal access, thus preventing data breaches and leaks.
Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA):
By instigating multi-factor authentication, the owner can ensure that the resource can be accessed only after two or more verification processes. Some of the methods could be official passwords, OTP codes, fingerprints, etc. This process ensures that even if one layer of verification, like a password, is compromised, other verifications guard the resource.
Connect access rights to users:
Granting predefined access to the right user for the right function and for a limited period reduces the need to update the access rights regularly, ultimately leading to a streamlined process, reducing delays in granting permission, and optimising time management.
Use Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions:
Implementing Identity and Access Management (IAM) is crucial for effective user access control. By centralizing identity and access management, IAM provides administrators with a clear record of changes and permissions related to organizational resources. This ensures that only authorized individuals have the correct access rights.
Through audit trails, IAM helps organisations maintain detailed logs to monitor user activities, supporting compliance efforts and detecting unauthorised access attempts. Additionally, IAM streamlines access control, automates user lifecycle management and integrates policies consistently across systems.
Best Practices for Ensuring User Access Control:
Conduct regular audits:
Although updating access rights may be time-consuming, it is essential to perform regular audits of user access rights and permissions. These audits should thoroughly evaluate who has access to which resources and verify that permissions align with current job responsibilities.
Zero-trust architecture:
Adopting zero-trust architecture refers to a policy that does not encourage permission to access any data or resource on the basis of trust. Mandatory verification of identity through a stringent process of authentication is focused on hindering any sort of malicious user. Implementing zero trust policy demands continuous monitoring and validation of user rights and authentication. This architecture promotes the organisation to build a system where no user, network, or device is reliable in the face of security , thus ensuring robust defense for the organisation.
Educate employees:
Well-informed employees are invaluable assets to any organization. In today’s threat-laden cyber environment, training employees to stay updated on current trends and practices in user access control is essential. This proactive approach helps protect the organisation from critical threats such as phishing attacks and improper password management.
Following are the key areas where employees should be educated and trained to efficiently guard the organisation:
- Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP)
- Strong Password Practices
- Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Recognising Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks
- Role-Based Access and Permissions Management
- Security Protocols for Access Requests and Changes
- Understanding the Zero-Trust Security Model
- Data Sensitivity and Compliance
- Incident Reporting
After familiarising employees with critical areas to follow and update, organisations are obligated to install and adapt necessary technologies and tools to complete the process of securing and upgrading the business.
Tools and Technologies for Effective User Access Control
Cloud access security broker [CASBs]: A cloud access security broker is a security mechanism that restricts other users in the cloud network from accessing the specific organisation’s data without permission, according to the organisation’s policies.
Biometric scanners: According to Orion Journals, using biometric scanners in both physical and digital spaces has significantly reduced unauthorised access to sensitive data, enhanced overall security, and ensured that only authorised individuals can gain entry.
Secure VPNs: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are essential for secure access to organisational resources from anywhere. These networks encrypt internet connections where data can be transmitted from the users to the network remains confidential.
Single sign-on solutions: SSO solutions permit users to go through a stringent authentication process once and grant access to multiple systems without needing to log in repeatedly. One of the examples could be the Google Identity Platform.
Privileged access management solution: As per the name of the solution, the privileges of the individual enable the user to access sensitive information and critical spaces.
Access control list: An access control list typically defines ‘who has access to what’ based on the level of security, the position of the individual, and under what circumstances. Adopting this technique clearly draws a layout on the permissions so that access control can be more defined to the admins and users.
Federal identity management: Federal identity management is capable of authenticating users to access data across different organisations and services without needing separate login credentials.
Emerging Trends in User Access Control
It is a non-negotiable fact that if an organisation compromises on upgrading its systems, then it’s likely to lose its customers due to outdated services and security. Not staying updated with the upcoming trends could lead to serious issues such as the following:
- Data breach due to outdated access control
- Operational inefficiencies
- Loss of trust and reputation
- Insider threat
- Inability to scale or adapt
Therefore, keeping the organisation informed will prevent customer loss and add value to the organisation. Listed below are the emerging trends in user access control that, if used efficiently, could transform your business.
All-in-one access control devices:
The most convenient is all in one access control devices. It simplifies the process of security management by integrating multiple access technologies like RFID, keypads and biometrics into a unified solution. Thus reducing complexity and promoting convenient usage from the user’s end while maintaining high security standards.
Building automation with AI:
Implementing AI technology is one of the most often highly advised and sought-after trends for adapting to a futuristic outlook. AI-driven automation streamlines the process of identifying and analysing the usage patterns, recognising anomalies, and scheduling responses. By automating security processes through AI-driven technology, businesses could avoid manual intervention, operation inefficiency, and cost overruns.
Adopting hybrid cloud:
As cloud systems are well known for their ability to scale systems, hybrid cloud technology collaborates on-premises and cloud-based access control to manage control over proprietary data while offering flexibility, reliability, and adaptable security.
Touchless access control technology:
One of the most appealing trends and expectations among customers is ensuring user-friendly and futuristic services through contactless technologies. Facial recognition, iris scanning, phone credentials, and voice recognition are some of the touchless technologies. These technologies prove beneficial in high-traffic networks, as they ensure security and offer innovative features.
User Access Control Through SecureEnds:
SecurEnds provides companies with a tool to automate user access control across cloud and on-premises applications that adhere to regulatory requirements.
SecurEnds also provides user access review, which is paramount in control activities that require internal and external security audits.
SecurEnds automates the provisioning and de-provisioning of user access across various platforms, including major cloud services like AWS, ensuring robust user access review for AWS and other environments.
Conclusion:
With many organisations reporting that past employees still have access to sensitive data, the risk of external threats is higher than ever. Securing data with advanced technology like User Access Control (UAC) has become essential.
Training employees to master UAC is a strategic investment that enhances business operations digitally, financially, socially, and operationally. Effective UAC minimises the risks of breaches, insider threats, and data leaks.
With SecurEnds’ robust security measures, preventing unauthorised access not only improves compliance but also strengthens an organisation’s reputation. It ensures data accuracy, which are key factors for sustained growth and high performance.
