The Review Process for Role and Entitlement Owners
One of the most important components of Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems is the regular review of user entitlements. This process is critical for an organization to maintain its security and operational standards. This process, which can be carried out annually, can be broken down into two main steps:
- Managers reviewing the roles and entitlements of the employees on their team.
- Role and entitlement owners evaluating the roles and entitlements they are responsible for and reviewing the users assigned to them.
In this post, we’ll go into detail on the second step: “The Review Process for Role and Entitlement Owners.”
Purpose of the Process
This process requires the active participation of every role and entitlement owner in the organization. Its purpose is to re-evaluate the entitlements and responsibilities of the employees holding roles they own, and to bring them in line with how the organization actually operates.
Even if a manager has already approved it, cases where a user should no longer fall under a given entitlement owner’s responsibility are identified during this process and the necessary actions are taken. This step makes a concrete contribution to security hardening measures.
How the Process Works
Role and entitlement owners can take the following actions during the review:
Removing a user from a role or entitlement, or confirming a user As the first step, the owner reviews the users (employees) assigned to the roles or entitlements they own. In this process, as the role or entitlement owner, this is the person best positioned in the company to judge what the role or entitlement is actually for. The main purpose of this review is to make that judgment and achieve security hardening as a result.
Identifying and removing unused entitlements: If an entitlement is no longer in use, this is reported to the Identity and Access Management team and its removal can be requested, or the owner can report it through a dedicated self-service screen.
Reporting updates to roles: If the content of a role has changed, these changes are communicated to the Identity and Access Management team or updated through a self-service screen. For example, if a role is no longer needed it can be deleted entirely, or the entitlements within it can be updated.
Self-Service and Communication Channels
A self-service screen is used so that role and entitlement owners can easily manage this process. This screen allows requests for entitlement or role changes to be submitted quickly and efficiently. The processes above can be shaped according to the features offered by the access review campaign screens of the IAM product in use. Where certain processes aren’t supported out of the box, service desk applications can also be used to help structure the workflow.
Conclusion
Access review processes are an important step that boosts organizational efficiency while minimizing security risks. Role and entitlement owners acting with awareness of their responsibilities and actively participating in these processes directly impacts the success of Identity and Access Management practices.