When it comes to data access, there’s no good reason for everyone in your business to have access to all the files. There’s just too many risks involved, and you’re not about to make risk management the central part of your job duties. Therefore, it makes sense to limit who has access to what data based on their user role.
How Insider Threats Work
We know you want to trust the folks you hired, but it’s not just a matter of trust.
You handpicked your employees because they have potential and the skills required to do the job. However, we are all human; even good employees do bad things when put in difficult or unfamiliar situations. If one of your hires puts your data at risk, even unintentionally, they could be considered an insider threat to your business.
An insider threat is not always someone purposely stealing data from you—in fact, it could be something as simple as accidental deletion—and there’s only one rock-solid way to protect data from them: user permissions and access control.
The Importance of Managing User Permissions
Don’t just listen to us! Listen to the professionals at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), who recommend user permissions control as a best practice.
The practice in question is the Principle of Least Privilege.
How the Principle of Least Privilege Works
It might seem strict, but the Principle of Least Privilege is a solid way to protect your data.
In short, your employees should only have access to data they need to do their job and nothing more. Everything is shared on a “need-to-know” basis. For example, if your accounting team needed access to anything related to payroll, they would first have to go through human resources.
Access is given, then taken away after it’s no longer needed.
The rule exists for everyone, including management, outside vendors, and C-suite employees. No exceptions. Otherwise, you might run into these situations:
- Someone with too much access could accidentally leak important information because they didn’t know about proper cybersecurity.
- A dishonest employee could use their extra access to benefit themselves.
- Hackers might do more damage if they get into an account with too much access.
How to Implement the Principle of Least Privilege
Your business needs a role-based access control system, which is what grants or restricts access based on job duties and responsibilities.
With this system, you will have full control over who can access what at any time. Be sure to check and update everyone’s permissions regularly. You can always remove permissions as they become unnecessary.
Does this sound like a lot to handle? COMPANYNANE can help you implement it. To learn more, call us at (610) 683-6883 today.