The Significance Of Access Governance In Preventing Data Breaches

The cybersecurity landscape is changing rapidly. Cybercrimes are at an all-time high. There has been a great surge in instances of phishing attacks. To steal user credentials used to log in to business applications and VPNs, cybercriminals are engaged in phishing and social engineering, exploiting people's fears about COVID-19.

The credentials used for authentication are, essentially, the network perimeter of an organization. This puts corporations in a challenging situation-they can limit employees' access to these facilities and threaten to have adverse effects on productivity and business continuity, or they can hope that nothing bad will happen. Many choose the latter, and the ramifications are being felt internationally.

Social engineering essentially depends on harnessing powerful emotions to manipulate people to take actions that can harm them. Emotional reactions are relied on by cybercriminals; emotionally charged content is more likely to lead to a successful attack.

The Principle Of Least Privilege

Organizations are encouraged to consider restricting user access to facilities on the basis of the principle of least privilege or the bare minimum access needed to complete a task assignment. The principle of least privilege, in essence, is a strategy that has never been more important to access governance than it is today, especially because organizations rely on staff who work remotely. Essentially, if users have more access than required, they can breach the compliance requirements intended to safeguard the organization inadvertently or deliberately.

Access management is currently mostly characterized by default roles and permissions that have historically been split into classes (power user, administrator, etc.). This categorization of authorization is connected to authentication frameworks such as username/password encryption models that are heavily exploited by cybercriminals by phishing and social engineering. Besides, if a phishing attack compromises the credentials of a user, then cybercriminals can access or obtain as much sensitive data as the role of their victim allows. This is precisely where the least privilege concept comes into the picture.

Limiting data access provides companies with the resources they need to deter significant data breaches, according to the minimum privilege principle. Employees will need access to confidential data, but how do companies secure data that still falls under the least privilege principle?

The Zero Trust Security Model

Zero trust signifies trusting none, presumes a hazard at all access points, and never grants default access. Implementing a zero-trust IT culture guarantees that all devices, users, apps, and data in its ecosystem can be detected by a company. Then the organization should set up appropriate controls that will restrict access where necessary. By enforcing zero-trust identity and access controls, organizations minimize risk by maintaining a consistent stance between who an individual employee is and what they have access to.

Multi-Factor Authentication 

Part of developing an effective model of zero trust requires identifying techniques that enable organizations to apply contextual attributes when access is given. Attribute based access control (ABAC) adapt to various circumstances and ultimately determine how and when users can access information. These features are adopted by Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication (adaptive MFA), which involves additional authentication as users switch through systems or applications. 

With a wide base of remote workers, organizations will want to implement adaptive MFA so that finance or human resources staff may easily authenticate their ERP systems. Adaptive MFA can detect anomalous places or times of service, activate an additional authentication process, and prevent malicious access to the bad actor. Ultimately, adaptive MFA and Zero-trust secure the business, the person with nearly leaked data, and the worker whose credentials have been stolen.

Conclusion

For years, businesses have been attempting to defend themselves from phishing attacks. What they have not done is defend themselves in an age of emotional, social, and physical upheavals. But the recent spike in phishing attacks should not surprise organizations. In the IT world, cybercriminals, whether digital or human, are always on the lookout to take advantage of any loopholes. Through providing the latest identity and access management technology, data security solutions available on the market ensure the data of organizations is safe.