User Access Reviews: Essential Security Measure or Time-Consuming Exercise?
Author: @Pathlock
Are User Access Reviews a vital security practice or just a burdensome box-checking task? In theory, they help protect JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle ERP systems from unauthorised activity. A well-documented review process also helps you to provide your auditors with evidence of good access controls. In practice, however, the process is fraught with difficulties, which jeopardises the success of the operation. This is further complicated when you have multiple Oracle ERPs to handle. Further, when poorly executed, access reviews can create significant risks by failing to detect unauthorised or risky access, leading to compliance failures and potential breaches.
What are the Main Pitfalls of User Access Reviews
Inaccurate Review Reports: Complexity Leads to Errors
Typically, review reports are manually compiled by a security administrator or CNC. Due to the complexity of JD Edwards security and the nuances of Oracle ERP security constructs, manual reporting is prone to human error, undermining the review process from the outset.
Manual Report Distribution: Time-consuming and Error-prone
Once the review data is collated, it must be manually sorted and distributed to reviewers. This process is not only labour-intensive but also error-prone, especially if role ownership changes over time.
Unclear Review Data: Role Names Lack Clarity, Causing Delays
Do reviewers truly understand what they are being asked to sign off? Often, role names fail to provide meaningful descriptions of the access they grant. This makes it difficult for reviewers to conduct thorough reviews, increasing the risk of delays and mistakes.
Tracking Progress: Manual Follow-ups Lead to Inefficiency
Without an automated system, tracking which reviewers have or haven’t completed their reviews is challenging. Security administrators spend excessive time managing the process and chasing tardy reviewers, causing delays and potentially harmful audit findings.
Processing Rejections: Missed Actions Increase Risks
Rejected access actions, such as roles needing removal, must be processed promptly. Manual management of these tasks creates a risk of delays or overlooked actions, leaving your system vulnerable.
Auditability Challenges: Disorganized Data Complicates Reporting
To satisfy auditors, reviewed data and actions taken must be collated into a suitable format. When data is returned from multiple sources, creating a comprehensive and coherent report becomes difficult and time-consuming.
How to Avoid These Problems
Automate your User Access Reviews! Automation empowers you to carry out User Access Reviews more accurately, comprehensively, and efficiently, with full documentation and reduced risk of error. Here’s how our purpose-built Access Review solution can help:
- Generate and distribute accurate reports instantly: Eliminate manual collation and sorting.
- Provide business reviewers with clear, actionable insights: Present data in an easily understandable format.
- Record approvals, rejections, and notes directly in your ERP systems: Maintain an audit trail within your ecosystem.
- Automatically expire rejected role assignments: Streamline role management.
- Monitor progress to ensure timely completion: Avoid delays and audit penalties.
- Streamline audit preparation with comprehensive documentation: Simplify compliance reporting.
- Quickly onboard new applications into the review process: Expand your review scope effortlessly.
If you’d like to find out more and see a quick demo, check out our Periodic Review product page.
About Pathlock
Pathlock is a leader in identity and access risk governance and controls automation. Trusted by over 1,400 customers globally, their comprehensive suite of products protect the leading ERP systems, enterprise business applications, and the critical transactions they power. Their application governance solutions help companies enforce GRC controls and take action to prevent loss with complete audit coverage for IT, business, and audit teams. With Pathlock, enterprises can manage all aspects of application governance in a single platform, including user provisioning and temporary elevation, ongoing user access reviews, control testing, transaction monitoring, and audit preparation.
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