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Did you streamline your organization’s access review process, or is everyone just given access to everything? Without a clear process, you could be exposing your organization to security risks.
Security risks increase without a proper process to ensure that only authorized users can access specific apps and systems. According to statistics, 80% of cyberattacks exploit identity-based methods to access security systems.
Manual access reviews are often challenging, leading to delays and errors. That's where CloudEagle.ai comes in. With its automated access review features, you can save time, reduce errors, and ensure audit readiness. It helps identify risks like unused permissions or excessive access, keeping your organization secure and compliant with minimal effort.
Let’s see how to use CloudEagle.ai to simplify audits and stay compliant.
TL;DR
- App access reviews ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive applications, reducing security risks and ensuring compliance with regulations.
- CloudEagle.ai simplifies access reviews with real-time dashboards, easy integration, and automated risk detection and audit reports.
- The platform automates user data gathering, review schedules, and access approvals, creating compliance-ready reports after each review.
- CloudEagle.ai addresses common challenges like manual tracking and unused permissions through automation and seamless integration.
- By automating the access review process, CloudEagle.ai minimizes errors and helps you stay audit-ready, saving time and ensuring security.
What is app access review?
App access review involves evaluating who has access to your organization's apps and systems to ensure it aligns with their role or job requirements. This process helps maintain security and prevents unauthorized access.
For example, you can set different app access levels in your organization, like admin, user, or guest. If a regular user is given admin access by mistake, they could have control over sensitive data or settings.
The main goal of these reviews is to stop issues like outdated permissions, unauthorized users, or unnecessary access. Automating regular reviews helps reduce security risks, keep your organization secure, and stay compliant with rules.
Why do you need an app access review process in place?
With an app access review audit, you can keep your organization secure and running smoothly.
Here’s why you need it:
1. Prevent unauthorized access: Employees change roles or leave, and without regular reviews, outdated access can slip through the cracks. This could lead to security risks, like data breaches.
Know this inspiring story of how a customer got complete SaaS visibility with CloudEagle.ai.
2. Enhance security: Audits help spot users with too many permissions, like unnecessary admin access. Limiting access to just what’s needed reduces the risk of sensitive data getting exposed.
3. Stay compliant: Industries like healthcare and finance have strict regulations (ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA, etc.). Regular reviews show you’re following the rules and avoiding penalties.
4. Streamline access management: Audits uncover unnecessary or overlapping permissions, making it easier for your IT team to manage access and keep things organized.
Features of CloudEagle.ai that simplify app access reviews
Managing app access reviews can be time-consuming, but with the right, you can do it faster and securely.
1. Centralized access dashboards: With real-time dashboards, you can easily see who has access to what apps. This makes it simple to spot any issues and quickly fix them.
Learn how Heath Ceramics' IT and Finance teams got 100% SaaS visibility using CloudEagle.ai.
2. Integration capabilities: CloudEagle.ai integrates with over 500 apps including your existing systems, bringing user data into one platform. This makes managing app access across your organization much more efficient.
3. Role and permission mapping: CloudEagle.ai links users to their roles and permissions, so they only have access to what they need. This keeps your organization secure by preventing unnecessary access to sensitive information.
4. Risk and anomaly detection: The tool automatically spots unusual access patterns, like excessive permissions or unauthorized attempts. It flags these issues to help you prevent security risks.
5. Audit-ready reports: CloudEagle.ai generates detailed logs of access and permission changes, making it easy to stay compliant. These reports are ready for audits, saving you time and stress.
6. Automated review scheduling: Set up automatic reminders for app access reviews so you never forget. This ensures reviews happen on time without you having to manually track them.
7. Configuring automated workflows: CloudEagle.ai automates the scheduling and execution of access reviews, ensuring they happen on time. This reduces manual tracking and saves your team valuable time.
Alice Park at Remediant shares her experience in this testimonial, explaining how CloudEagle.ai’s auto-provisioning and deprovisioning workflows helped streamline employee onboarding and offboarding.
How CloudEagle.ai simplifies the access review process?
CloudEagle.ai simplifies the process of conducting access reviews for your SaaS applications by automatically gathering user data, including licenses and roles, from hundreds of integrated applications.
Here’s how:
Step 1: Go to the “Access Review” module
Log in to CloudEagle.ai and navigate to the access review section. Click on "Start Access Review."
Step 2: Initiate access reviews
You can initiate an access review immediately or schedule it for a later date. Reviews can also be set to run regularly, with multiple applications reviewed at once. You can review several applications at the same time, making the process more efficient. This is especially useful when you need to evaluate access to multiple tools in one go.
This feature is particularly valuable when you need to review all applications used by a particular department at once. For example, you can quickly review all Sales applications across your organization, helping to ensure that access aligns with team needs and security requirements.
After scheduling the review, select the application for which you want to run the access review.
You can assign different reviewers to each application when reviewing multiple apps. This ensures the right person checks the right application.
By typing "Application Admin," you can easily choose the application admin as the reviewer, making sure the person in charge of the app handles the review.
This approach streamlines the review process, making it faster and more organized while ensuring everything is checked properly.
Step 3: Review user access
Once the review starts:
Choose the application you want to review.
Go through each user’s access and decide if they should keep their current access level. You can accept or reject users based on their access needs.
Step 4: Manage rejected users
Rejected users are moved to the "Rejected" tab. Access the "Rejected" tab to see users who have been denied access.
From the "Rejected" tab, move users to deprovisioning directly within CloudEagle.ai.
Click on the Confirm button to finalize the deprovisioning process.
Attach evidence (Optional): If deprovisioning externally, attach evidence for audit purposes. You can deprovision users directly within CloudEagle.ai using its integrations. If deprovisioning happens externally, you can mark users as "Deprovisioned" and attach evidence for confirmation.
Step 5: Generate access review report
After completing the review, click the "Generate Report" button to create a summary of the access review. The report will include a summary of the review, a detailed audit of each user's access, decisions made (whether users were accepted or rejected), deprovisioning status, and any supporting evidence or notes.
Challenges in managing app access reviews
Managing app access reviews can be difficult due to several key challenges. Here are some of the most common obstacles organizations face:
1. Manual access tracking: Tracking user access and permissions manually is time-consuming and prone to errors. Critical access changes can be missed without automation, leading to security risks.
2. Excessive or unused permissions: Excessive or unused permissions across applications can be difficult to identify, increasing the risk of unauthorized access and wasted resources.
3. Inefficient audit processes: Audit processes can be slow and labor-intensive, especially when collecting data from multiple systems. The lack of streamlined reporting makes it harder to stay compliant and meet audit requirements on time.
4. Risk of non-compliance: Failure to conduct regular access reviews or missing deadlines can result in non-compliance with security policies or regulations, exposing the organization to potential fines or security breaches.
5. Lack of centralized visibility: With users accessing multiple apps across various platforms, gaining a comprehensive view of who has access to what can be challenging, leading to fragmented and inefficient access management.
To understand the impact of managing app access in your organization, hear what RoundTable Technology’s 3CPO, Joshua Peskay said about Shadow IT risks, unsanctioned apps, and tips for optimizing your organization’s resources.
Conclusion
CloudEagle.ai’s access review process makes it easy to track and manage user access. By following the above-mentioned steps, you can conduct comprehensive access reviews, remove unnecessary access, and streamline your IT asset management.
With CloudEagle.ai, access reviews are completed on time and accurately, keeping your organization audit-ready. The platform also generates compliance-ready reports, making audits easier. The tool helps streamline access reviews, saving time and ensuring security.
Are you ready to make app access reviews easier?
Schedule a demo with CloudEagle.ai to boost your organization’s compliance and security.
