How to Enhance Access Management with CloudEagle.ai?

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Are you struggling to manage who has access to your business software?

With so many tools in use, it can be tough to keep track of who should have access to what. In fact, reports show that 63% of IT decision-makers admit their organization’s high-sensitivity access isn’t properly secured.

That’s where CloudEagle.ai, a SaaS management and procurement platform with advanced access management capabilities, comes in.

It simplifies access management and ensures security, giving you more control over who can access your apps. The tool allows you to manage permissions for all your software, making sure only the right people have the access they need.

The platform is easy to use, automating key tasks like access reviews and usage tracking. Now, let’s take a closer look at how CloudEagle.ai makes your access management a breeze.

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TL;DR

• CloudEagle.ai automates app access management by setting up accounts and granting app access. This reduces mistakes like incorrect permissions and enhances security.
  

• The tool ensures only the right people can access sensitive data and systems, reducing the risk of hackers or unauthorized access, keeping your company’s information secure.
  

• CloudEagle.ai makes sure each employee gets access to the apps and data they need for their job, no more, no less. This keeps things organized and reduces security risks.
  

• With CloudEagle.ai, HR and IT teams don’t have to spend time on manual work. Employees get the access they need right away, so they can start working and being productive faster.
  

• CloudEagle.ai helps you track who has access to what, making it easy to follow rules and regulations. This ensures your company stays secure and compliant without extra effort.

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Why automating your access management is crucial?

According to CrowdStrike reports, 80% of cyberattacks use identity-based attack methods. To stay ahead of such attacks and stay protected, managing user access is more important than ever.

1. Protecting sensitive data and systems: Automating access management helps keep your business data safe. It ensures only the right people can access sensitive information, reducing the chances of mistakes or security risks. With automation, you don’t have to worry about human errors that could lead to problems.

2. Preventing unauthorized access and data breaches: Automating access helps stop unauthorized users from getting into your systems. It’s faster and more reliable than manual methods, protecting your business from security breaches. Automation keeps your data secure and reduces the risk of problems.

3. Ensuring appropriate access and permissions: Automation makes sure each person gets the right level of access based on their role. For example, employees only get access to the apps or data they need to do their job. This way, people don’t have more access than they should, and it’s easier to manage.

4. Enabling secure remote work: With more people working from home, it’s important to keep systems secure. Automating access management lets you control who can log in from anywhere. This keeps your business safe while allowing your team to work remotely.

5. Supporting regulatory compliance: There are rules about who can access certain data, and automation helps you follow those rules. It tracks who accesses what, making it easy to show that your business is following regulations. This helps you stay compliant without extra work.

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Common access management risks to address

Managing access is crucial for security, but there are some common risks to watch out for:

1. Insider threats and misuse of privileged access: One of the biggest risks in access management comes from insiders—employees or contractors who have legitimate access to your systems but misuse them. For example, an employee with administrative access might misuse it to access confidential company information.

According to a report by Cyberark, breaches caused by compromised credentials or insider threats take the longest to resolve, with a mean time to identify and resolve of 328 days and 308 days respectively.

2. Weak password and authentication practices: Weak passwords and poor authentication methods, like using simple passwords or not implementing two-factor authentication (2FA), can leave your systems vulnerable. If an employee uses an easy-to-guess password or doesn't follow strong password protocols, hackers could easily gain unauthorized access.

3. Lack of visibility into user access data: Without clear visibility into who has access to what, it’s difficult to track and control permissions. A survey by CyberArk revealed that 62% of security teams identify limited visibility across their IT environment as a major challenge impacting their work.

If you can’t see who is accessing sensitive data or which applications users are using, it becomes harder to identify and address unauthorized access or risky behaviors.

4. Unauthorized access: Unauthorized access occurs when someone gains access to a system or data they shouldn’t. This could be due to weak access controls, stolen credentials, or unmonitored entry points. According to Mimecast, eight out of ten IT professionals believe their organization is vulnerable to accidental data leaks caused by employee negligence.

5. Inadequate access controls: Access controls are essential for defining who can access specific data or systems. If access controls are poorly defined or not consistently enforced, users may gain access to information they shouldn’t, or security gaps may emerge. Properly managing access roles and regularly reviewing them ensures users only have access to what they need.

6. Misconfigurations: Misconfigurations of software or systems can leave them vulnerable to attacks. For example, an incorrectly set-up cloud storage system might inadvertently expose sensitive data to the public.

7. Risks of multi-cloud architecture: As businesses use multiple cloud services, managing access across different platforms becomes more complex. Each cloud service has its access policies and controls, which may not always align with one another. This fragmentation can create security gaps.

8. Weak IAM security policies: Weak or outdated Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies can leave your organization vulnerable to attacks. For example, not reviewing access permissions regularly or failing to revoke access when employees leave can increase the risk of unauthorized access.

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How to implement access management with CloudEagle.ai?

Managing app access management with CloudEagle.ai is a smooth and efficient process. With just a few simple steps, you can easily do this.

First, go to the CloudEagle.ai platform and click on the "Access Management Module." There, you will see seven tabs, each serving a different purpose: Active Users, Inactive Users, Auto Provisioning, Auto Deprovisioning, Approval Policies, Access Requests, and Run Logs.

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Each of these tabs helps manage and streamline your access management process, ensuring that your organization's user access is secure and well-organized.

1. Active Users

The Active Users tab helps you manage users who are currently active in your system. This is important for ensuring that each employee has the right level of access based on their role and responsibilities.

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When a new employee joins, or an existing one requires access to new applications (due to a role change), you can quickly assign the necessary apps.

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For example, if a new employee in the Marketing department needs access to design tools, you can assign those applications here.

2. Inactive Users

Once a user leaves the company or no longer needs access to specific tools, it’s important to immediately revoke their access to prevent unauthorized usage. The Inactive Users tab allows you to manage this.

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Deactivating users who no longer need access ensures that there are no security gaps. For example, if an employee leaves the company, you can quickly revoke all their application access.

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If a user was assigned licenses to specific software, CloudEagle.ai allows you to reclaim those licenses, and harvest them for later use. This ensures that you’re not paying for unused licenses and that the access is fully removed.

3. Auto Provisioning

This feature automates the process of assigning access to new employees or users whose roles change. This helps you avoid the manual effort of granting each user access individually.

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When a new employee joins, you can set up rules to automatically assign the necessary applications.

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4. Auto Deprovisioning

This feature ensures that when employees leave the organization or change roles, their access to sensitive applications is removed automatically. It’s essential for maintaining security.

When an employee leaves, CloudEagle.ai automatically revokes access to all applications they had. For example, when someone leaves the company, all permissions tied to their login (emails, apps) are immediately revoked.

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Along with revoking access, the system ensures any licenses they were using are freed up for reallocation to others. This reduces the chance of unused licenses creating waste in your subscription costs.

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5. Approval Policies

Approval policies help ensure that access requests are reviewed and approved by the right people before any access is granted. This is crucial for maintaining control over sensitive information and reducing the risk of unauthorized access.

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CloudEagle.ai allows you to create rules for approval based on factors such as job title, department, location, etc. For example, if a user requests access to sensitive finance applications, the request may need to go through additional layers of approval.

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For high-risk applications, you can set up multi-step approvals. This ensures that more than one person signs off on access requests, adding an extra layer of security.

6. Access Requests

By clicking on the "Access Requests" tab, you can easily create automated workflows for the access request process. This automation eliminates manual approval steps, enabling users to quickly request access, which is then automatically reviewed and approved based on your predefined settings.

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Here’s where you can customize your organization’s access settings based on your unique needs:

• Applications & Entitlements: Select the apps to be assigned and set specific entitlements like license types, roles, or permissions that end users can request.

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• Visibility: Allows you to control the visibility of apps and entitlements based on employee attributes such as job title, department, location, etc. Only employees who match these criteria can then request access to the apps.

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• Time-Based Access: Allows end users to request access for a temporary duration to complete their project. This is especially useful for privileged access. Admins can also set a limit on the maximum duration for which any employee can request access.

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Questions: Add questions to the access request form to gather necessary information from the requester. For example, "Why do you need access to this app?" or "How long will you need access?"

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• Actions: Set up workflows for approval and automate access using third-party tools like Okta or direct integrations. You can also create a task for the app admin to provide access if needed.

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7. Run Logs

CloudEagle.ai provides comprehensive logs that help you track and manage all access requests. These logs record details such as who requested access, who approved it, and any changes made to permissions.

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This feature ensures complete visibility over your access management activities, making it easier for you to conduct audits and maintain security. With these logs, you can quickly identify and address any potential issues, ensuring compliance and transparency across your organization.

For a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to set app access workflows, check out this article: How CloudEagle.ai's App Access Workflows Work?

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7 Best Practices for Identity and Access Management

Keeping your data safe starts with smart access management. Here are seven best practices to make it simple and secure.

1. Implement a centralized IAM approach: Managing all user access from one place makes everything simpler. By centralizing this, you avoid confusion and ensure consistency across your systems, so there are fewer chances for mistakes.

With everything in one system, you can also respond quickly if something goes wrong. If a problem pops up, you'll be able to see it right away and fix it, making the whole process much smoother and safer.

2. Leverage the principle of least privilege and zero-trust security: The principle of least privilege means giving employees just the right amount of access they need for their job—nothing more. This way, even if something goes wrong, the damage is limited. Zero-Trust security takes this a step further by verifying every access request, even if it comes from within your company.

3. Use multi-factor authentication (MFA): Imagine your password gets stolen. Without MFA, that’s all someone needs to get into your account. But with MFA, they need something extra—like a code sent to your phone. This extra step makes it a lot harder for hackers to get in. Even though it might seem like a small hassle, MFA makes your accounts way more secure.

4. Follow role-based access control (RBAC): Think of role-based access control like giving out keys to different rooms based on job roles. Instead of everyone having a master key, each person gets access to the areas they need. If someone changes roles, you simply update their key. This keeps things organized and secure, ensuring that people only have access to the information that’s important for their job.

5. Establish single-sign-on (SSO) and enforce robust password policies: Remember how frustrating it is to keep track of multiple passwords? SSO allows users to log in once and access everything they need. Pair it with strong password policies—like using complex passwords and updating them regularly—and your system becomes both secure and user-friendly.

6. Automate onboarding using user provisioning software: When new employees join, you want them to hit the ground running. Automating the onboarding process means they get access to the right tools and systems right away, without any delays. It also reduces the chances of mistakes that can happen when things are done manually.

7. Conduct continuous access audits: You can’t just set up your access controls and forget about them. Regularly checking who has access to what is important to catch any unusual activity early. Continuous audits let you see if someone’s trying to access things they shouldn’t, keeping your system secure.

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Conclusion

Managing app access is vital for keeping your organization secure and running smoothly. If the wrong people have access to important data or apps, it can lead to security issues

With the right access management system, you can ensure that only the right people can access critical resources. CloudEagle.ai simplifies this process, giving you full control over who can access what.

With CloudEagle.ai, your team gets the right access at the right time, helping them be more productive without compromising security. The tool makes it simple to manage user access, whether it's for new employees, temporary access, or ongoing permissions.

Ready to make access management easier?

Schedule a demo with CloudEagle.ai and streamline your organization’s access management.

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