Data Security, the Biggest Problem for Enterprise

Featured article by Dean Wiech, Managing Director of Tools4ever

Enterprise organizational leaders worry about growth, sales and profits, but should they not be equally concerned about security? Of course. While there are many factors contributing to the success of an organization, one of the threats are security risks, that if arise, can effect an enterprise more than even a period of low sales or decreased growth rate.

Even small breaches can cost your organization a great deal of money and negativity, and these security breaches can happen in several different ways. The most obvious breach is from an outsider — a hacker gaining access to your network. Another possibility is an employee breach, either willingly or unwillingly. This is why it is vital to have proper security and access management measures in place.

Your employees can gain too much access, from the beginning of their employment when their account is created or accumulated access rights can be over time as they are provided access for a certain project and it is never revoked. Additionally, one of the most common security issues you will see (or you have likely experienced) is an ex-employee that has been left active on the company network after their departure.

Many enterprise organizational IT leaders often do not focus on internal security as much as other potential areas of growth for their company so the best way to ensure that security issues do not have a huge impact on your organization and your team is to put measures in place to secure against several weak points. By putting in some automation efforts, you can maintain your focus on the bigger dollar, resource-intensive areas of the business while reducing the need you to focus over there, where the less intensive but also important resources efforts remain.

Perhaps you’ve thought of doing so in the past, but it you are struggling with this issue, automated account governance technology can simplify your access processes and, therefore, help you prevent against an internal security breach. This makes the task of granting and removing access simple, ensuring that it is done correctly. I assure you.

Likewise, role-based access control technology can create a map for you that leads to correct rights assigned to the correct individuals. No need to fret over this detail – the creation of a matrix — your access governance technology can automatically read the role-based access control rules map and knows exactly which authorizations must be assigned to the holder of each account. With role-based access control, organizations can easily generate a report of access rights to have a clear overview of everyone’s rights in the company. They can then correct any errors for existing employee’s access rights based on the norm.

Access governance also automatically corrects any inappropriate access and revokes the rights of employees no longer with the enterprise or have a different title or work in a different department. It is ensured that a contractor or ex-employee that leaves the organization can no longer access any resources. A department manager can then disable access from one place in employee’s profile in the source system, and all access is immediately revoked. Security issues are probably the biggest threat to enterprise organization. This is why they should place as much energy on ensuring security as they do on profits and growth. By ensuring that the proper security measures are in place, organizational leaders can rest assured that a security breach will not be a huge detriment to the enterprise.

Unfortunately, leaders tend not to focus on security measures until a breach occurs and then it is too late. When data breaches occur this can have a major impact on profits and the image of the company. First, you need to conduct a major damage control campaign to address the issue, and you’ll likely spend more on resources repairing your credibility and reputation with the public. Thus, put security measures in place from the start. It can be less expensive in the long run.

About the Author

Dean Wiech is managing director of Tools4ever US, part of a global provider of identity and access management solutions.