How To Eliminate Standing Access in Your Organization

Your organization can eliminate standing access by implementing Just-in-Time (JIT) access, using Remote Browser Isolation (RBI), implementing Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and following the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP). Standing access occurs when users have indefinite access to resources – regardless of their necessity. Privileged accounts are typically given standing access because they need sensitive data frequently. However, continuous access to such important data comes with security risks that could compromise sensitive information.

Continue reading to learn more about the risks of standing access and how your organization can eliminate it.

What are the risks of standing access?

Since standing access gives constant access to users, several risks could jeopardize data and privacy within your organization.

Increased attack surface

Standing access increases your organization’s attack surface, or the total number of entry points a cybercriminal can use to access and steal data. With a smaller attack surface, it’s more challenging for a cybercriminal to hack into your network and take data. Standing access expands your organization’s attack surface by giving continuous access to privileged users, even when they don’t need it for a particular task. If a privileged account becomes compromised and the user has continuous access to sensitive data, a cybercriminal could gain unauthorized access to important information.

Privilege creep

Privilege creep describes when employees accumulate access and permissions over time, such as when they are promoted or take on new roles with different privileges. Some of these privileges include accessing sensitive data. If your organization has standing access, employees who gain access to any privileged data at any time will retain that access indefinitely. Privilege creep increases security vulnerabilities since a cybercriminal can gain unauthorized access to any employee’s account and potentially gain access to sensitive data.

Credential compromise

Standing access can lead to a higher risk of credential compromise through phishing and social engineering attacks. If your employees have consistent standing access to sensitive information and their passwords become compromised in a data breach or from poor password practices, a cybercriminal could use their login credentials and then gain access to sensitive data. Cybercriminals can trick your employees into sharing their login credentials by sending them convincing phishing emails and using social engineering tactics to impersonate trustworthy individuals. If employees fall for these phishing attacks, your organization’s data could be jeopardized if privileged accounts have standing access.

How organizations can eliminate standing access

Your organization can eliminate standing access by implementing Just-in-Time (JIT) access, using Remote Browser Isolation (RBI), implementing Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) and following the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP).

Implement Just-in-Time (JIT) access

Just-in-Time (JIT) access is a practice in which users and devices must gain access to privileges in real time for a specific period to perform a certain task. With JIT access, any authorized user can access sensitive data only when they need it. This functions opposite to standing access by limiting how long someone can access sensitive data instead of giving them indefinite access. By using JIT access, your organization can prevent data from becoming compromised.

Use Remote Browser Isolation (RBI)

Remote Browser Isolation (RBI) is a cybersecurity solution that minimizes cyber threats by running internet browsing in an isolated environment, preventing them from being intercepted. Your organization can eliminate standing access by implementing RBI because a browsing session will be contained in a separate virtual space from the user’s device. By separating browsing activity from devices and organizational networks, RBI avoids granting standing access since any vendors or third-party services will browse in an isolated session.

Implement Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)

Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a security framework that prioritizes keeping strict access controls, regardless of whether an employee or device is inside or outside an organization’s network. Based on the assumption that no person or device should be consistently trusted, ZTNA requires everyone to verify that they are who they say they are before they can gain access to data. ZTNA helps eliminate standing access within organizations because access to sensitive data is not automatically granted – even to those within an organization’s network – without proper authentication.

Follow the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP)

Your organization can eliminate standing access by following the Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP), which gives authorized users access only to what they need to complete their jobs. By giving employees only access to what’s necessary, you can eliminate standing access because employees will not retain indefinite access to sensitive information. PoLP also minimizes your organization’s attack surface, which reduces the impact of a potential data breach.

You can implement PoLP by investing in a Privileged Access Management (PAM) solution to monitor privileged accounts and secure those with access to sensitive data. A PAM solution like KeeperPAM^® supports PoLP by providing full visibility into the access your privileged accounts have to important data. By controlling who can access specific types of data and for how long with KeeperPAM, you can stop privileged accounts from being compromised and negatively impacting your organization’s security.

Eliminate standing access with KeeperPAM

KeeperPAM is the best choice for your organization to eliminate standing access for the following reasons:

Request a demo of KeeperPAM to help eliminate standing access within your organization and better protect your sensitive data from unauthorized users.