Balancing Security and Productivity: Managing Access Permissions
When it comes to managing access permissions, striking the right balance between security and productivity is key. We’ve gathered insights from top executives, including a co-founder and a CEO, to share their strategies. From maintaining a central permissions document to balancing access with role-based management, discover the top four approaches these leaders use to handle permissions for employees, contractors, and third-party vendors.
- Maintain a Central Permissions Document
- Implement a Multifaceted Access Strategy
- Employ Least-Privilege Access Controls
- Balance Access with Role-Based Management
Maintain a Central Permissions Document
Keep a central, single document of what permissions each person has across your entire organization. This may be as simple as a Google Sheet. Don’t, of course, store passwords or anything sensitive here. This is only to reference who has permissions in what places.
Keep it simple, because you’re going to want to look at it constantly. It is amazing how long after someone leaves an organization, people realize they still have access to parts of the system.
Christopher Falvey
Co-Founder, Unique NOLA Tours
Implement a Multifaceted Access Strategy
Our approach is multifaceted to strike the right balance between security and productivity.
First, we thoroughly assess access requirements for employees, contractors, and third-party vendors. This includes categorizing roles and responsibilities to uphold the principle of least privilege.
Next, we implement cutting-edge identity and access management solutions, granting access based on need and following a ‘zero trust’ security model. Real-time monitoring, regular audits, and proactive threat detection are core components of our strategy.
Additionally, we advocate for multi-factor authentication and regular cybersecurity training to enhance protection. Collaboration with our IT and security teams ensures a swift response to access-related issues.
Our approach emphasizes adaptability as the energy industry continually evolves. By maintaining a delicate balance between security and productivity, we empower stakeholders while safeguarding data and systems. This strategy draws from my extensive experience in the energy sector, where operational excellence and security are paramount and can be applied universally to ensure a resilient, productive, and secure environment.
Andrew Van Noy
Founder & CEO, DeepPower, Inc.
Employ Least-Privilege Access Controls
At Securiti.ai, we take a least-privilege approach to access controls: employees, contractors, and vendors are granted only the minimal system access needed for their role. For elevated privileges, we employ strict identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, and privileged access management.
For third parties, we mandate security policy training and monitor activity closely through auditing controls and auto-terminating inactive sessions.
Through close cross-functional collaboration between product, IT, security, and legal teams, we aim to strike the right balance between enabling employee productivity and ensuring robust protection of customer data and intellectual property. Tight access permissions combined with context-aware policies allow us to maintain security while supporting business needs.
Adil Advani
Digital PR & SEO Specialist, Securiti
Balance Access with Role-Based Management
In my view, managing employees’, contractors’, and third-party vendors’ access is balanced. By mixing privileged access management with role-based access, we can keep control of things without hampering teamwork. Our vendor management is aggressive, whereby the company identifies users properly as well as audits access points to reduce risk.
We can verify identities and limit access across the board by implementing zero-trust and multi-factor authentication (MFA) that do not impede business processes unnecessarily.
I believe in empowering our team members to work effectively and safely so that our access controls continue to evolve with our changing cybersecurity landscape and business requirements.
Aldi Agaj
CEO, Alter Learning
Submit Your Answer
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