What Is User Provisioning? Definition, Process and Best Practices
User provisioning is the creation and maintenance of a user’s digital identity, authentication, and authorization rights.
User provisioning is defined as the process of creating, maintaining, updating, and deleting a user’s account and access from multiple applications and systems all at once, be it on-premise, cloud-based, or a mix of both. This article explains the meaning and process of user provisioning in detail and shares useful best practices for user provisioning in 2021.
Table of Contents
What Is User Provisioning?
User provisioning is the process of creating, maintaining, updating, and deleting a user’s account and access from multiple applications and systems all at once, be it on-premise, cloud-based, or a mix of both.
User Provisioning
User provisioning, or user account provisioning, is an identity access management (IAM) process that avails critical user/employee information such as name, job title, department, group names, and other related data to grant the required privileges and permissions to the user.
User provisioning is triggered when new information is added or updated in the original system database, for example, an HR database. It is activated when new employees are hired and onboarded into the organization, for which the IT team creates new accounts with relevant access permissions. This account gets modified further in case an employee receives a promotion, changes departments, or exits the company for good.
Another important aspect that falls under user provisioning is deprovisioning. This is the act of revoking privileges or access from an account based on triggers such as an internal transfer to a different department or when an employee leaves an organization. Employee access to important files and applications is simply deleted or disabled. This also helps organizations free up a lot of disk space.
See More: What Is a Firewall? Definition, Key Components, and Best Practices
Benefits of User Provisioning for Enterprises
The dynamic nature of today’s networks means that spreadsheet-based distribution of access is not a feasible process. Hence, user provisioning becomes increasingly important, especially for larger enterprises. From streamlining the access management process, enhancing employee productivity, and improving operational velocity, user provisioning is a game-changing phenomenon. User provisioning has a significant effect on enterprise data security. Security concerns engulf organizations at all times. When employees log in from unsecured or unauthorized networks, data breaches, if any, can wreak havoc for enterprise security.
Therefore, let’s first understand how user provisioning strengthens enterprise data security.
User Provisioning Benefits for Enterprises
1. Helps mitigate risks
It can so happen that employees get provisioned with the wrong levels of access. These user accounts, if compromised, can lead to the loss of highly sensitive information. This is more common in larger organizations where employees require access to numerous portals and applications. User provisioning provides a flexible configuration by ensuring that employees access only those resources they are allowed to use, thereby protecting the network from unauthorized usage.
All in all, user provisioning makes sure that employees have the correct level of app permissions. This reduces the load of the IT team while maintaining security.
2. Provides role-based access control
Employees require access to different applications and resources as per their role or department in the organization. User provisioning makes it possible to allocate granular role-based access controls while giving an organization the ability to customize access based on internal policies and regulations. For example, all employees may get access to apps such as Slack and Office 365, but only email marketers would get provisioned for Marketo and Mailchimp, while only the sales team gets access to Salesforce CRM and Hubspot CRM accounts.
This becomes possible with the creation of groups. Groups are used to classify a user from a common source. For example, employees must be segregated into a group as per their role to receive automatic permissions to different applications.
3. Protects sensitive data
It’s important for an organization to have control over its employees’ privileges. User provisioning gives IT teams the control to track and monitor what devices are being accessed, who is accessing them, and from where they are being accessed. This eliminates security risks and helps protect and maintain the security of sensitive data.
Alternatively, when an employee leaves a company or is terminated from their role, there’s no real guarantee of their behavior and conduct. Enjoying continued access to important applications and data even after leaving the organization could easily lead them to steal data or conduct a security breach. User provisioning cuts off former employee access to apps in seconds, thereby safeguarding the company’s sensitive data.
4. Makes password management simple
Weak passwords are one of the easiest routes for cybercriminals to tear through an organization’s security walls. User provisioning ensures that appropriate password policies are in place, along with access rights and rules that specify the strength, aging, and reuse of a password. For example, suppose an employee’s account is under threat somehow due to a weak password or stolen credentials. In that case, the IT admin can immediately deprovision the employee’s account and control the situation before it gets too severe. IT teams can enforce password policies and look into the security of devices and users via IdP.
5. Reduces the risk of shadow IT
BYOD (bring your own device) and BYOA (bring your own app) policies are becoming increasingly popular, more so after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote working. While these policies aim to provide employees with increased convenience and comfort on their own terms, it also becomes a gateway for security risks. When employees log into the enterprise network via their own devices, it often leaves the organization vulnerable to unforeseen security threats.
More often than not, employees indulge in using and downloading unlicensed software or third-party applications via their own devices, which the IT team may not even be aware of. This is called shadow IT and is one of the most common yet largest threats that modern businesses face today. Implementing a user provisioning tool in such a case is of vital importance. It allows an organization to manage access and privilege rights while protecting corporate data, even in a remote setup.
See More: What Is Whaling Phishing? Definition, Identification and Prevention
Key Process of User Provisioning Explained
Provisioning user accounts with access to systems and software helps tie a robust layer of security around data and critical assets. User provisioning helps expedite the entire onboarding and offboarding process while saving a lot of time. It is instrumental in freeing up the IT team’s time and effort, allowing them to redirect their focus toward solving other critical issues from a security standpoint. However, before an organization sets up a user provisioning system, it should first identify the problems that actually need to be solved and the actual requirement for such a solution.
Let’s look at the steps that are involved in implementing a user provisioning process in an organization.
Step-Wise Process of User Provisioning
Step 1: Analyze & evaluate the access management program
As a first step in implementing a user provisioning process, you should start by taking a good look at the current IAM process and assessing its maturity level. It is important to ensure that employees, and especially the IT team, understand what exactly user provisioning is all about since they will be the ones implementing it.
Examine the efficacy of the current process in terms of creating accounts, granting permissions, its management, and deletion. It’s also essential to evaluate it based on its security, responsiveness, and usability.
Step 2: Build a user provisioning business case
User provisioning is not a magical solution that will reap benefits in a single day. It is a huge investment in terms of both time and money and needs due consideration before you head straight into implementing it. It makes perfect sense to develop a detailed business case that evaluates the current IAM process, identifies its gaps, and understands how the additions of user provisioning will further benefit the organization.
Evaluate the current solution on factors such as its overall competence in covering all the systems, how easy or difficult will managers and employees find it, its speed while deprovisioning former employees, and how productive it truly is.
A business case should include a detailed review of how user provisioning will support the organization in terms of strengthening its security, minimizing risks, and increasing productivity. It’s important to build a strong business case that aligns with the organization’s risk management and cost & time-saving intent.
Step 3: List down important systems and applications
Managing access in a large organization is not simple. With hundreds of employees requiring access to thousands of different applications, this process can surely be hectic and all-consuming at the same time. It is a good idea to start by identifying and listing the most important applications and critical systems in the organization before going ahead with the process.
Step 4: Initiate a pilot program
Trials are an important aspect of any implementation process and should be done every time as a thumb rule. Next in the process for user provisioning implementation is initiating a pilot program and roping in a few senior members of the management to encourage more employee participation. While in the pilot phase, be sure to evaluate the solution based on a few key metrics such as user experience, time saved, productivity achieved, and so on.
Run the pilot program for a specific duration and leave enough time to monitor its working and make changes accordingly. Next, gather feedback from stakeholders involved in the pilot and work on the weaknesses of the solution as pointed out by them.
Step 5: Launch user provisioning across the organization
This is it! The user provisioning process is set to be launched across the organization. The insights, understandings, and feedback generated from the pilot program will serve well in guiding you through the implementation and ensure that everything gets deployed as seamlessly as possible. The rollout is a key step for which getting all hands on deck, including the helpdesk, corporate teams, and internal audit, is advisable.
Step 6: Continuously monitor the new solution and process
Simply implementing the user provisioning solution and forgetting all about its existence is not ideal for long-term success. Remember to develop a continuous monitoring process that tracks the number of user provisioning requests on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. Monitor the program in terms of the requests handled by the helpdesk team and the drop in its number after the implementation of user provisioning.
Keep an eye on the internal audit process related to user access. Last but not least, any solution, however well-developed, will not matter if its users are not pleased. Conduct rounds of feedback and give yourself enough time to make the necessary updates.
See More: Spear Phishing vs. Phishing: Key Differences and Similarities
Top 10 User Provisioning Best Practices for 2021
To ensure business continuity and organizational success, employees need to be productive. For this, they require access to appropriate resources on the network to perform their jobs effectively. Although employee efficiency and productivity are directly related to user provisioning, there is a thin line between the two, which is security. Employees require unrestricted access to data and applications to stay productive and perform their job without any hiccups. While this ensures a good user experience, it also brings security threats, a major concern that businesses face today.
Let’s uncover the top 10 user provisioning best practices for 2021.
Best Practices of User Provisioning
1. Set up centralized identify and access management
Pause and take a moment to look at the current infrastructure and network. Modern infrastructure is spread across different aspects, from software as a service (SaaS) applications to cloud servers and cloud service providers, portals, databases, containers, and so much more. Now consider managing all of these IT resources simultaneously. Not only would separate identity management for all of these drain resources and burden the IT team, but it would also pose a major security risk to the systems. Hence, the importance of having a centralized system cannot be stressed enough.
Organizations need to move ahead from legacy identity solutions and deploy one that provides a centralized view to manage user identities smoothly. Centralized authentication is probably one of the most significant access management and cybersecurity best practices. Put your best foot forward and start by implementing a centralized cloud directory service that syncs with major directories such as the HR systems or Active Directory.
2. Follow the principle of least privilege
Every other day we hear of several cases of employees abusing their privileges and how they go out of their way to inappropriately seek access to corporate data. Cybercriminals and hackers are often looking for a single weak point, such as an account with maximum privileges and permissions that gives them an easy entryway. The concept of least privilege is a good starting point for setting access controls and a great best practice for user provisioning.
The principle of least privilege states that employees should have access rights to only those IT resources that are absolutely essential in performing their jobs, and only for a specific time period. The simplest explanation for this would be that you shouldn’t have access to it if you don’t need it.
3. Turn on automation
Manually managing user accounts, checking all attributes, and granting permissions for a new user can be a tedious, time-consuming, and painful process. IT teams need to dig deep and determine which permissions new employees need depending on their role and scope of work. Would one-time access work, or will they need continuous access? Moreover, providing access to credentials manually is often prone to human error, overprovisioning, or underprovisioning. The best way to save yourself from the hassle of manual user provisioning is by using automated user provisioning software to streamline account creation and regulate access privileges.
Automated provisioning makes user provisioning frictionless. The automated user provisioning tool takes immediate action to create and manage accounts throughout the network and related systems. These systems also include access to directories such as Microsoft’s Active Directory, Office 365, and Google G Suite, along with business and communication applications such as SAP, Salesforce, WordPress, Jira, Slack, etc.
4. Do not neglect deprovisioning
Deprovisioning is critical in ensuring the security and confidentiality of an organization. Often, employers rely on the good faith of former employees, which sooner or later becomes a huge liability for them. Failing to revoke access from zombie accounts can be an entry point for cybercriminals when employees indulge in malicious data-leaking activities. It is a universally well-known fact that modern IT departments are one of the busiest in an organization.
Knowingly or unknowingly, IT admins forget to deprovision accounts and are busy with other important priorities such as creating new user accounts and granting access. This is definitely not recommended. Failure to deprovision accounts due to time constraints could lead to severe security breaches.
5. Create clear guidelines for sharing or restricting access
Imagine how cumbersome creating rules every time a new employee is hired and figuring out what access needs to be granted to them would be. Developing a clear set of guidelines is the most underrated and overlooked user provisioning best practice that needs to be equally prioritized. To make the most out of user provisioning, start by creating comprehensive guidelines and a checklist to follow each time a new employee is onboarded or even when an existing employee moves to a new role.
Having enough transparency and internal clarity about the types of tools and information that need to be made available to respective individuals and teams will save a lot of time and make the process more efficient, as well as strengthen overall security.
6. Provide IT with immense support
IT teams today are swamped with responsibilities. Just the sheer number of daily requests they receive while also managing critical security concerns at the same time can surely overwhelm any person. Taking something off their shoulders would not only improve their productivity but also the organization’s security. Support the IT team by providing it with the right tools and apps. The right tools empower IT teams to quickly streamline onboarding and offboarding tasks and get back to tending to more pressing security concerns.
7. Add an extra layer of security with multi-factor authentication (MFA)
To build a robust and secure environment for a company and its employees, it is essential to use multi-factor authentication that doubles security against cyberattacks. Single-factor authentication that includes the use of passwords no longer fulfills the security maintenance needs of an organization. Passwords have time and again proven to be unreliable for enterprise data security. Weak passwords or repeated passwords are easy targets even for an amateur cyber attacker to crack and bypass this single layer of security. Hence, MFA is a dire necessity, especially in today’s dynamic digital world.
Multi-factor authentication includes biometrics, text message or email verification, geofencing, time of access request monitoring, hard security tokens, and much more.
8. Use a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate
SSL certificates are a powerful mechanism to safeguard data shared over the internet. SSL builds up an additional security wall and provides authentication, encryption, and data decryption with airtight security. Organizations that overlook SSL security are at the center stage of facing serious malicious attacks and would continue to stay under the threat of compromised sensitive information.
9. Apply risk-based authentication (RBA)
Leveraging RBA is the need of the hour for organizations across the world today. Risk-based authentication is a secure authentication process that calculates the risk when a user performs a specific action. RBA gauges the danger involved in any suspicious activity on the employee’s profile before allowing them to proceed or immediately blocks the action and alerts the IT team if the risk can put enterprise security on the line.
RBA prompts a one-time password (OTP) or email verification whenever an unauthorized request is made from a different IP address or a far-off remote location. Deploying RBA is one of the best solutions to protect critical assets and databases.
10. Take auditing & compliance into careful consideration
Managing user access isn’t just a best practice to keep an organization’s system secure but is also required to comply with varied regulations. The issues of audit and compliance are closely related to security. Implementing the user provisioning process and following access management policies become essential if your organization deals with sensitive information such as financial records, government data, health data, or confidential business information.
For example, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy policies clearly mention protecting individually identifiable data. Non-compliance with these could result in massive penalties if an audit is notified and the breach is caught.
See More: What Is Threat Modeling? Definition, Process, Examples, and Best Practices
Takeaway
As network complexities grow day by day, it is important to onboard a sophisticated solution that modernizes your infrastructure while providing extreme flexibility and growth. User provisioning is the ultimate win-win solution for enhanced enterprise security, employee productivity, and user experience. It is a cost-effective way to securely streamline an employee lifecycle process, which includes everything from employee onboarding, transfers, promotions, and offboarding.
A well-defined user provisioning plan makes all the difference between a successful implementation and just a time-consuming affair with no concrete results.
Did this article help you understand all about user provisioning? Comment below or let us know on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!
MORE ON IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT
