Last Updated on November 13, 2023 by Flavia Calina
Every business has unique IT safety and security needs, depending on its size, employee headcount, user access requirements, and goals. However, a streamlined approach to SecOps can help businesses optimize security operations and decrease risk.
Automating the onboarding process helps new employees understand. Your organization’s framework for the access privileges they’ll receive—from generally shared directories to precise folders and drives. It is a more practical way of working than simply giving everyone access to the information network and then revoking privileges on request.
Automate Security Processes
Automated security processes can reduce the number of alerts your team has to deal with and reduce the risk of human error. It can help your team focus on more serious threats and minimize the impact of a breach.
Streamlining security by automating manual processes can also help your organization improve visibility. And reduce complexity by consolidating your security systems and data sources onto a centralized platform or dashboard. You can accomplish this through a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution or a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform.
Authentication best practices include requiring users to verify their identity through solid passwords, multi-factor authentication (2FA), and biometrics. Reducing the amount of privileged accounts with access to essential data and resources is another excellent practice. You may eliminate risks and optimize security procedures by putting identity and access management process into place to guarantee that only authorized individuals can access critical information. This approach also helps reduce the costs of managing a security environment. It is possible by leveraging IAM tools supporting zero trust policies through granular approval and denial of access privileges and eliminating implicit trust within protected networks.
Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
MFA is a security process that requires additional verification information, user name, and password. This additional information is known as a factor. When multiple factors are required, unauthorized access to data is more complicated, as a malicious actor must breach all the authentication factors to gain entry. It is in contrast to 2FA, which only requires two forms of proof.
Many factors can be used to verify identity, including biometrics (e.g., fingerprint scanning), hardware tokens, software tokens, and one-time codes sent to a device. MFA can be customized to fit each use case. For example, a bank account may require more robust authentication than a social media account.
Using MFA to prevent hacking and other cyberattacks is an effective way to streamline security processes. Users also appreciate companies that care about their security. In healthcare, for example, MFA is critical to preventing the theft of patient records. In e-commerce, streamlined MFA processes can increase sales and customer trust. Another streamlined security practice that works with MFA to reduce the risk of unauthorized access is Zero Trust.
Use Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Role-based access control (RBAC) helps you streamline security by allowing users to request permissions based on their role within the company. It ensures that each user accesses only what is necessary to perform their job without the need to manage complex security settings.
RBAC uses roles to grant permissions and monitors the operations and objects accessed by the user during a session. Their job designation and session attributes, such as the device they’re using and their login credentials, determine a user’s role. Some solutions offer pre-built roles based on industry best practices and Azure resource structures. While others allow you to create custom ones to suit your organization’s specific needs.
When implementing RBAC, it’s crucial to have skilled business analysts and role engineers who can bridge the gap between business-focused managers and IT staff. They can help you analyze the company’s workforce and determine what kinds of access each type of employee needs while avoiding pitfalls that could cause security vulnerabilities like excessive exceptions and overlapping roles. The result is a more agile and secure access management system that provides operational efficiency.
Use Access Keys
For example, some organizations share one password across multiple platforms or vendors to save time when working on campaigns. It allows everyone to access analytics and results but also increases insider threat risk. Assigning credentials on a granular level will reduce the likelihood of breaches and guarantee critical data protection.
Privileged account management solutions can help, ensuring that only those with specific roles require elevated access. This monitors activity, looks for irregularities and automates provisioning and de-provisioning procedures to prevent unauthorized users from accessing critical data.
Centralizing identity and access management through a single solution is vital to any robust cybersecurity strategy. With centralized visibility, IT teams can eliminate the confusion associated with multiple logins and passwords. Allowing them to focus on what matters most: providing users with a consistent and secure user experience. By leveraging a privileged access management system, they can enforce the principle of least privilege (PoLP) to ensure that only those needing the highest access level get it.
Rotate Access Tokens
The principles of least privilege and just-in-time access management are essential for a healthy security posture. However, the necessary flexibility can sometimes be challenging to implement without negatively impacting user experience. For example, a help desk associate may need temporary privilege escalation to troubleshoot an urgent customer issue.
To protect against the potential for token theft, rotate access tokens regularly. It ensures that a pass is never exposed for longer than needed to complete a session, reducing the risk of replay attacks on expired or compromised tokens.
For SPAs, rotating refresh tokens is especially important. This feature allows a client to exchange a refresh token for an access token, which is then sent to the /token endpoint for validation. A new token pair is returned to the client, rendering the original refresh token invalid.
To rotate an access token, send it to the /rotate-token endpoint along with its raw secret. The property for the rotation period in minutes (not to be confused with its expiration date) will result in the creation of a new token, which will be returned to the client.Rendering the old ticket invalid after a buffer time. Read more exciting articles on Today World Info
