Tip of the Week: Three Basic Access Control Considerations

While every aspect of your organization’s security is incredibly important to attend to, we wanted to take the time and delve into a particular aspect that many might take for granted: your digital access controls. Let’s go over a few tips and practices to ensure your access controls and policies are optimized.

When it comes to the permissions that a business’ assorted users need to use inavigate ts network, most businesses turn to Microsoft Active Directory to help manage them. Simply put, Active Directory allows you to review and distribute access to the assorted resources found on your network and other user capabilities. However, whether you use Active Directory or another solution, the following practices and policies apply:

Keep Permissions in Check

One of the most crucial parts of your data security is the process of restricting access to your data (and your business as a whole) to only those who need it. For most businesses, there is no reason for anyone--especially a non-employee--to enter the premises in the middle of the night. Furthermore, different employees shouldnt have the same access as each other, simply because they have different access needs. Will one of your newly-hired employees need the same access as you do? Almost certainly not, so there is no reason to allow such a thing to ever take place. Make sure your network permissions are reviewed and corrected periodically.

Establish Role-Based Permissions

On the subject of restricting permissions, a utilitarian policy is generally best to follow. Will one of your users need access to a given resource in order to successfully do their job? If not, don’t give them that access. By assigning these permissions based on work roles, you can granularly give your team members the access they need, without unnecessarily exposing your data to individual employees who may not need a certain asset.

Optimize and Supplement Password Policies

A strong password policy is an absolute must when it comes to your data security. Not only do these passwords need to be strong, they should need to be updated frequently. This will help prevent users from sharing their passwords, or reusing old ones.

Because there are so many passwords that everyone is expected to remember nowadays, the strength of these passwords has suffered. Combining this with the fact that cybercriminals now have stronger tools than ever to crack passwords, the username/password combination is often no longer sufficiently secure. To remedy this, implement two-factor authentication, which makes a cybercriminal’s job that much harder.

Need help with these steps, or any other part of your business’ technology? We can help! Give BNMC a call at (978) 482-2020 to speak to one of our IT professionals!