Word of the Day: privilege creep

Word of the Day Daily updates on the latest technology terms | June 20, 2019 privilege creep Privilege creep is the gradual accumulation of access rights beyond what an individual needs to do his or her job. In information technology, a privilege is an identified right that a particular end user has to a particular system resource, such as a file folder or virtual machine. Privilege creep often occurs when an employee changes job responsibilities within the organization and is granted new privileges. While an employee may need to retain his or her former privileges during a period of transition, those privileges are rarely revoked and result in an unnecessary accumulation of access privileges. Privilege creep, which is a common problem in IT organizations of all sizes, creates a two-fold security risk. First, an employee with excess privileges may be tempted to use those privileges inappropriately. Second, if an intruder gains access to an end user's account -- and that end user has excess privileges -- the intruder will also have excess privileges. Either scenario poses a risk that could result in data loss or theft. The security risks caused by privilege misalignment is so great that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have issued a public service announcement, warning that an increase in insider threats from disgruntled and/or former employees can be traced to privilege creep and authorized access to sensitive information and the networks. According to research by Intermedia and Osterman Research, 89% of employees leave their jobs with a valid login and password to at least one business application belonging to their former employers, and 49% admitted to logging in to an account after leaving the company.   Privilege creep can be minimized by enforcing the principle of least privilege (PoLP) and limiting permissions to the minimal level an employee needs to perform his or her job. Privilege creep can also be minimized by conducting periodic access rights reviews. This is a process in which system owners and managers confirm each employee's need to access specific roles and rights in an effort to discover and revoke excess privileges. An identity and access management system can facilitate a review by providing administrators with the ability to instantly view and change access rights. Quote of the Day "The ability to centrally monitor, manage and audit identities and permissions across the entire IT infrastructure keeps privileges aligned with each employee's tasks and responsibilities, greatly reducing the risk of privilege creep." - Michael Cobb Trending Terms privilege IAM system privilege escalation attack privileged access management principle of least privilege access governance Learning Center Cloud, SaaS bring identity and access management challenges Many organizations continue to struggle with identity and access management and want to improve their security infrastructure. In this Q&A, the CEO of Identity Automation discusses identity and access management challenges with implementation and more. Preventing privilege creep: How to keep access and roles aligned Privilege creep is hard to track over time and can lead to data breaches. Find out how your enterprise can manage and review user access. Weighing privileged identity management tools' pros and cons Assessing privileged identity management tools and picking the right one is essential to your company's IT security. This guide explains PIM tools on the market and how to evaluate them and identify the one that will best secure your organization. Avoid privilege creep from the software development team Privilege creep often occurs during in-house software development work. Learn why this happens and what tools and techniques help keep access secure. Top security initiatives for 2019 include MFA, end-user training Learn what key security initiatives IT pros plan on steering this year and what implementation best practices should be adopted. Quiz Yourself The former bank technician admitted to the identity theft exploit and said he'd had a guilty ________ about it. a. conscious b. conscience Answer Stay in Touch For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com Visit the Word of the Day Archives and catch up on what you've missed! FOLLOW US About This E-Newsletter This e-newsletter is published by the TechTarget network. To unsubscribe from Whatis.com, click here. Please note, this will not affect any other subscriptions you have signed up for. TechTarget, Whatis, 275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466. Contact: webmaster@techtarget.com Copyright 2018 TechTarget. All rights reserved.