For every business owner, the inherent challenge of cybersecurity is how to strike an acceptable balance between employee convenience and the need for strict protective measures. Because the truth is the more security features we implement, the more cumbersome our user experience typically becomes. Here we’ll discuss all the potential risks and define the tried and true concept that cybersecurity-savvy businesses use to limit those dangers; The Principle of Least Privilege Access.

In an effort to provide convenience, many companies allow their employees to have local administrative rights or, worse, pay no attention to who they’ve given this authority to in the first place. Controlling access to administrator accounts is crucial, as these accounts should only be used when necessary and for the shortest time needed to minimize risks.

It’s somewhat understandable, as allowing employees to add/remove programs, install software and hardware, and perform updates, without any IT middlemen gives employees maximum control over their day-to-day activities and streamlines their workflow. However, granting local administrator privileges can lead to ‘privilege creep,’ creating security vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by implementing least privilege access controls.

But mismanaging the control of admin privileges is a potentially grave error that can create many significant problems down the line.

What is the Principle of Least Privilege Access?

The Principle of Least Privilege Access (POLP) is a security concept that calls for granting each employee the minimum amount of privileges necessary to perform day-to-day tasks. This applies to everything from applications, systems, and processes to software and hardware. It is also referred to as the Principle of Minimal Privilege (POMP) or the Principle of Least Authority (POLA).

Essentially if you implement Principle of Least Privilege, you only allow employees to access the precise resources they need to do their job on a daily basis in order to minimize the ability of their actions to negatively affect the company as a whole.

Although it might sound extreme to some, Principle of Least Privilege has long been considered a cybersecurity best practice and an essential step in protecting critical company assets.

Why is the Principle of Least Privilege Access Important?

Implementing the Principle of Least Privilege immediately mitigates many potential risks and provides many benefits, including the following:

• Exposure of credentials – When users have elevated privileges, their credentials have more power and value to threat actors. Thus, if their login info is compromised, you have given away the keys to the store. The larger the number of employees with elevated privileges, the larger the attack surface for hackers to target and the higher chances of being breached. The Principle of Least Privilege helps protect critical systems and sensitive data by reducing the risk of attackers gaining access.

• Confusion and disorganization – If a wide variety of employees have the power to make broad sweeping changes, it becomes nearly impossible to stay organized and on the same page. One employee might install new software and change a few user settings only to have these changes erased by another employee an hour later. Security failures, data corruption, and the mismanagement of critical resources are just a few potential consequences that can arise from this type of setup. Implementing Principle of Least Privilege can lead to enhancing operational performance by minimizing threat windows and mitigating the impact of attacks.

• Internal threats – Unlike antivirus solutions, which mainly protect against external threats, implementing Principle of Least Privilege can also safeguard against unintentional internal incompetence, like an employee visiting a questionable site and exposing their credentials or making sweeping changes to your workflow without realizing they are doing so. More importantly, it can also limit the damage done if a disgruntled current or former employee attempts to sabotage or attack your operation from the inside. POLP makes it harder for bad actors to access sensitive data.

• Increased accountability and traceability – By limiting the number of users who have privileged access, you also increase accountability for those who have it since the negative effects of any significant changes can be easily traced back to their activities.

• Insurance implications – If you plan to apply for Cybersecurity insurance, you can have certain questions about your admin privileges on any application you fill out. Not implementing Principle of Least Privilege could possibly result in higher rates, coverage being excluded, or even denial.

• Compliance concerns – Many industries have specific compliance standards, such as GDPR or HIPAA, emphasizing the need for least privilege access control. Implementing Principle of Least Privilege helps meet these standards and reduce the risk of potential penalties or legal issues.

What is Privilege Creep?

Principle of Least Privilege can also help with a potential pitfall that we see businesses frequently fall prey to; privilege creep. Granting and revoking administrator privileges is essential to prevent privilege creep and ensure security.

Although many companies may start out revoking privileges in an attempt to gain control, without Principle of Least Privilege, they may inevitably opt to re-grant some of these permissions on a case-by-case basis. As the requests grow, many times, they can be cumbersome to manage or get lost in the shuffle. And once privileges are re-granted, they are typically never revoked due to negligence or inconvenience. Slowly but surely, without a clear policy in place, companies can find themselves with several users having unnecessary admin privileges all over again. Cloud and virtualized environments can lead to excessive privileged access, making it crucial to implement Principle of Least Privilege to manage permissions effectively.

This type of “privilege creep” can be cured by implementing Principle of Least Privilege since it will dictate that users only have access to the least amount of privileges needed to do their job at any given moment.

How to Implement the Principle of Least Privilege Access Control Model

To implement the Principle of Least Privilege model in your organization, start with the following steps:

1. Remove unnecessary admin privileges – Where possible and not cost-prohibitive, create dedicated admin accounts for only those employees that absolutely need them. This will reduce security gaps and make it easier to monitor and control activities. Managing privileged accounts is crucial to reducing these security gaps.

2. Implement Role Based Access Control (RBAC) – How do you assess who should have those dedicated admin accounts? RBAC can help. Leveraging RBAC involves defining the various roles within your organization and then assigning specific permission and access rights based on the functions and responsibilities they fulfill. By mapping RBAC to the least privilege principle, you can better determine who needs access to which systems and why.

3. Introduce a password manager (PM) – If you don’t use them already, implementing PMs in your daily workflow can help you create stronger passwords, store them more securely, and rotate them regularly. These practices could reduce a hacker’s ability to move laterally (from one device to another) across your systems if they were to gain access and minimize the impact of any compromised credentials.

4. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) – By enabling MFA, you add an extra layer of security by requiring users to provide multiple forms of verification when they access accounts or sensitive data. This means if a user’s credentials are compromised, their password is no longer the last line of defense. Protecting privileged credentials with MFA is essential to prevent unauthorized access.

5. Regularly audit admin access – Consistently keeping track of whether your current permissions are aligned with your adopted principle is crucial to prevent the previously mentioned privilege creep and maintain a solid cybersecurity profile. You should also use access logs and regular activity monitoring to spot any unauthorized access attempts, misallocated resources, or unusual behavior. Regularly auditing user access ensures alignment with the Principle of Least Privilege.

Implementing these basic practices is a strong start towards shoring up security gaps associated with the mismanagement of admin settings. However, even these basic measures can be challenging for many companies to incorporate into their well-established routines. So, many of them outsource these tasks to Managed Service Providers (MSP), who have the experience and resources to quickly and efficiently introduce the solutions mentioned above and then continuously audit their cybersecurity profile. MSPs also have the expertise needed to implement advanced tech solutions such as Auto Elevate or Admin by Request that are specifically designed to reduce risk while keeping end-user convenience.

If you are struggling to maintain control over your admin privileges or just need help reducing cybersecurity risks in general, don’t hesitate to contact me at lenny@reliabletechnology.co.