How should termination procedures address a user's multiple roles?

To continue reading for free, register below or login

Requires Membership to View

To gain access to this and all member only content, please provide the following information (all fields required):

First Name:
Last Name:
Country: Select... Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Man, Isle of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Email Address:

Do you manage, evaluate, recommend, implement, support or purchase security products, software or services?
YesNo

Please estimate the yearly security budget for your entire organization including all security products and services.
Please select... Over $10 Million $5 Million-$10 Million $1 Million-$4.9 Million $500,000-$999,999 $100,000-$499,999 $50,000-$99,999 $25,000-$49,999 $10,000-$24,999 Less than $10,000 None

What is your role in purchasing IT related products and services? (Check all that apply)
Technical decision maker
Financial decision maker
Recommend/Specify
Evaluate products
Implement Products/Services
Determine Needs
Create Security Strategy
None

By joining SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email updates from the TechTarget network of sites, including updates on new content, magazine or event notifications, new site launches and market research surveys. Please verify all information and selections above. You may unsubscribe at any time from one or more of the services you have selected by editing your profile or unsubscribing via email.

TechTarget cares about your privacy. Read our Privacy Policy

BROWSE BY TAG Identity Management and Access Control,   Password Management and Policy,   Identity Management Technology and Strategy,   Enterprise Identity and Access Management,   Security Audit, Compliance and Standards,   Sarbanes-Oxley Act,   Expert Archive: Identity Management and Access Control,   VIEW ALL TAGS

Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us

RELATED CONTENT Identity Management and Access Control Learn about enterprise strategy for server virtualization single sign-on Employee information security awareness training for new IAM systems Can you combine RFID tag technology with GPS to track stolen goods? Is there a free enterprise-caliber password-management tool? Cryptosystem attacks that do not involve obtaining the decryption key Can any firm or organization get a digital signature certificate? Should the CTO have domain administrator access? Does password sharing in international branches violate SOX? What are best practices for secure password distribution after a data breach? Is it possible to encrypt CDs and DVDs as well as SD cards? Password Management and Policy Privileged account management critical to data security Making the case for enterprise IAM centralized access control How to prevent brute force webmail attacks Best practices for a privileged access policy to secure user accounts Mature SIMs do more than log aggregation and correlation PCI compliance requirement 2: Defaults PCI compliance requirement 8: Unique IDs Enterprise password management policy: Finding the balance Ease the compliance burden with automation Security book chapter: The Truth About Identity Theft Sarbanes-Oxley Act Ex-SEC chief Pitt decries state of Sarbanes-Oxley, risk management Information security book excerpts and reviews Internal audits for Sarbanes Oxley and internal IT support Internal auditors and CISOs mitigate similar risks Implement security and compliance in a risk management context Does password sharing in international branches violate SOX? Consensus Controls project aims to set benchmarks for compliance Security visualization helps make log files work The Little Black Book of Computer Security, 2nd Edition RSA attendees see data classification, rights management projects stumble Sarbanes-Oxley Act Research

RELATED GLOSSARY TERMS Terms from Whatis.com − the technology online dictionary graphical password  (SearchSecurity.com) identity chaos  (SearchSecurity.com) logon  (SearchSecurity.com) masquerade  (SearchSecurity.com) OpenID  (WhatIs.com) salt  (SearchSecurity.com) session replay  (SearchSecurity.com) single-factor authentication (SFA)  (SearchSecurity.com) TACACS  (SearchSecurity.com) war dialer  (SearchSecurity.com)

RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary

By any and all means possible, remove every trace of a terminated user from the system. Though it may be a headache to remove access from a user in multiple groups, it has to be done. In fact, the more groups a user is in, the greater the danger that his or her "ghosts" can come back and haunt your system maliciously.

Terminated users who still have access are just as likely to penetrate enterprise systems as current employees. Former employees who retain access are considered by the information security industry to be insiders, making them part of any insider threat.

Besides blocking a terminated user for simple security reasons, removing these users is required for compliance with regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Both of these regulations require regular auditing of access controls and reporting of active accounts. It makes regulatory sense to monitor and remove terminated users from all groups.

You need an identity management system that not only provisions accounts, but also audits and removes stale accounts. When shopping around for such a system, make sure it can automate provisioning and provide auditing and reporting of active and inactive accounts. These systems should automatically flag an account that hasn't been active for a set time period, such as 30 days.

There are a number of tools on the market that can easily erase ex-employee IDs, provision new ones and change access levels. The Identity Management Suite from BMC Software Inc. has a tool called BMC User Administration and Provisioning, formerly called CONTROL-SA. The tool automates provisioning of accounts for as many (or as few) groups as a user needs access to. It also provides complete auditing and reporting capabilities for both compliance purposes and for use internally by your information security team. It also automatically removes expired users, preventing terminated employees from accessing your systems -- no matter how many groups they were in. Another product, PowerPassword from Symark Software International, offers similar access management controls but is strictly for Unix- and Linux-based systems. PowerPassword also provides logging and auditing features required for compliance.

For more information on termination procedures see Chapter 6 of my book, The Little Black of Computer Security. The chapter Managing Human Resources is excerpted on SearchSecurity.com.

For more information: