The Hidden Risks of Inactive User Accounts

Imagine this scenario.

Joan, a sales rep, resigns from a tech company. Despite leaving, her user account remains active in the company's system, granting her continued access to their CRM tool with sensitive customer information. Now, Joan’s account is an “inactive user account”.

This situation shows the risks of inactive user accounts in an organization's IT. Failing to deactivate accounts for ex-employees can lead to security breaches and compliance lapses, exposing the company to data vulnerabilities and regulatory violations.

Deactivating Joan’s user account seems like such a simple thing to do but yet it highlights a critical oversight organizations frequently face. In a complex IT landscape, the volume of user accounts leads to neglect in managing inactive accounts.

Why does this happen? What risks does it create? How can we mitigate them?

How are these inactive user accounts created?

Inactive user accounts aren’t just created when an employee leaves the company. Here are some common scenarios.

1. Employees leaving the job

When employees leave an organization, their access to systems and software is not revoked promptly due to incomplete or inefficient offboarding processes.

2. Employees changing roles

Employees who change roles within an organization might keep access rights from their previous position, granting them inappropriate access to certain software or data that's no longer relevant to their new role.

3. Shared User Accounts

Shared accounts for software access can lead to unauthorized access if not properly managed or if passwords aren't changed when a member leaves the organization.

4. Temporary Worker Access

Contractors, freelancers, or temporary workers are often granted access to system software for the duration of their projects. If their access is not deactivated upon completion of their contract, they retain access to the software.

5. Test accounts

During development or testing, IT departments create test accounts to simulate user access or troubleshoot. These accounts are supposed to be temporary but can be overlooked, posing a security risk if they have access to live data or production environments.

These activities create a security risk in the form of inactive user accounts, which must be managed to avoid security implications.

Challenges in managing inactive user accounts

Here is a summary of the challenges:

Lack of Data Visibility for IT Teams

The challenge starts with insufficient visibility into the active status of all user accounts across the organization's IT landscape. Without comprehensive tools and processes for monitoring account activity, IT teams struggle to identify which accounts remain active unnecessarily.

This lack of visibility is often aggravated by complex IT infrastructures that span across multiple platforms, including on-premises systems, cloud services, and SaaS applications, making it difficult to track user activities and access rights systematically.

Overwhelming Number of Software Applications to Manage

IT departments manage numerous software applications and systems, each requiring specific knowledge and procedures for user access. This places a heavy administrative burden on IT teams and increases the risk of oversight.
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With every new application or service, managing user accounts becomes more daunting, leading to inactive accounts slipping through the cracks due to prioritization of more immediate or critical tasks.

Inadequate Offboarding Processes

The persistence of inactive user accounts is due to the lack of offboarding processes and poor communication between departments. Effective account management requires coordination between HR, IT, and other relevant departments to ensure timely action when an employee leaves.

Underestimating risks with inactive accounts and lack of awareness and training on security best practices hinder proactive account management. Without a robust offboarding protocol and clear lines of communication, the risk of inactive accounts becoming security vulnerabilities increases.

What are the risks of inactive user accounts?

1. Unauthorized Access

Inactive accounts can be exploited by staff, contractors, or malicious individuals to gain access to systems and sensitive data.

2. Data Breaches

Inactive accounts pose a heightened risk of data breaches, enabling attackers to pilfer information such as customer details, financial records, and intellectual property.

3. Compliance Violations
 
Maintaining inactive accounts can result in breaches of regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX, leading to potential fines and legal complications.

4. Insider Threats

Contractors or ex-employees with remaining access privileges may abuse their rights to harm systems, steal data, or disrupt operations.

5. Increased Attack Surface

Each inactive account expands the organization’s attack surface, making it more vulnerable to cyber threats and heightening security risks.

6. Difficulty in Detecting Breaches

Breaches through inactive accounts can be challenging to identify, as early activities may appear legitimate and thus delay response times.

7. Legal and Financial Consequences

Beyond compliance violations, organizations may face legal action from affected parties or individuals due to negligence in managing access controls.

8. Compromised Network Security

Inactive accounts with network access can be leveraged for lateral movement within the network, jeopardizing systems and escalating potential harm.

How can I manage the risks associated with inactive user accounts?

Here is an overview of how to manage the risks associated with inactive user accounts:

1. Implement Offboarding Procedures

Establish clear offboarding processes to ensure that all access rights are revoked when employees leave the organization, change roles, or when temporary contracts end.

2. Regular Access Reviews

Conduct periodic reviews and audits of all user accounts to identify and deactivate or delete any inactive accounts. This should include checking for unnecessary privileges that current employees might hold.

3. Automate Account Management

Utilize access management solutions to automate the deactivation and deletion of user accounts based on specific triggers, such as employment status changes or prolonged inactivity.

4. Adopt a Least Privilege Access Policy

Ensure that users have only the minimum level of access required to perform their job functions. Regularly review and adjust these access levels to minimize potential risks.

5. Enhance Authentication and Authorization Measures

Implement strong authentication methods, like multi-factor authentication (MFA), to add an extra layer of security, making it harder for unauthorized users to exploit inactive accounts.

6. Educate Employees on Security Best Practices

Raise awareness among current employees about the importance of security practices, including reporting any suspected misuse of accounts or sharing credentials.

7. Improve Communication Between Departments

Foster better communication between HR, IT, and other relevant departments to ensure timely updates on employee status changes, role transitions, and contract completions.

8. Use Account Expiration Features

Where possible, set accounts to automatically expire after a certain period of inactivity or upon the anticipated end date of a user’s need for access.

9. Monitor and Respond to Suspicious Activities

Implement monitoring tools to detect unusual activities associated with user accounts and have a response plan in place for quick action if an inactive account is compromised.

10. Secure and Monitor Shared Accounts

For necessary shared accounts, ensure strict control and monitoring, including regular password changes and access reviews.

11. Implement Role-based Access Control (RBAC)

Use RBAC to easily manage and review access permissions based on   the roles within the organization, making it easier to adjust or revoke access as needed.

12. Develop a Comprehensive Identity Governance Framework

Create policies and procedures that cover the entire lifecycle of user identities and access rights within the organization, from account creation to deactivation.

13. Create a Culture of Security

Foster an organizational culture that prioritizes cybersecurity, where employees understand their role in maintaining security and are encouraged to take proactive steps to secure access.

Organizations need an “always-on” system

While these strategies might help mitigate the risks of inactive user accounts, they’re still periodic. An audit based approach for access reviews only keeps the systems safe for a short period of time.

What organizations need is a system that constantly keeps them informed of access review gaps so they can act on it. That’s where Stitchflow can help.

Stitchflow automatically applies over 100 checks across user access, drift in enrollment between groups, apps and channels, device health, compliance checks, and unused apps. Stitchflow identifies exactly what needs to be fixed, enables remediation in bulk, and then automates maintenance so gaps are addressed as soon as they are found.