Learn about the importance of conducting user access reviews and how to implement them in your organization. Get tips on user access review best practices.
An access review is a formal process in which organizations evaluate who has access to what systems, applications, and data—and whether that access is still appropriate.
The goal? To ensure only the right people have the right access at the right time.
These reviews are a cornerstone of Identity and Access Management (IAM), playing a critical role in reducing risk, maintaining compliance, and strengthening security posture.
Your organisation should be conducting regular access reviews for several key reasons:
✅ Prevent Privilege Creep
Over time, users accumulate access they no longer need. Reviews help revoke unnecessary privileges.
✅ Meet Compliance Requirements
Standards like ISO 27001, NIS 2, and SOX require regular access reviews as part of their security controls.
✅ Minimize Insider Risk
Excessive or outdated access can be exploited, intentionally or unintentionally, by insiders or compromised accounts.
✅ Improve Audit Readiness
Completed reviews create a verifiable audit trail—essential for passing security audits.
✅ Reduce Operational Costs
Streamlining access helps reduce license bloat, shadow IT, and manual admin overhead.
✅ Enhance Incident Response
Knowing who has access to what enables faster containment and remediation when breaches occur.
https://www.kuppingercole.com/research/lb80195/access-reviews-done-right
Automate Where Possible: Manual reviews using Excel and email are error-prone and time-consuming. Tools like Elimity provide automation, visibility, and auditability at scale.
Review by Business Context: Let business owners—not just IT—decide who needs access to what.
Set a Clear Review Schedule: Establish quarterly or risk-based frequencies based on user roles and data sensitivity.
Track and Act on Findings: A review is only effective if feedback results in concrete changes—e.g., revoking access or adjusting permissions.
Integrate with ITSM: Automate ticket creation and follow-up to streamline remediation.
Inventory All Access Rights
Gather access data from all systems and applications.
Define Review Owners
Assign responsibility to business or technical owners for reviewing access in their domains.
Use Risk-Based Prioritization
Focus on sensitive systems, high-privilege roles, and orphaned accounts first.
Automate the Review Process
Use a tool like Elimity to send review tasks, collect input, and trigger change requests automatically.
Report and Repeat
Document decisions and actions, then continuously improve with regular cycles.
✅ Strengthens security by eliminating risky access
✅ Improves compliance with regulations like ISO 27001 & NIS 2
✅ Reduces the workload of IT and audit teams
✅ Helps detect orphaned or excessive accounts
✅ Increases business ownership over access decisions
Want to see how a CISO automated their entire access review process in just 2 days?
📥 Download the Customer Case Study
Easily replace Excel and email for any of your user access recertification campaigns. Go for visual, easy-to-use, and automated access reviews to ensure audit readiness.
✅ Improve security by removing risky access
✅ Stay compliant with ISO 27001 & NIS 2
✅ Save time with automated reviews
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