Page 144 - Cyber Defense eMagazine September 2025

Executives and auditors both appreciate charts showing clear improvement, by shrinking backlogs,
quicker remediation cycles, and fewer false alarms. Demonstrating these trends visually can unlock
funding and support, turning compliance from a burden into an organizational win.

How Dormant Access Cleanup Reduces UAR Fatigue

User Access Reviews (UAR) are notorious for overwhelming reviewers with spreadsheets filled with
entitlements, many of which have not been used in months or even years. Dormant accounts and
entitlements quietly pile up, inflating review efforts and burying critical access decisions under a mountain
of irrelevant data.

Here is why clearing dormant access before running your next UAR campaign is a game-changer:

• Massive Reduction in Review Volume: By proactively removing the unused entitlements, you cut
down the review workload significantly, making the process quicker and more focused.
• Better Reviewer Engagement: When reviewers are asked to approve access they rarely or never
see in action, they naturally default to rubber-stamping. Eliminating dormant entitlements ensures
that each item reviewed is genuinely relevant, improving the quality of decisions.
• Faster Reviews: Less noise means faster review cycle times. Your audit and engineering teams
can quickly move through streamlined reviews, freeing valuable hours to focus on strategic tasks.
• Reduced Audit Burden: Auditors appreciate streamlined UAR processes where each reviewed
entitlement can be easily justified. Cutting dormant access before reviews reduce auditor
questions and helps you demonstrate clear governance controls.

In short, removing dormant access before UAR cycle doesn't just simplify the review, it transforms it from
a compliance headache into a meaningful security control. This ultimately saves time, effort, and
resources.

Practical Recommendations for Action

In summary, organizations should consider the following steps to tackle dormancy:

1. Integrate logs from Active Directory, Unix/Linux systems and cloud platforms into your SIEM for
holistic monitoring.
2. Deploy modern IGA solutions with built-in analytics and automation features to continuously
detect and remediate dormant accounts.
3. Regularly review policies, removing unnecessary privileges promptly upon completion of projects
or departure of contractors.
4. Implement stringent lifecycle management policies for both human and non-human identities,
ensuring dormant access does not accumulate unnoticed.

By proactively managing dormant accounts, enterprises must mitigate insider threats, reduce audit
complexities and enhance their overall cybersecurity resilience.

Cyber Defense eMagazine – September 2025 Edition 144
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