MPA Best Practices
MPA Best Practice Spotlight: Access Control — Your First Line of Defense
Access control is the most-cited and most-failed control set in MPA assessments. A focused look at what assessors expect — and where teams fall short.
If your access model is a spreadsheet and a few shared logins, you'll fail an MPA assessment before the assessor leaves the conference room.
What good access control looks like
- Every human and service has a unique identity.
- Privileges are granted by role, not by request ticket.
- Joiner-mover-leaver process is documented and timed.
- Quarterly access reviews with sign-off.
- Privileged access is logged, alerted on, and time-bound.
Where teams trip
Service accounts, contractor handoffs, and 'temporary' admin grants that became permanent. Fix those three and you're ahead of most of the industry.
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