Roll out guest cleanup processes
Implementation Effort: Medium – Identity governance teams must configure access reviews, analyze guest activity data, and coordinate with sponsors to manage guest accounts effectively.
User Impact: High – Guest users may be prompted to confirm their need for access, and sponsors may be engaged to validate ongoing collaborations.
Overview
Rolling out guest cleanup processes in Microsoft Entra ID involves implementing a structured approach to identify and manage inactive or unnecessary guest accounts. This includes configuring access reviews targeting guest users, analyzing sign-in activity to detect inactivity, and coordinating with internal sponsors to validate the necessity of ongoing access.
Access reviews can be set up to automatically identify guest users who have not signed in within a specified period, such as 90 days. These reviews can be configured to remove access for non-responding users and to block sign-in for denied users, followed by automatic deletion after a defined period. Additionally, the inactive guest report provides insights into guest accounts based on their last sign-in date, allowing administrators to tailor cleanup actions accordingly.
Engaging sponsors in the cleanup process ensures that each guest account is evaluated for its current relevance to business needs. Sponsors can provide context on whether the collaboration is still active and if the guest's access remains necessary. This collaborative approach enhances accountability and ensures that access decisions are well-informed.
Implementing these cleanup processes aligns with the Zero Trust principles by enforcing "Verify explicitly" through regular validation of guest access and "Assume breach" by proactively removing stale accounts that could be exploited by threat actors. Failure to manage guest accounts effectively can lead to unauthorized access, data leakage, and increased attack surfaces.