The Critical Role of User Management in Cloud Video Surveillance Security

Cloud video surveillance has transformed business security by providing scalability and flexibility in a centralized platform. However, as businesses migrate from legacy video infrastructures to the cloud, new risks emerge; many stemming from user management. 

Poorly enforced user management can often lead to data breaches and unwanted platform access. For example, past employees who have retained their credentials can, in some cases, still access video. In other cases, incorrect role assignments can create wide-ranging permissions for staff who shouldn’t have that level of access. These cybersecurity gaps can affect operations and leave organizations exposed to cyberattacks, hackers, and other risks.

Because of this, proper user management is a critical component for platform security. With attackers increasingly targeting credentials and permissions to access business networks, being able to determine who can access video or adjust system settings is essential. Effective user management helps support cyber resilience by ensuring each individual within an organization is granted the permissions needed to complete their work and nothing more. 

In this article, we’ll explore why user management is so vital to business security, as well as how a cloud video solution can offer best practices to ensure your platform stays protected. 

How User Management Strengthens Operations and Platform Security

As organizations scale, effective user management becomes paramount, serving as both a safeguard and a way to streamline operations. It enables IT teams to align permissions with workflow requirements while mitigating internal and external threats through several key benefits. These include Principle of Least Privilege, organizational efficiency, and reduced risk, all of which we’ll cover below. 

Principle of Least Privilege 

“Principle of Least Privilege” is a foundational cybersecurity best practice which ensures every user is granted only the minimum level of access needed to perform their role. For cloud video surveillance, this means maintaining strict boundaries around who can administrate the account, add or remove users, and adjust settings. While addressing these more critical factors, it is also important to be mindful of who can view, access, export, and share video.

Modern cloud video security platforms should allow organizations to implement this principle by enabling hierarchical control over user permissions. This dramatically reduces the threat posed by compromised accounts, since users are not routinely given more access than necessary. Adherence to this principle is required for compliance frameworks such as SOC II and ISO 27001:2022. 

Without this principle, organizations cannot meet audit requirements or prove that each user’s permissions match operational responsibilities. 

Principle of Least Privilege helps stop common threats caused by poor user management, including “permission creep,” helping minimize organizational risk and ensuring users only have the access they need.

Efficient Organizational Workflows 

User management not only safeguards platform data and information, but it also supports day-to-day workflows, particularly as your company grows, or those within the organization change roles. Streamlined onboarding and offboarding reduces the time needed to integrate a new employee into an organization, while also ensuring that any security risks posed by former employee accounts are quickly dealt with. This time saved allows team members to focus on other tasks for a more efficient, secure company. 

Integrating with a single sign-on (SSO) solution can further streamline workflows, as many support automatic provisioning and pruning of users who are removed from the SSO platform. 

Reduces the Risk of Unauthorized Access 

With every additional user added to a cloud video platform, a new potential risk is introduced. It’s essential that organizations proactively manage and restrict access to avoid both accidental and malicious damage. 

Role-based user access coupled with audit trails help significantly reduce risk. By assigning users only the access privileges relevant to their needs, IT administrators can quickly identify changes and revoke permissions if necessary. Granular permissions further reduce risk by giving organizations a wider range of permissions to customize based on user, such as if they can access certain cameras or manage whole user groups. This precision lowers the likelihood of errors, data breaches, or accidental reconfiguration. 

In combination, these three benefits of user management enable organizations to build a comprehensive defense against misuse of user accounts to protect video data and information. 

Using User Management for Video Surveillance System Security

A complete cloud video platform should provide user management to help enforce cybersecurity best practices for safeguarding data and reducing unnecessary burden on IT to manage accounts. It’s vital that your chosen platform has the right tools in place to receive the above-mentioned benefits of user management. When selecting your cloud system, make sure to confirm it has:

• User Groups 
• Operational Audits 
• Instantly Pushed Changes 
• Forgot Password Resets 
• SSO Integration 
• Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) 

This list can be used as a foundational resource as you check your chosen system. Below, we’ll cover these items in detail. 

Granular Permissions With User Groups 

User groups in a cloud video platform make it easy to make changes, streamline setup, and ensure that no one gets left out of updates or changes. Users assigned to a particular user group will have access to all permissions enabled in the group settings. This makes it easier to roll out new system deployments; instead of having to go in and adjust each individual’s account permissions or adjust permissions on each device, groups can quickly be given the same level of access if the permissions level of an entire group of employees is known.

Enhanced Insights Through Operational Audits 

Operational audits allow businesses to monitor user activity by utilizing historical reports of account-based actions, providing greater insight into permissions, and enabling audit trails to more easily identify user-created gaps in security. With these reports, IT teams can pinpoint the source of issues, helping quickly mitigate any issues. This includes identifying password strength across accounts and ensuring that users are following best practices regarding their login credentials. 

Instantly Pushed Changes via the Cloud 

One primary advantage of a cloud-managed platform is the ability to push changes across the organization remotely. Permissions updates, group assignments, or account revocations are immediately synchronized to all affected users, devices, and locations via the cloud. This capability nearly eliminates any risk that may occur from permission removals being delayed. With instantly pushed changes, businesses can be confident that their organizational access is current.

Automated Forgot Password Resets and SSO for Improved Operations 

Automated forgot password resets reduce the number of IT support ticket volume while empowering users to recover passwords independently and securely. This helps keep operations running smoothly and offers an additional backstop against cyberattacks when paired with thorough user training on password best practices. 

Additionally, leveraging SSO reduces the need for users to remember multiple passwords. SSO allows users to leverage the same set of credentials across platforms, providing a more seamless integration of the cloud video platform into your network and further streamlining user experience and operations. 

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) to Strengthen Account Security 

MFA is a best practice for defending against credential theft, one of the most common entry points for hackers. By requiring not just a password but an additional verification factor, such as a code sent to a second device or a push notification, MFA offers an effective barrier to even those in possession of stolen credentials. 

Have More Control Over User Management and System Security With OWS 

User management is a foundational aspect of both cybersecurity and operational optimization in a cloud video surveillance platform. With secure user management, organizations can mitigate risk, simplify compliance, and support efficient business processes. 

User management in OpenEye Web Services (OWS) enhances platform security with user groups, operational audits, instantly applied permission changes to users and recorders, automated forgot password resets, and multi-factor authentication. These features help enhance overall platform security and ensure that users only have the level of access necessary to their role.

If your organization is ready to improve system security while leveraging advanced cloud video surveillance, book an OWS demo today.