Create User Groups for Access to Allowed Applications
Safely enabling applications means defining the list of applications you want to allow and
enabling access only for users who have a legitimate business need. For example, some
applications, such as SaaS applications that enable access to Human Resources services
such as Workday or Service Now must be available to any known user on your network.
However, for more sensitive applications, reduce your attack surface by enabling access
only for users who need the applications for business purposes. For example, IT support
personnel might legitimately need access to remote desktop applications, but most users
do not. Limiting user access to applications prevents potential security gaps that an
attacker might use to gain access and control over systems in your network.
To enable user-based access to applications:
For each application allow rule you define, identify the user groups that have a legitimate
business need to access the applications. Mapping application allow rules to
business goals (which includes considering which users have a business need for
a particular type of application) results in a smaller number of rules to manage
compared to mapping port-based rules to users.
If you don’t have existing user groups on your Active Directory (AD) server, alternatively,
create custom LDAP groups to match
groups of users who need access to a particular application.
