Glossary

Periodic Access Reviews

Compliance and Regulations

What is Periodic Access Reviews?

Periodic access reviews, also known as access recertification, are scheduled evaluations of user access rights to ensure that individuals have only the privileges necessary to perform their roles. These reviews require organizations to examine, validate, and, if necessary, revoke access to systems, applications, or data based on current roles, responsibilities, or risk posture. This process is mandated in many cybersecurity compliance frameworks to maintain least privilege and reduce access creep.

Why is Periodic Access Reviews Important?

Over time, users often accumulate access privileges due to job changes, project work, or administrative oversight. Without regular review, this can lead to excessive access, insider risk, and regulatory non-compliance. Periodic access reviews ensure that user permissions remain aligned with their current role, reducing the attack surface and enforcing access governance.

Regulatory frameworks including NERC CIP-004, IEC 62443-2-1, NIS2, TSA SD02E, and NIST 800-53 (AC-2, AC-6) require organizations to perform and document periodic access reviews as part of their internal control structure. These reviews must typically include:

A list of current users and access levels.
Validation by system owners or managers.
Documentation of access removals or changes.
Audit logs for compliance reporting.

Regular recertification demonstrates continuous compliance, improves operational security, and helps prevent unauthorized access by former employees, third-party contractors, or misassigned internal users.

How Does Xona Help with Periodic Access Reviews?

Xona streamlines periodic access reviews by maintaining centralized visibility over all access sessions, user roles, and system permissions. Administrators can export user access reports, session logs, and audit data to facilitate timely reviews and documentation, aligned with regulatory mandates.

The platform also enforces role-based access control, time-based access windows, and just-in-time provisioning, which limit long-term access accumulation. By minimizing persistent privileges and capturing every session’s metadata and video evidence, Xona provides organizations with the data they need to review, validate, and recertify user access, without relying on error-prone manual processes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What regulations require periodic access reviews for critical infrastructure?

Periodic access reviews are required by NERC CIP-004, IEC 62443-2-1, TSA SD02E, NIS2, and NIST 800-53 (particularly controls AC-2 and AC-6), which mandate regular validation of user access privileges.

Why are periodic access reviews essential for enforcing least privilege?

Regular access reviews ensure that users don’t retain outdated or excessive permissions, helping enforce least privilege and reducing the risk of insider threats or accidental misuse of access.

What should a periodic access review process include?

A typical review includes a list of users and access levels, validation by system owners, documentation of changes or revocations, and audit logs for evidence and reporting.

How does Xona simplify periodic access review processes?

Xona centralizes access data including user roles, session history, and permissions making it easy to export reports and logs needed for access reviews, recertification, and compliance audits.

Can Xona help reduce the need for manual access recertification?

Yes, Xona enforces time-based and role-based access controls and just-in-time provisioning, which limit persistent access accumulation and reduce the burden of manual cleanup during reviews.

How does Xona support audit readiness for access recertification?

Xona captures session metadata and full video recordings in an immutable format, providing verifiable proof of user activity to support access reviews, regulatory audits, and internal governance requirements.