When was the last time you performed a full file system permissions audit? What insights surprised you?

Products Access Analyzer Discussions & Questions
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When was the last time you performed a full file system permissions audit? What insights surprised you?

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Hey Chris,

Great question!

We run periodic Data Risk Assessments for our clients throughout the year. Some of the more recent & interesting findings:

  • Financial Planning folders exposed: For a public organization, these folders were configured with Open Access. We also discovered several individuals, who should not have had visibility, actively accessing the data within the last six months.
  • CreatorOwner assignments on shared folders: This built-in identity was applied across department and application folders on multiple file servers. It results in an absolute mess of explicit user permissions tied to the folder creator. As a legacy NTFS feature, it has limited real-world use today. We strongly recommend eliminating it wherever it’s still in place.
  • Gmail/Yahoo accounts linked to Finance Team Sites: Personal email accounts were found attached to shared links, providing unintended access to Microsoft Team Sites housing financial data.

One memorable example in my nine years of conducting Data Risk Assessments: an HR division-level folder was openly accessible company-wide. The justification? It held three PDFs the entire company needed. However, that same folder also contained sensitive data; compensation & benefits, personnel records, performance reviews, and more. I often wonder if that HR folder is still open today. :thinking:

I’d love to hear what others are seeing in their environments!

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