The Real Reason Managers Rubberstamp Access Reviews

Read full article here: https://claritysecurity.com/clarity-blog/why-managers-rubberstamp-uars/?source=nhimg

User Access Reviews (UARs) are central to Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), directly influencing an organization’s compliance, risk management, and overall security posture. Yet, their effectiveness is frequently undermined by a pervasive problem: rubberstamping.

The Rubberstamping Problem

Rubberstamping occurs when managers hastily approve access rights during reviews without meaningful scrutiny—often hitting “approve all.” This behavior negates the very purpose of UARs and leaves enterprises vulnerable to unauthorized access, audit failures, and security breaches.

Why It Happens

Organizations consistently face three root causes:

• Time Constraints – Managers already burdened with deadlines see UARs as low-priority busywork.
• Lack of Understanding – Most reviewers aren’t security professionals and struggle to interpret access rights.
• Review Fatigue – Reviewing thousands of entitlements across hundreds of applications overwhelms even diligent managers.

The result: disengaged reviewers, superficial approvals, and ineffective governance.

Why It Matters

Without accurate and thoughtful UAR responses, identity governance efforts collapse. Rubberstamping undermines least-privilege enforcement, increases the risk of unauthorized access, and can lead to failed compliance audits.

Addressing Rubberstamping

While automation helps streamline UAR preparation, distribution, and revocation, it cannot solve the human factor of careless approvals. To minimize rubberstamping, enterprises must:

• Adopt smarter governance models that prioritize risk signals.
• Provide context and clarity to managers during reviews.
• Incorporate automation and machine learning to highlight high-risk entitlements.

Risk-Powered Governance

Clarity addresses this challenge through a Risk-Powered Governance model. By embedding automation and ML into UAR workflows, Clarity enables managers to focus on the most critical access risks, reduce fatigue, and improve accuracy—minimizing rubberstamping and strengthening overall governance.

Bottom Line

Rubberstamping isn’t just inefficiency—it’s a direct risk to compliance and security. By tackling its root causes and adopting risk-powered governance, enterprises can transform UARs from a checkbox exercise into a powerful control for identity security.