The best course of action for a security administrator who is called in the middle of the night by the on-call programmer who needs access to the live system is to give the programmer an emergency ID for temporary access and review the activity. This is because:

Requiring that a change request be completed and approved may delay the resolution of the problem and cause further damage or disruption to the system or business operations. A change request is a formal document that describes the proposed change, its rationale, impact, benefits, risks, costs, and approval process. A change request is usually required for planned or scheduled changes, not for emergency or urgent changes.

Giving the programmer read-only access to investigate the problem may not be sufficient or effective, as the programmer may need to perform actions or tests that require write or execute permissions. Read-only access means that the user can only view or copy data or files, but cannot modify or delete them.

Reviewing activity logs the following day and investigating any suspicious activity may not prevent or detect any unauthorized or malicious actions by the programmer in real time. Activity logs are records of events and actions that occur within a system or network. Activity logs can provide evidence and accountability for system activities, but they are not proactive or preventive controls.

Therefore, giving the programmer an emergency ID for temporary access and reviewing the activity is the best course of action, as it allows the programmer to access the live system and resolve the problem quickly, while also ensuring that the security administrator can monitor and verify the programmer’s activity and revoke the access when it is no longer needed. An emergency ID is a temporary account that grants a user elevated privileges or access to a system or resource for a specific purpose and duration. An emergency ID should be:

Created and authorized by a security administrator or manager

Assigned to a specific user and purpose

Limited in scope and time

Logged and audited

Revoked and deleted after use

Some of the best practices for emergency access to live systems are12:

Establish clear policies and procedures for requesting, approving, granting, monitoring, reviewing, and revoking emergency access

Define criteria and scenarios for emergency access, such as severity, impact, urgency, and risk

Implement controls to prevent unauthorized or unnecessary use of emergency access, such as multifactor authentication, approval workflows, alerts, notifications, and time restrictions

Implement controls to track and audit emergency access activities, such as logging, reporting, analysis, and investigation

Implement controls to ensure accountability and responsibility for emergency access users, such as attestation, justification, documentation, and feedback