What security best practices should an CLM administrator follow?

• A. Open access to all users.
• B. Least privilege, regular access reviews, strong authentication, audit logging, and secure integrations.
• C. Disable all audit logs.
• D. Use shared accounts for admins.

Answer: (B)

Ensuring strong access control and traceability in a CLM environment is the main idea. Granting the minimum permissions needed for each user or integration, reviewing those permissions regularly, using strong methods to confirm identities, keeping detailed records of what actions were taken, and securing connections to other systems all work together to protect sensitive contract data and keep operations auditable.

Least privilege means users and integrations only have the rights necessary to perform their tasks, reducing the risk of accidental or deliberate misuse. Regular access reviews help catch permission drift as roles change, ensuring someone who no longer needs access doesn’t retain it. Strong authentication, such as multi-factor methods, protects against compromised credentials and helps verify that the right person is signing in. Audit logging creates a trail of actions, enabling accountability, incident response, and compliance with governance requirements. Secure integrations ensure that external systems or APIs don’t become weak links, by enforcing proper authentication, least privilege for connected apps, and ongoing monitoring.

In contrast, opening access to all users, disabling audit logs, or using shared admin accounts undermine accountability and visibility, making it hard to detect misuse or investigate issues.