Access permissions management system and method

A data governance system for use with an existing organizational file system and an access control list associated therewith, said data governance system comprising a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium in which computer program instructions are stored, which instructions, when read by a computer, cause the computer to automatically manage access permissions, said system comprising:

• a probe engine communicating with said organizational file system and with said access control list and being operative to collect access information from said organizational file system and from said access control list in an ongoing manner,
• a redundancy reducing engine receiving an output from said probe engine and providing a redundancy reduced information stream;
• and
• a redundancy reduced information database receiving and storing said redundancy reduced information stream;
• said redundancy-reduced information database storing information relating to a subset of a set of user groups having access permissions to said organizational file system, said subset being created by said redundancy reducing engine,
• said redundancy reducing engine being operative:
• to ascertain which of a multiplicity of user groups having access permissions to said organizational file system are unique user groups, said unique user groups having access permissions to said organizational file system which are not inherited from other user groups;
• to ascertain which of said multiplicity of user groups having access permissions to said organizational file system are inherited user groups, said inherited user groups having access permissions to said organizational file system which are inherited from other user groups;
• to ascertain whether any of said unique user groups are redundant with any of said inherited user groups;
• and
• responsive to said ascertaining whether any of said unique user groups are redundant with any of said inherited user groups, to eliminate from said multiplicity of user groups having access permissions to said organization file system, said unique user groups having access permissions to said organization file system which are redundant with said inherited user groups.