IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a framework of policies, processes, and technologies that enable organizations to manage digital identities and control user access to critical corporate information.

Compromised user credentials are among the most common targets for hackers to gain entry into organizations’ networks through malware, phishing, and ransomware attacks. It is therefore vital for enterprises to safeguard their most valuable resources. Many are increasingly turning to Identity and Access Management (IAM) technology to protect their data and people.

It restricts access to sensitive data while allowing employees to view, copy and change content related to their jobs. This information can range from sensitive information to company-specific information.

In this article, we’ll look at what Identity and Access Management helps security, responsibility, what it is made of and the benefits:

How Identity and Access Management (IAM) Boosts Security

The core objective of an IAM platform is to assign one digital identity to each individual or a device. From there, the solution maintains, modifies, and monitors access levels and privileges through each user’s access life cycle.

The core responsibilities of an IAM system are to:

1. Verify and authenticate individuals based on their roles and contextual information such as geography, time of day, or (trusted) networks
2. Capture and record user login events
3. Manage and grant visibility of the business’s user identity database
4. Manage the assignment and removal of users’ access privileges
5. Enable system administrators to manage and restrict user access while monitoring changes in user privileges.
6. Role-Based Access Control

IAM frameworks are not only crucial to controlling user access to critical information but also implementing role-based access control. This enables system administrators to regulate access to corporate networks or systems based on individual users’ roles, which are defined by their job title, level of authority, and responsibility within the business.

2. Automatic De-Provisioning

An Identity and Access Management solution is also crucial to preventing security risks when employees depart a business. Manually de-provisioning access privileges to the apps and services the former employee used can often take time or even be forgotten entirely, leaving a security gap for hackers. IAM prevents this by automatically de-provisioning access rights once a user leaves the company or as their role within the organization changes.

3. Human and Device Identification

Digital identities do not just exist for humans, as IAM also manages the identity of devices and applications. This establishes further trust and provides deeper context around whether a user is who they say they are and the applications that users are entitled to access.

Objectives of IAM

• To prevent unauthorized parties from exiting the system, the purpose of this IAM should be to ensure that legitimate parties have adequate access to the right resources at the right time.
• It only gives access to a certain group of people, such as contractors, employees, customers, and vendors. You’ll also need the key to verify their identities and provide them access to everything throughout the onboarding process.
• To revoke access and begin monitoring activities in order to safeguard the system and data. IAM goals include operational efficiency in regulatory compliance, fraud detection, and lifecycle management, in addition to protection against cyber intrusions.
• When it comes to fraud protection, IAM is the best way to reduce fraud losses. Since a crime has been committed, the insider who has abused his access rights has been identified as corrupt. IAM assists in hiding traces to evade discovery. IAM is an automated system that analyses transactions for fraud detection using preset criteria.
• It also guarantees that the Company meets various regulatory criteria for the detection and identification of suspicious behavior and money-laundering situations.

What is Identity and Access Management Made of?

1. Single sign-on (SSO): Single sign-on (SSO)is a form of access control that enables users to authenticate with multiple software applications or systems using just one login and one set of credentials. The application or site that the user attempts to access relies on a trusted third party to verify that the user is who they say they are, resulting in:
2. Enhanced user experience
3. Reduced password fatigue
4. Simplified password management
5. Minimized security risks for customers, partners, and vendors
6. Limited credential usage
7. Improved identity protection
8. Multi-factor Authentication: Multi-factor authenticationverifies a user’s identity with requirements to enter multiple credentials and provide various factors:

a. Something the user knows: a password.

b. Something the user has: a token or code sent to the user via email or SMS, to a hardware token generator, or to an authenticator application installed on the user’s smartphone.

c. Something specific to the user, such as biometric information

3. Privileged Access Management: Privileged access management protects businesses from both cyber and insider attacks by assigning higher permission levels to accounts with access to critical corporate resources and administrator-level controls. These accounts are typically high-value targets for cybercriminals and, as such, high risk for organizations.

4. Risk-Based Authentication: When a user attempts to log in to an application, a risk-based authentication solution looks at contextual features such as their current device, IP address, location, or network to assess the risk level.

Based on this, it will decide whether to allow the user access to the application, prompt them to submit an additional authentication factor, or deny them access. This helps businesses immediately identify potential security risks, gain deeper insight into user context, and increase security with additional authentication factors.

5. Data Governance: Data governance is the process that enables businesses to manage the availability, integrity, security, and usability of their data. This includes the use of data policies and standards around data usage to ensure that data is consistent, trustworthy, and does not get misused. Data governance is important within an IAM solution as artificial intelligence and machine learning tools rely on businesses having quality data.

Benefits of Identity and Access Management Systems

Implementing an Identity Management system provides a wide range of benefits to organizations, such as:

1. Secure access: Opening networks to more employees, new contractors, customers, and partners offers greater efficiency and productivity, but it also increases the risk. An IAM solution enables businesses to extend access to their apps, networks, and systems on-premises and in the cloud without compromising security.
2. Reduced help desk requests: An IAM solution removes the need for users to submit password resets and help desk requests by automating them. This enables users to quickly and easily verify their identity without bothering system admins, who in turn are able to focus on tasks that add greater business value.
3. Reduced risk: Greater user access control means reduced risk of internal and external data breaches. This is vital as hackers increasingly target user credentials as a key method for gaining access to corporate networks and resources.
4. Meeting compliance: An effective IAM system helps a business meet their compliance needs amid a landscape of increasingly stringent data and privacy regulations.

By establishing a dependable IAM program, a company can achieve a balance between safety, risk reduction, and teaching its employees (both customers and workers) to use the services when they need them, without too much. Take digital risks. Given the benefits and failure prevention an access management system can bring to applications, it is strongly advised to give it the attention it deserves. This can help your organization avoid data breaches, as well as financial and reputational losses.