Identity & Access Management
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Overview
Many of today’s most damaging security breaches have been due to compromised user accounts and passwords. Securely and effectively managing user authentication and authorization for all systems and applications is crucial to minimize security breaches.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) security is an essential part of overall IT security that manages digital identities and their access to various applications and systems within an organization. IAM security consists of the policies, programs, and technologies that reduce identity-related access risks within a business.
The main goal of IAM is to enable authenticated users to access the correct resources at the right times for the proper reasons.
IAM Tools
An IAM solution consists of various components and systems including:
Single Sign-On
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication process in which a user is provided access to multiple applications and/or websites by using only a single set of login credentials (such as username and password). SSO addresses the challenge of maintaining the credentials for each application separately, streamlining the process of signing-on without need to re-enter the password.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Multifactor authentication (MFA) is a security system that requires more than one method of authentication to verify a user’s identity.
Privileged Access Management
Privileged Access Management (PAM) is a security measure that allows organizations to control and monitor the activity of privileged users, including their access to key business systems and what they’re able to do once logged in.
Risk-Based Authentication
Risk-Based Authentication (RBA), is a process in which varying levels of strictness are applied to the authentication process. RBA assesses authentication risk for users and accumulates knowledge about each user’s device and behavior over time to determine if an authentication attempt is legitimate.
Data Governance
Data governance is the process that enables businesses to manage the availability, integrity, security, and usability of their data based on internal data standards and policies that also control data usage.
Federated Identity Management
Federated identity management (FIM) is an authentication-sharing process through which businesses share digital identities with trusted partners. This process allows users to use the services of multiple partners using the same credentials.
Zero-Trust
Zero Trust is a security concept centered on the belief that organizations should not automatically trust anything inside or outside its perimeters and instead must verify users, resources, devices and applications before granting only the minimum level of access required.
Benefits of Identity and Access Management
Implementing an IAM solution provides a wide range of benefits to organizations, such as:
- Access privileges are granted according to policy, and all users and services are properly authenticated, authorized and audited.
- Companies that properly manage identities have greater control of user access, which translates into a reduced risk of internal and external data breaches.
- Automating IAM systems allows businesses to operate more efficiently by decreasing the effort, time and money that would be required to manually manage access to their networks.
- Enforce policies around user authentication, validation and privileges, and address issues regarding privilege creep.
- IAM systems help companies better comply with government regulations by allowing them to show corporate information is not being misused.