How do identity and access management experts keep businesses safe?
Identity and access management (IAM) is how companies verify a user’s identity and make sure any company resources, including sensitive information, are only accessible to the correctly authorised individuals.
Essentially, IAM refers to a framework which includes all of the tools, technologies and policies that allow for the right people to have the appropriate level of access. Implementing strong IAM policies and tech means that employees can work efficiently and organisations are protected against unauthorised access to data.
Common examples of IAM
Granting staff access to the specific tools they need mitigates security risks for organisations. When broken down, the intricacies of IAM tools can appear as limiting rather than enabling, however they streamline employee workflows and improve productivity, helping a company to meet its business objectives.
Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
When an employee signs in using their username and password, MFA prompts an additional form of verification to confirm the user’s identity matches their login credentials. This is one of the most common examples of IAM and is used widely around the world, not just in businesses.
Some of the ways MFA technologies validate users include asking security questions, using biometrics such as facial recognition or fingerprint identification and generating a one-time password (OPT) on another device, or within an email. Tools like MFA have an inherent potential to ruin the user experience and take too long, so often companies combine this with tech like single sign-in to verify employees without wasting their time.
Provisioning and deprovisioning
The key objective of identity protocols is to streamline access so employees can only access the tools and information they need to get their jobs done effectively. IAM professionals can provision user access automatically based on their position at the company, so when a new member of staff joins a business, they are set up almost instantly with exactly what they need.
Conversely, people leaving a business cause a security headache. If senior leaders can’t be sure whether ex-employees have access to sensitive company resources, there’s a big problem. To prevent that, access can be automatically deprovisioned just as quickly as it was authorised in the first place.
User monitoring
IAM is fantastic for keeping track of who has access to specific organisation resources, but it’s not infallible. Sometimes, users may act in ways that appear suspicious and could even be taking unauthorised actions with company information. Thankfully, IAM professionals can highlight any abnormal activities and avoid potential data breaches, as logs will show what employees are using each technology, as well as how they are using them. This process is useful for defining role-based access policies and can often lead to IT teams identifying and limiting unnecessary access.
