Modern-day businesses must deal with the complications and vulnerabilities that increasing the number of remote workers and the shift to cloud services bring. These complications make corporate networks, assets, and confidential data harder to protect against cyber attacks. Cybercriminals develop more advanced and intricate methods to infiltrate their targets’ networks and orchestrate their malicious goals. These reasons leave modern-day businesses up against high levels of cybersecurity risks and threats.
Cyber attacks and data breaches harm businesses’ reputations, sustainability and cause severe financial damage. Every year, the world sees an exponential increase in cybercrime and the cost of data breaches. In fact, experts forecast that cybercrime damage costs will rise 15% per year until 2025. In 2023, total cybercrime damages will reach 8 trillion dollars. Against this backdrop, businesses can’t let their guard down. Implementing enhanced security solutions and tools like Identity and Access Management (IAM) has become a must, rather than an option.
In this article, we will explore the IAM framework and the reasons why IAM is essential for your business' cybersecurity.
What is identity and access management?
The Identity and Access Management framework provides the tools to police authentication, authorisation, and accounting functions. IAM allows businesses to assign access privileges for every user, device, application, or system that reaches corporate networks, resources, assets, and data. IAM framework seeks to prohibit lateral movement, unauthorised access of all kinds, and cyber-attacks via several processes. With the IAM solution, businesses can limit users, devices, applications, and systems access within the network perimeter, and enforce role-based access controls (RBAC), and need-based access privileges via Just-in-Time (JIT) access.
This framework consists of password management, single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), privileged access management (PAM), and privileged identity management (PIM) tools. These tools allow organisations to authenticate, authorise users, and safely store identity and profile data along with management functions.
Additionally, IAM allows IT administrators to monitor network activities, record access logs, and request, and detect unusual or suspicious behaviours. IAM framework alerts IT admins when a user conducts suspicious and abnormal activities and enables rapid response to insider threats. As for external threats, this solution prevents unauthorised users from accessing company networks, resources, and data.
By implementing the IAM framework businesses guarantee that only authorised users can be granted access to company networks and resources in accordance with their access privileges and permissions. Simply put, users can’t exceed their permission and reach resources that are beyond their privileges. This way, it prevents users from moving laterally within the network perimeter. The IAM solution streamlines the effectiveness of access management across corporate networks, resources, and assets.
Seven reasons why identity and access management is essential for your business' cybersecurity
1. Secures identities
With the implementation of IAM tools, businesses can secure the identities of employees, customers, or third-party partners via single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools. SSO tools allow users to access different resources, services, and applications by using a single set of credentials. This way, it enables seamless access. With SSO systems, users are only required to authenticate their identities once.
On top of SSO systems, the IAM framework uses multi-factor authentication (MFA) tools to authenticate users' identities. MFA tools can authenticate users via using various methods like in-app approvals, security tokens, biometrics, one-time-passwords (OTPs), or pins. Users must provide multiple authentication factors to the MFA mechanism to access company networks and resources. MFA tools secure identities and prevent cybercriminals from using compromised user credentials to access company networks.
2. Streamlines IT teams' workload and efficiency
IAM tools can streamline IT teams' workload and efficiency. IT teams can automate many processes like authentication, authorisation, and identity management. IT teams can assign role-based and need-based access privileges to users rapidly. As updates in security policies come into play, every access privilege across the business can be altered quickly and at one time.
3. Reduces human error
With the implementation of IAM tools, businesses can reduce manual account and excessive privilege errors as these tools eliminate the requirement of manually assigning access privileges to company networks and resources. This way, businesses can keep human errors at a minimum and avoid giving excessive access privileges to users.
4. Enables robust data security
The IAM framework enables great control over users’ access to the company network, resources, and assets. Also, it provides granular visibility over the company networks and resources which helps businesses’ IT teams to track logs, user activities, and behaviours, and rapidly respond to threats. For these reasons, it reduces instances of data breaches, insider attacks, identity theft, and unauthorised access to confidential data. Simply, the IAM framework enables robust data security and safeguards company networks against common types of cyber-attack like account hijacking, hacking, phishing, ransomware, and so on.
5. Helps compliance efforts
Many compliance regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) require businesses to secure confidential data and put Identity and Access Management (IAM) tools in place. To ensure the privacy and security of confidential data, IAM tools are a necessity, and they can help businesses meet regulatory compliance requirements and standards. Not complying with compliance regulations can cause severe financial fines, that’s why businesses must comply with compliance requirements. With the implementation of IAM tools, businesses can support their compliance efforts and meet requirements.
6. Provides data confidentiality
IAM tools allow businesses to restrict access to company resources and data that contains confidential data and enable data confidentiality. With IAM tools, businesses can ensure that only authorised personnel can access confidential data, not everyone within the organisation. Also, it can enable a clear view of which users are working on which projects.
7. Reduces IT operating costs
Implementation of IAM solutions helps businesses reduce IT operating costs and minimise the time that spend on user-account-related issues. Also, cloud-based IAM solutions don’t require any on-premises setup. This way, it eliminates the costs for the maintenance of hardware-based IAM solutions. Simply put, IAM solutions are effective and cost-efficient.
Last words
Today, modern businesses must deal with many complexities and the highest cybersecurity risks. To combat cyber attacks and secure company assets, enhanced security tools like Identity and Access Management are essential. Also, IAM solutions help businesses meet regulatory compliance requirements and standards while enabling robust protection against cyber threats.
Copyright 2023. Article was made possible by site supporter Mahendra.