Identity and access management (IAM) systems validate identities, authorize users to handle company data and applications and track privileges. These tools reduce hacking and breaches while ensuring productivity.

Prioritizing IAM improves security and helps your business meet compliance regulations. It also makes it less likely for hackers to breach your network and cause internal or external data breaches.

Access Management

Hackers can now more easily acquire passwords and access confidential company data thanks to advancements in hacking technology. Businesses must implement simple systems for employees to log into, yet challenging for them to access the information they shouldn’t.

This is the role of IAM, or identity and access management. These systems allow administrators to assign a digital identity to each user and device, authenticate all logins, and authorize access privileges.

When choosing an IAM solution provider like Tools4Ever, look for one that offers centralized identity management integrated with other systems and security technologies. The more seamlessly the tools fit into the business environment, the more streamlined the process of IAM will be for both administrators and users.

Also, consider prioritizing those tools that offer simplified provisioning and offboarding processes to save time while increasing user security. And make sure your IAM solution includes a PAM component to protect against privileged account misuse and abuse—a major cause of nearly all security breaches today.

Authentication

To protect your business against cyberattacks, you must ensure that only authorized individuals can access the systems, information, and services they require. User authentication is the system that makes that feasible.

This is usually done through something the user knows (passwords, software or hardware token), something the user has (ID badge, cell phone), and something the user is (fingerprints, facial recognition, gesture patterns on a touchscreen). The security industry has moved away from passwords, with modern approaches such as FIDO providing ways for users to prove their identities with biometrics and smartphone profiles.

Once you’ve authenticated a user, it’s important to have a system that limits their access to the systems, data, and functionality they need based on pre-defined job roles. This is where IAM comes in, though it’s important to consider Privileged Access Management (PAM). These tools can help you automate granting and revoking access privileges as employees change roles.

Access Control

As a core component of identity management, access control defines and enforces how people can gain logical access to systems and data. This helps ensure that confidential or private information stays where it should be and is not exposed to outside parties or other systems.

Access control is a two-step process that begins with authenticating a user, using credentials like PINs, security tokens, and biometric scans to verify a person’s identity before granting access to an application or system. This can be combined with multifactor authentication (MFA) to increase the complexity and security of a login.

Once a person has been verified, you can define their access based on their job and the requirements of your business. This can include whether they have limited access to seeing or reading data or full access to creating, editing, and deleting it. Access might also be restricted by time, such as only during specific hours of the day or business days.

Privileged Access Management

With the right PAM solution, admins centralize their management of critical accounts, and users get a more efficient workflow. For instance, password rotation, multifactor authentication and session monitoring help safeguard against insider threats. This is because it’s easy for attackers to gain access through a compromised privileged account.

Unmanaged privileged accounts are among the biggest security risks organizations face. These include zombie accounts that aren’t disabled when employees leave or change roles, service accounts that ship with embedded credentials and default passwords, and unauthorized sharing of credentials.

With the right solution, admins can sever users’ privileged access the moment they leave and monitor their usage with detailed session logs. This helps to avoid what’s known as “privileged access creep,” where a user gains privileged access and starts running commands that damage or corrupt systems. As hacking technology develops, it becomes simpler for hackers to steal passwords and access private company data. Businesses need solutions that make it simple for employees to log in but challenging for them to access the information.