In addition to making it more difficult for cybercriminals to steal user credentials, robust IAM policies make data more secure and help businesses meet compliance initiatives. Additionally, IAM solutions reduce IT department workloads and increase employee productivity with self-service password reset features and SSO policies.

Access can only exist with identity; access management is vital to an enterprise’s infrastructure. IAM includes authentication, authorization, and directory services.

Encryption

The core of identity access management (IAM) involves verifying identities and assigning permissions to users. However, IAM should extend beyond authentication and authorization to encompass data encryption effectively. It is also known as privileged access management (PAM). PAM is a critical security practice considered part of broader IAM and identity security. IAM and PAM combine to provide fine-grained control, visibility, and auditability of all credentials, privileges, and access.

IAM includes a wide range of features, such as identity federation and single sign-on (SSO), multifactor authentication (MFA), and role-based access control (RBAC). It aids in making sure that the organization’s systems, data, and resources are only accessible to those who are authorized. In addition, IAM solutions can include a first-of-its-kind feature called zero-knowledge encryption, which provides additional security for administrative credentials required for provisioning, password management, and other IAM functions.

The most apparent benefits of identity access management is preventing a data breach. It aids in making sure that the organization’s systems, data, and resources are only accessible to those who are authorized. With this in mind, IAM practices, such as FedRAMP for the federal government, CSA for critical infrastructure, and Sarbanes-Oxley for financial reporting, are crucial to meeting compliance standards. However, compliance does not equate to complete security, as it leaves gaps that malicious actors could exploit.

Permissions

As cyber criminals rely on user credentials to gain access to systems, businesses must be able to monitor and control access. Identity and access management solutions help manage users’ permissions across platforms and devices. IAM enables administrators to see who has what access and revoke privileges when necessary.

IAM can help companies set up granular access controls that allow or deny a user’s ability to view, modify, and transmit data. In addition, it can restrict users’ access to certain subsets of data or specific applications and systems.

It helps keep business information safe from hackers while ensuring employees can access what they need for their jobs. It also ensures that users cannot transfer data outside the company’scompany’s systems. In the world of bringing your device (BYOD) and remote work, it is essential that businesses can control and monitor access from any device, regardless of location.

IAM solutions can help by using risk-based authentication to continuously assess a user’s risk level based on their device, location, and other contextual features. It ensures that users are only given the minimum access required for their role and that this is revoked once they no longer need it. It is known as the principle of least privilege.

Reputation Service

With so much business now conducted via email, whether internal teams collaborating or salespeople reaching out to prospects, it is essential that the right people can access the correct data at the right time on the proper machine. IAM systems can help protect email reputation by ensuring that users who need to access cloud data are doing so from devices and locations that are appropriate for their roles and duties.

Taking the zero trust approach, IAM systems verify that users are who they claim to be before granting access to a system or application. These tools typically utilize a combination of authentication factors, including something the user knows (a password or code), something the user has (like a smartphone), and something the user is (like a thumbprint) to identify them. By eliminating guesswork about who is trying to access data, these tools help prevent the most common form of breach, identity theft.

Another way that IAM solutions protect an organization’s reputation is through IP reputation services that help detect and stop malicious traffic from entering the network. IAM solutions can block communication to and from malicious IPs based on an organization’s unique risk profile by scoring and ranking IP addresses and providing up-to-the-minute threat intelligence. It helps improve the security, performance, and resilience of applications that reside in and are accessed over the Internet.

Risk Management

Today’s business environment is deeply reliant on technology. How businesses operate has been transformed; once-manual processes are now automated, and the traditional boundaries of the office have disappeared in favor of cloud data and devices.

Ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive data is more crucial than ever because cybercriminals are getting more skilled. IAM systems allow companies to manage who has access to what through automation, security, and governance features like centralized user provisioning, de-provisioning, granular conditional access control, and accurate access logging and usage tracking.

In addition, implementing risk-based authentication tools that factor in contextual factors like device, location, and real-time threat information can further improve the protection of user data. It reduces the risk of privilege abuse or insider threats initiated by hackers who have already gained a foothold in an organization’s network through stolen credentials.

Lastly, IAM also helps companies meet compliance requirements for both physical and digital records by providing the ability to quickly produce on-demand evidence for audits and investigations of data breaches. It is especially crucial for compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act and other strict regulations that require a detailed audit trail of all access to personal information. IAM also offers tools to help reduce the time and effort needed for manual compliance tasks by automating many of these processes.