In today’s world, guaranteeing a secure process for conducting business is more important than ever. This includes safeguarding external access to resources and infrastructure and determining who has access to sensitive information and resources within the organization, as certain information should only be accessible to a limited number of authorized individuals.
What Is Identity Management
Identity management refers to policies and technologies designed to ensure that the right people have access to the appropriate resources, technology, and infrastructure. This framework involves profiling individuals or groups to determine their identity, authenticating that identity, and authorizing access to resources. This can be achieved manually or automatically through software programmed with user access rights and restrictions based on successful or unsuccessful verification attempts.
Identity Management VS Access Management
Although they are often used interchangeably, there are some differences between identity management and access management. Identity management monitors and manages updates to an individual’s identity in a designated repository. In contrast, access management is focused on verifying the authenticity of credentials provided by an identity when an access request is made.
Identity Management Methodology
To grant access, it is necessary to validate the credentials provided. When an individual attempts to log in, the identity management process begins by verifying the supplied credentials against the identity management database. These inputs are authenticated and validated before being forwarded to access management for further processing.
Once identity processing is successful, access management applies permission rules to prevent authenticated users from accessing resources beyond their authorized level and for a specific time. For security purposes, many organizations implement rigorous security measures during this process. One such tool is two-factor authentication (2FA), which ensures access is only granted to authorized users.
Advantages of Identity Management
The use of identity management has provided companies with significant benefits such as improved security, governance, and automation, which have led to increased business agility and competitive advantage. Below are other advantages of Identity management
- Studies have shown that over 75% of data breaches leading to leaks occur due to improper identity management. Identity and access management is essential for maintaining proper credential control and implementing high-value security procedures for user authentication, thereby preventing unauthorized access.
- Automated processes have increased the efficiency and effectiveness of user access, resulting in significant reductions in time and errors. Users no longer have to wait in line for manual authentication, and IT administrators can automate workflow to speed up permission processes for role transfers and onboarding.
- Work flexibility has been enhanced with consistent data access control on personal and organizational devices, allowing employees to perform their duties anywhere and at any time with appropriate access credentials.
- Business transactions have been improved through fast, easy, and seamless collaboration between business owners, customers, employees, and suppliers.
BYOD and Identity Management
As more organizations support remote work, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has become increasingly common. Employees can use their devices with the necessary specifications to connect to the organization’s network and access data for daily tasks.
BYOD provides work flexibility but poses significant risks without proper identity management. A strong identity management policy can protect the organization by emphasizing device requirements, restricted or zero IT support for personal devices, and robust security and data ownership policies. Although employees or users have unrestricted control over their devices and identities, identity and access management ensures proper monitoring of activities through logs, which can help prevent internal fraudulent activities.
