For many organisations, passwords are the only method of authentication and all that is for data security. However, when it comes to an organisation’s cybersecurity posture, enforcing stronger passwords with long combinations and special characters is just the beginning of keeping an organisation secure.
Organisations handle large volumes of data daily from customers’ personal information, trade secrets, budgets, financial documents and other sensitive documents that are stored across various platforms on-prem and in the cloud. Due to the sensitivity of this data, an organisation can not afford for it to fall into the wrong hands or be accessed by someone that shouldn’t have access to the information.
Suppose an organisation should lose customer data in the event of a breach. In that case, it might cost the organisation long-term implications like customer trust and severe legal and financial damage and can cost the organisation’s existence in some cases. A similar event is a healthcare provider company “CaptureRx“, which suffered a data breach in 2021 that impacted 2.4 million individuals. After a few months of facing lawsuits on alleged improper data measures and negligence, the company’s CEO claimed the company was considering filing for bankruptcy with a potential 4.5 million dollars settlement.
What is Identity and access management software?
Identity and access management (IAM) software assists businesses in protecting their systems from unwanted access or misuse. IAM software is built purposely to limit access to specified, secured company systems and data to authenticated and authorised users. IAM software authenticates users, grants access to systems and data per corporate standards, track user activity, and offers reporting capabilities to ensure staff members abide by the organisation’s policies.
Why is IAM Software important?
IAM Software or IAM tools assist the management of access permissions and establish strong security protocols around any organisation’s data systems, and other benefits which are not limited to the following:
- Managing an organisation’s employee, customers, consultant and contractors database who might be granted temporary access to an organisation’s business data.
- IAM tools constantly verify access controls to ensure organisation-wide technologies are patched and running on the latest updates to reduce an organisation’s possibility of being attacked
- IAM tools also serve the purpose of monitoring every access point regularly for any threats and anomalies
- IAM tools can also provide direct access for all stakeholders, making optimising the process easier with features like Single Sign On. IAM tools also improve the security of an organisation’s data, control application permissions for employees and speed up the onboarding process for new employees
- IAM tools enable and monitor other secure access methods like MFA and biometrics authentication. It also improves end-user productivity by minimising the need to remember and enter passwords and centralising the storage of employee information.
Why an organisation needs Identity and Access Management Software?
Organisations use identity management software for many reasons, but most are related to data security, which can enhance user experience and improve an organisational structure.
Data Security – Identity management software is a way to make compliance with security standards easy. IAM software assists in managing confidential information and passwords, Which in turn, help organisation comply with legal requirements and meet security and access standards.
Permissions and Management – This feature makes the onboarding procedure simpler. One of the critical aspects of identity and access management software is the ability to create user accounts and offer them individualised access to the applications they require. Databases may be created, user account histories can be recorded, and administrators can view approved privileges.
Productivity and Efficiency — Using password managers are fantastic as users will often use different passwords for many application, which they can forget. A feature like SSO of IAM software is an added benefit. Users can log in once and access various tools with these solutions’ centralised access points.
Conclusions
Undoubtedly, Identity management software controls user data access to improve security and productivity, and these solutions assist in managing customer access to public content. At the same time, some can be used to manage who has access to private systems. Controlling who has access to programmes, databases, and other IT assets are made more accessible by these solutions for IT management and administration.
