As technology advances and becomes such a big part of our lives, the era of traditional security systems is almost over for business. The change in the way it works and the technology used has caused us to leave traditional security systems behind. Easier to use, simpler, and faster security solutions have gained popularity by becoming the next-generation security models.
Many businesses have transitioned to the IAM architecture, which can be considered the best among these solutions. According to global research In 2021, 74% of survey participants said their identity and management (IAM) solution records information about users’ access levels. Notably, the average percentage of businesses that employ the IAM solution to preserve basic user attributes is roughly 50%.
As many businesses now manage all their business operations remotely and with cloud-based systems, it has become very important to secure access to data. As a highly efficient and reliable solution, IAM service provides a high level of protection and security for businesses.
Table of Contents
What Is IAM?
Identity and Access Management (IAM) can be called an audit method that provides user authentication that many other solutions have difficulty providing. One of the definitions it refers to precisely is a tool that provides a high level of protection and controls access to network resources and data, both at the perimeter and inside the network edge. It gives accurate validation to each user on the network to process resources, secure data access, and any additional information they need.
Modern IAM solutions play a big role in both identity and access control. In other words, providing authentication and gateway management and defining privileges and entitlements within network resources for each user is one of the biggest tasks. The ability to do this alone from one platform is a godsend.
The main goal of cloud and hybrid-based IAM is to always provide access to trusted users, while at the same time preventing unauthorized access and keeping the network secure. When applied well, one of its important features is that it can adapt to any operation and network environment changes and can create a barrier against cyber threats.
What Are The IAM Solutions?
Modern IAM solutions provide a reliable and efficient platform for enforcing the best security policies. Thanks to IAM, these principles must be applied to the steps whose main purpose is to easily access the data, assets, and resources of the employees for the company.
Consumer identity and access management
The solution provided by consumer IAM provides automatic authentication to access the websites they browse, the portals they use, or the online stores.
Unified identity management
By setting up users and keeping an eye on network activities, IAM enables enterprises to provide access permissions securely and confidently.
Access management
Thanks to access management, it is much easier to verify with the help of tools such as SSO, biometrics, two-factor authentication, and user authorization from each user trying to access the network and the devices they use.
Identity compromise protection
At its core, IAM and its solutions are designed to prevent breaches of compromised credentials via rigorous verification and improved authentication, without ever being abused, and breach of credentials protection and storage procedures.
What Are The Best Practices of IAM?
There are a few things you should know before acquiring an IAM. Knowing and applying these in advance will take you a few steps ahead. Here are the key practices of IAM.
Understand IAM in detail
Before implementing IAM, everyone from the top to the bottom of your company needs to understand what kind of problems IAM provides and what solutions it produces. Identity solutions and security controls created against potential and existing threats from phishing or internal sabotage can pose risks and even lead to bad results due to excessive user permissions. Therefore, knowing each and every solution of IAM has become essential.
Workforce mapping to allocate privileges
The most vital thing at this point is to predetermine which user will have access to which resource. The access privileges of each employee, inside or outside, in any free role should be known to the authorities. There should be a connection between the security and HR teams so that the control of this work can be carried out in a systematic and controlled manner.
Standardize the use of Zero Trust Network Access
When assigning privileges to users with IAM, each person is considered suspicious until it is confirmed that the credentials used to access are correct and that they have permission to access. This applies to every employee from the top managers to the bottom ones. The “principle of least privilege” should never be compromised and should avoid giving excessive permissions to each individual user.
Universalize Multi-Factor Authentication
The most important part of IAM is the authentication process. If a mistake is made in verifying the identities, great losses, and material and moral damages may be encountered. It is therefore not sufficient to rely solely on passwords, it is necessary to integrate user access portals for Multi-Factor Authentication. Authentication occurs through identification information such as biometric information, codes sent via SMS or email, and even social media accounts.
Conclusion
Ensuring cybersecurity has been a top concern for almost all companies since they started relying on remote access. Although it may seem difficult to ensure the security of data and resources when working in an environment that cannot be physically controlled, it can be easily achieved with a few solutions. Since the age of remote working came along, these solutions have been in high demand from businesses of all sizes and various industries.
Since remote working is now a routine, it is the most basic necessity to benefit from solutions that provide secure access such as IAM to protect data and resources in providing general network security. At this point, when an IAM service is obtained, it is highly possible to see that everything becomes easier, data breaches are reduced, and cyber-attacks are minimized.
Read More
