Organizations have a hard time believing that they cause their own problems. In cybersecurity, this happens very frequently. 

Neglect is a sure-shot way to cause many problems when it comes to IT. Poor identity and access management practices, for example, can easily lead to undesired access and risky data breaches.

Businesses often ignore proper identity and access management simply because it comes with a cost; it requires an investment on their end. However, adopting this approach could be the perfect recipe for a disaster in the long run.

In the following lines, we’ll explain clearly what identity and access management is about and why business owners and managers should care.

What is Identity and Access Management?

To say identity and access management is to refers to many different things. Also known as IAM, the term involves a wide, evolving framework of processes, technologies, and internal policies that cover the use of digital identities within an organization.

The idea of implementing and maintaining identity and access management in an organization is to enable IT managers to have full control of who can access the information and systems, also defining how and when.

At the very base of identity and access management, IT managers must find the following factors:

  1. How users can be identified within a business system and network
  2. How users can have roles assigned and how these roles define their access to information
  3. How users can be granted, modified, or removed a certain role within the organization
  4. How users, teams, and groups can have their access levels defined and assigned
  5. How sensitive data present in the system can be actively protected

Tools and Resources in IAM

As a framework, identity and access management offers a wide array of tools and resources that empower IT managers to have full control in their organizations. 

Modern cybersecurity solutions such as single sign-on systems, 2FA, and PAM are only a few of the options available. In the My IT Guy blog, we have talked many times about the value provided but such technologies. 2FA, also known as two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication, is allowing organizations to add a powerful layer of security on every single system they have online.

Having a highly detailed access log is another important element in IAM. The reason is that to make possible the prevention and mitigation of cybersecurity problems, it’s necessary to understand who is currently accessing the systems, besides how and when. By properly monitoring the whole process, IT managers can prevent potential abuses.

A Mandatory Solution

Nowadays, all the organizations operating with systems online should have IAM in place. A main policy within the company must govern how individuals can access data and such policy must be enforced through the tools provided by identity and access management.

IAM gives businesses the capability to grant access privileges to their users in real-time when required, which dramatically reduces the risk of a data breach.

Finally, IAM can be seen as a highly relevant competitive advantage. Organizations with this framework in place can leverage its features to grant fully-controlled access to third parties such as providers in order to streamline processes and skyrocket productivity.