The Importance of Access Management

The average employee uses 36 cloud-based services daily, so it’s crucial that access to sensitive data and resources is managed with robust security measures. One breached account in a business app can lead to significant consequences.

Login credentials are lucrative for hackers. Various online accounts can be a goldmine on the dark web, for example, an email administrator login can fetch between £400 to £100,000. You need to ensure you’re addressing access management in your cyber security strategy, otherwise, you could suffer serious financial and reputational consequences.

In this article, we’ll look at six reasons access management has become essential to good data security.

Why Identity & Access Management Should Be a High Priority

Mitigating Insider Threats

Insider threats can result from malicious actions or unintentional errors. They can come from employees within an organisation or their breached accounts. IAM solutions enable businesses to install granular access controls and permissions, which ensures employees can only access data necessary for their roles.

Access management also provides visibility into user activities, enabling businesses to detect and respond to suspicious behaviour in real time.

Strengthening Data Protection

Data breaches can have severe consequences for businesses. Effective access management helps strengthen data protection by limiting access to sensitive information and enforcing strong authentication measures.

Multi-factor authentication, encryption, and user authentication limit who can access what in a system. Access management solutions also enable organisations to track and control data transfers which helps ensure that data remains secure throughout its lifecycle.

Enhancing Regulatory Compliance

IAM solutions play a vital role in ensuring regulatory compliance because they provide necessary controls and audit trails. IAM tools also help companies adopt best practices, such as:

• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Least privilege principles
• Contextual multi-factor authentication

IAM solutions also help with regular access reviews. They enable organisations to maintain an accurate record of user access and permissions which is essential for regulatory audits and assessments.

Streamlining User Provisioning and Deprovisioning

Managing user accounts and access privileges manually can be a time-consuming process. It’s also prone to human error. Just one mis-keyed entry can increase the risk of an account breach.

Access management solutions automate user provisioning and de-provisioning, ensuring that employees have appropriate access rights throughout their employment lifecycle.

When an employee joins an organisation, access management simplifies the onboarding process. It quickly provisions the necessary user accounts and permissions based on their role.

When an employee leaves the organisation, IAM tools ensure prompt de-provisioning of accounts and the revoking of access rights. This reduces the risks of dormant or unauthorised accounts.

Enabling Secure Remote Access

IAM solutions provide secure authentication and authorisation mechanisms for remote users. This enables them to access corporate resources and data securely. IAM is there whether employees are working from home, traveling, or accessing data via mobile. Access management ensures that they can do so without compromising security.

It includes features like:

• Virtual private networks (VPNs)
• Single sign-on (SSO)
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

These methods help secure remote access, while maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of corporate data.

Improving Productivity

Imagine how much time your HR or IT team spends provisioning user accounts. It can take a significant amount of time to add all those login credentials, not to mention deciding on user access permissions in each tool.

IAM systems automate this entire process. Using role-based access protocols, they can immediately assign the right level of access. If an employee leaves, the system can also immediately revoke access. This saves your administrative team considerable time and effort.

Get Help Putting a Strong IAM Solution in Place

Access management has evolved into a critical component of cybersecurity. It helps mitigate insider threats, strengthen data protection, enhance regulatory compliance, and more. We can help you set up the right IAM solution for you. Just email [email protected] to get things started.