Identity and access management (IAM) ensures that the right people (identity) can access the right resources at the right times, for the right reasons (access management).
IAM processes and technologies make it easier for organizations to manage identities and control user access at granular levels. These systems also help organizations comply with rapidly changing regulations about how confidential information, such as medical and financial records, are stored and accessed.
Business leaders and IT departments are under increased regulatory and organizational pressure to protect access to corporate resources. Common challenges that organizations face include:
Many organizations unknowingly put their organizations, customers, and shareholders at risk when these situations exist:
Single Sign-On (SSO) – SSO allows users to login once to gain access to all their applications and services whether they're in the cloud or data center. It prevents the frustration of repeated logins, which harm productivity in the enterprise and cause customer drop-off for e-commerce sites.
Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) – MFA improves security by requiring an added credential, such as a fingerprint (biometric), acceptance of a push notification via authenticator app, or a one-time password (OTS) delivered via text message or email. With MFA, even with login credentials, an attack will not succeed in gaining access to targeted resources.
Authorization – Authorization is used to determine the [authenticated] user's approved level of access. In the enterprise, entities are granted certain privileges related to what may be accessed, based on their roles, and such access may be extremely granular. For example, an accountant may have extensive privileges within most financial applications, but not those related to compensation.
Organizations that follow IAM best practices have the following items in place:
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