In today’s world, security is more challenging than ever.
Companies have increasingly remote employees, suppliers, or external contractual workers. Not only this but also due to the pandemic’s surge, many employees are working across time zones.
Hacking data or resources is now easier than ever. With so much technological advancement, it doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes for a hacker to crack a password or a security pin.
Implementing IAM is very important because of the security and competitive advantage it provides to a company.
Companies with single-step authentications stand at a disadvantage and risk. If there isn’t any authorization, it is easy to hack, steal, and manipulate data.
Also, through this, the company and the employee data are at stake. That is why identity and access management software is essential for your company’s cybersecurity.
Identity and access management essentially control user access, so there are lesser chances of the company’s data getting hacked, deleted, or misused. It also helps in forming access policies of an organization. These policies clearly state who is granted access to what under which condition.
There is a lesser risk and chance of external or internal breaches through these policies. In 2016, IBM reported that around 60% of company data breaches were by the company’s own employees, out of which 75% were deliberate. Thus, identity and access management is essential to keep your company data secure.
It is also easier to save time and be more efficient by using identity and access management. It improves customer and employee experience and complies with the regulations of large organizations. Through identity and access management, you can provide the right amount of access to the right person at the right time. It also provides required access to your suppliers, vendors, or other third-party workers.
All of these helps increase productivity, collaboration, and, eventually, your organization’s revenue.
This cybersecurity software also eliminates the need for time-consuming and costly processes of manual checks by your company’s admin or IT personnel. You can also provide flexible access to each person through identity and access management. Depending on their role, a person can access only certain files, materials, or data in an organization’s resources. For example, an employee could be authorized to access a resource but could still be denied permission to view a certain file in that resource.
As the employees climb the corporate ladder, there is a change in their access level. You can also automate, monitor, and modify employee accounts through identity and access management for better identity management. This also helps when employees start working on other projects.
Through identity management, you can update attributes about a certain individual, which will provide them with the right amount of access. These systems also keep employee records after they have retired or resigned.
Through identity and access management systems, you can also keep a check on employee activity or history. Or, set specific parameters that can help you detect if anything suspicious happens in your organizational resources. Identity and access management can help you identify activities that would have been overlooked otherwise.
You can also add multiple security layers or customize security options according to your company requirements or policies. All of which only lessens the breaches’ chances.
These systems make processes like authentication, authorization, and identity management more accessible and more secure. For example, if someone looks suspicious, you can deny them access to all your company resources in just one click. Identity and access management also helps you keep track of your company’s data, resources, and employees.
You can also monitor and measure the productivity of your employees through IAM. It helps you keep track of who opens the company’s portal, resources, and data. Identity and access management systems also speed up the process and let employees have access when and where needed. If an employee logs in from some device other than their usual work computer, IAM speeds up the process of rights authorization to that employee.
Even though these systems are meant to keep your company and employee data secure with ease, identity and access management systems can also be critical and complex. Depending on the company’s policies and regulatory procedures, identity and access management can be a little difficult.
Thus, it is efficient that IAM systems are fully leveraged with required information from the company’s admin, IT, or HR. This information support could be as simple as feeding employee attributes assigned to each worker for better identity management.
Additional reading: The basics of identity and access management
Final Thoughts
Identity and access management reduces the security risk of your organization. It also increases employee productivity and operating efficiency. You can achieve security of both your company and employee data through identity and access management. You can manage your employees’ digital identities and authorize the right people to access company resources and data at the right time.
