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Last Updated on August 30, 2023 by Work In My Pajamas
To maintain security and meet compliance requirements, businesses need complete visibility into who has access to IT systems and infrastructure. An operating identity governance framework can spotlight abnormalities, removing some burden from human IT admins and security teams.
It allows them to focus on other priorities like delivering productivity gains. IGA solutions with out-of-the-box connections to known applications and cloud management can provide quicker time to value.
Security
A comprehensive identity governance solution, or, as it’s also known, an Identity and Access Management (IAM) suite, provides the centralized visibility necessary to manage the security of business processes. It allows businesses to ensure that every identity has only the required permissions to work and nothing more. It keeps employees productive and the company secure.
In addition, it helps with compliance mandates like SOX and FISMA and prevents breaches by verifying that only the right people have access to sensitive data. It can also help with operational efficiency by speeding up access requests, enabling users to get the applications and infrastructure they need faster.
Lastly, it can also help protect against insider threats by reducing the privileges granted to individuals and increasing access granularity. It reduces the attack surface that threat actors could target if one of these accounts is compromised and can limit the damage done to the business.
For maximum benefit, begin your organization’s identity governance framework rollout with essential systems and apps. It will make gaining support from other departments easier as you bring onboarding and access management under control. It will also give you a solid foundation to build a more holistic approach that improves the organization’s security and operational efficiency.
Compliance
Managing identity and access at scale has never been more challenging. Digital work environments are snowballing, and organizations deploy various applications. These apps require varying levels of access. Managing these disparate systems is complex and introduces security risks.
With a mature identity governance framework, businesses can ensure every employee has access. It allows businesses to meet compliance mandates and mitigate the risk of data breaches.
Identity governance solutions can also help address compliance requirements like eIDAS, HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and GDPR. A good governance framework automates processes to reduce administrative overhead and minimize human error. It allows IAM teams to spend more time on higher-value activities, such as enabling business users to request access or manage passwords.
In addition, a governance framework can be designed to detect abnormal access and alert administrators when required. For example, suppose an employee is granted access to the HR system when they’re supposed to have just marketing access, or they have excessive access compared to others. The framework can flag this and trigger a review process in that case.
Business Efficiency
Using an identity governance solution to automate access reviews and certifications allows you to reduce the number of manual processes your IT team has to handle. It saves time and reduces the risk of security breaches caused by outdated or erroneous user access.
The identity governance framework provides centralized visibility for current state access by aggregating and correlating identity data from multiple systems and platforms (both on-premise and in the cloud). From this foundation, policies are defined, and automated controls are built to support your business applications and identity management systems. It includes centralized policy definition and enforcement of access policies during provisioning, access requests, password changes, and more.
Managing user permissions across disparate systems, devices, and applications within an organization is complex and prone to error. It is made worse by regulations like HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the need to ensure that sensitive information is protected from cyber threats and shared only with authorized parties.
Identity governance can help alleviate this complexity by ensuring users are given least-privilege access to all the needed applications. It is accomplished through just-in-time provisioning and eliminates standing privileges that can expose organizations to security risks. A governance model can also be established for privileged access that defines who should have this administrator access.
Role-Based Access
Identity governance frameworks create a centralized hub for managing identities, privileges, and access to IT systems, applications, and data. This centralized model streamlines processes and helps you uphold compliance, reduce risk and improve security while keeping business users productive.
One of the most critical components of an identity governance framework is role-based access control (RBAC). RBAC assigns permission levels based on employee roles, such as end-user, administrator, or specialist. Using role-based automation, teams can add and remove permissions for users based on their current position in the company and limit what they can view, edit or create with network resources. It ensures no employee has too many privileges and provides a scalable solution as an enterprise grows.
The right IGA solution can also help organizations prevent the type of privilege misuse that leads to data breaches by ensuring users have the least-privileged access possible for their roles. Using RBAC and just-in-time provisioning, enterprises can automatically review and revise privileges to eliminate standing entitlements and enforce most minor privilege policies across their applications.
Managing identity and privilege becomes crucial as businesses embrace digital transformation to streamline operations and create better customer experiences. Organizations can minimize risks, increase security, improve productivity, and stay compliant by implementing an identity governance framework and integrating it with the right IGA solution.
