Access control and management of what gets where is more critical now than ever before. It is a multi-headed strategy based on a secure IT foundation: the appropriate people have access to do the right thing at the right time. A solid identity management strategy can minimize the risk of unauthorized data access and system access, along with compliance violations, by establishing and enforcing user identities, permissions, and policies in an organization.
Step through the basic steps of implementing a healthy strategy that improves data security, improves business efficiency, and provides regulatory compliance in this guide.
What Is an Identity Management Strategy?
Simply put, identity management is the processes and technologies that organisations use to manage user identities as well as provide access to networked resources. This category of solution enables companies to define, authenticate, and authorize users who can be given access to a plethora of systems, applications, and data.
A proper identity and access management (IAM) strategy will limit access to only permitted devices, systems, or users to given resources based on their roles and identity credentials. Besides this, support must be given to cardinal principles of IAM, such as authentication, authorisation, role-based access control (RBAC), and auditing, in order to safeguard all enterprise resources comprehensively.
Define Roles with RBAC and Apply the Principle of Least Privilege
One of the first things in a good identity management scheme is to establish roles and permissions in your business. In effect, these would be aligned directly with job descriptions and levels of access necessary to carry out responsibilities effectively.
For example, an executive would need strategic data access and financial systems access, while an employee would need only internal team collaboration tool access. Well-defined roles can make it easier to implement RBAC or ABAC policies for easier management of access control.
Ensure that the resources needed to complete their work are provided to the users. This is known as the principle of least privilege. Limiting access to sensitive information by job role reduces the chance of internal attacks and accidental data exposure, thereby providing an efficient and secure process for user access management.
Use MFA and Passwordless Authentication
One of the fundamentals of any identity and access management program must be sufficient user authentication before access to critical resources is given. Passwords are no longer a useful security measure as a result of more sophisticated cyberattacks. All systems and applications therefore, must use multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a means of improving identity management.
MFA presently requires that an individual is required to present all these kinds of evidence: something they know, such as a password; something they have, such as a phone or token; and something they are, using a fingerprint or facial scan. The third level offers an additional level of security, so even if the password is broken, it's extremely unlikely unauthorized access will be gained.
Most IAM solutions, such as eMudhra support advanced MFA features and support a wide range of authentication security features while maintaining the flexibility of such while employing very high security requirements for access security on the user side.
Centralize Identity Management Across Your Ecosystem
As businesses expand, they become error-prone and complex to manage user identities and access across multiple systems. Centralized identity management is a process where all identity processes and access controls are consolidated onto one platform, thereby enhancing the visibility, control, and management of user access.
Centralized identity management simplifies the lifecycle of the user: onboarding, role change, and offboarding. It guarantees that the user status transition, either a promotion, termination, or role change, is reflected everywhere in real-time for all associated systems and applications, avoiding the threat of orphaned accounts and illegal access.
Stringent password policies can be enforced, and implementing access policies is easier when managing identity centrally across on-premise and cloud environments using CertiNext from eMudhra; this simplifies user management procedures.
Though other authentication methods are on their way, passwords still form an integral part of identity and access management. Organisations need to implement a good password policy to overcome the threats posed by poor or compromised passwords. A robust password policy will therefore include strong passwords, periodic changes, and prevent password reuse from the past.
Implement password managers to help employees generate and keep good passwords, reducing the temptation to use weak or repeated passwords. A good IAM strategy will do nothing more than make the use of passwords one element of an overall multi-layered plan for security.
Automate User Provisioning and De-Provisioning
This needs to be accomplished holistically by good identity management practices across the user lifecycle, covering terminations to role transitions and onboarding. If all these were automated, mistakes would be avoided and access corrected on time across all the systems applicable in an enterprise.
Access rights of an employee during joining an organization and exiting the organization should be enabled or disabled automatically. Automation is also simpler for processes and avoids mistakes. For example, to automate provisioning and de-provisioning for users in an organization, on a change in roles or on a change in employment status, CertiNext automatically updates access rights.
Monitor Access Logs for IAM Audit and Compliance
Ongoing surveillance of activity through audit trails and user activity auditing will give both compliance with internal security policy as well as outside regulations. Access log analysis will also identify abnormal behaviors, such as unauthorized access, data being exfiltrated, or unusual login habits.
An identity management strategy is rounded out by real-time monitoring abilities to monitor users' activities that can facilitate proactive identification of suspected threats. Audit trails provide input on who accessed what, where, and when resources were accessed. These logs are extremely important for accountability and routine security audits.
Ongoing monitoring with detailed audit logging from eMudhra's CertiNext can continue to provide a safe environment as well as compliance with data protection regulations.
Adopt a Zero Trust Approach to Identity Management
With all these distribution and remote work arrangements being done, perimeter security is no longer useful. The Zero Trust model assumes that, by default, no one and nothing is trusted, and that any user or device anywhere in the globe is always asked to prove its trustworthiness. This approach is most compatible with the best practices around identity and access management, which themselves require constant authentication, validation, and monitoring of users and devices.
Implementing the Zero Trust approach to identity management will ensure access granting for critical systems after successful authentication, regardless of the location of the user or inside or outside the corporate network.
Ensure Regulatory Compliance with IAM
Additionally, data protection legislation, like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI-DSS, includes full compliance based on any IAM strategy. Compliance requires express requirements and responsibilities on the part of organizations regarding how user data is treated and in managing access to sensitive information.
IAM systems also need to enable compliance by enabling fine-grained control over who sees what and preventing leakage or exposure of individual and sensitive data at any given time. CertiNext of eMudhra, in the industrial compliance out-of-the-box deployment, also reduces the cost of compliance of organizations with their industry regulations and thus reduces data and systems security breaches.
Improve Your IAM Strategy Consistently
The cybersecurity environment is going to continue to change, just as it should with your identity management plan. Be sure to examine, refine, and refresh your policies, tools, and procedures regularly so that you stay ahead of the curve for emerging threats and changing business needs.
Make it a recurring issue that your identity management systems are aligned against the immediate needs of the organization and future growth, and technological advancement. One of the ways you will be sure of the IAM strategy's continued validity in protecting sensitive information and meeting the objectives of the organization is by keeping your identity management strategy up to date.
Strengthen Security with a Robust IAM Framework
A fine identity management solution is the foundation of an unequivocal, secure and compliant IT infrastructure. They entail role-based access control, strong authentication, centralized management, automated user life cycle processes, and constant monitoring. These can then assist in securing much of the organization's vital data, reduce risk, and promote adherence to any regulatory requirements set and developed within the organization. Systems such as eMudhra's CertiNext make this process easy, thus giving an organization a robust, scalable, and secure identity management system that can guarantee requirements to be future as well as the present.
Strengthen Your Identity Management Now
Book a free IAM consultation with eMudhra’s experts or explore how CertiNext can fit into your security architecture.
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