How to Create an Identity and Access Management Strategy

More than 80% of data breaches occur due to weak or stolen passwords. Most of the employees use weak passwords. Thus, hackers can easily hack your employee’s account password. Hackers are also using complex attacks for stealing enterprise data.

Hackers are targeting business organizations. They are trying to steal their data by using ransomware attacks. Thus, the IT department needs to increase the security of the business network. However, at the same time, they have to allow access to employees or legit users. It is difficult to balance cybersecurity.

There are many other factors that you need to deal with. These factors are making it hard to secure your digital assets. BYOD or bring your own device offers flexibility to your workers. They can work from any location. But, most of your employee’s devices are unsecured. Thus, hackers can use these devices for connecting into your enterprise network. If your network has a lot of unsecured connections, then attackers can easily hack your network. This can lead to costly data and security breaches.

Access Management will help you in dealing with this process. You should focus on building a strong IAM strategy. It will help you in increasing the security level of your organizations. This will ensure that your customer’s data is safe.

What is the IAM strategy?

IAM strategy’s main aim is to identify your users. It will help you in monitoring your information. Your employees can only access some parts of your data. This will ensure that attackers can’t use your employee device for accessing your data. However, your stakeholders or senior officials can still access whole business information. Identity and Access Management technology will automatically check the permission of your employees. This will help you in increasing the security of your enterprise. You should remember these things before implementing your strategy.

1. Understand your business needs

First, you should try to understand your business needs. The main aim of access management is to give access to legitimate people. You should always keep this thing in mind before creating your IAM strategy. After that, you should check your current business practices. This will help you in understanding which processes or systems your employees are using for sharing information. Sometimes your employees can use third-party tools for getting their work done. Thus, it is important to do a proper audit of your business. This will help you in creating a strong strategy.

2. Don’t forget about the User Experience

Your end-users can break or make your security strategies. Thus, it is important to make sure that they can easily access their accounts. Your UI should be simple to use. Try to limit the authentication steps. This will ensure that your employees can quickly access their accounts. If the process is too long, then your users will try to find other ways or shortcuts. This can put your whole company security at risk. Sometimes companies use complicated authentication steps like OTP verification.

3. Develop strict procedures

It is important to make sure that your employees are following the IAM strategy. Thus, you should make develop governance procedures for increasing your company security. You should focus on important areas like:

• Efficient provisioning procedures: You can boost your business security by using automated processes. Thus, your employees can get access to the necessary resources. This will help you in increasing your employee’s efficiency.
• Handle privileged accounts with great care: Most of your employees should have a regular account. This will ensure that they can’t access sensitive information. However, some accounts will have unlimited access to your data, devices, and applications. These accounts will be mostly used by important stakeholders or department heads. You should have strong guidelines for these accounts. Make sure that they are using protected devices for accessing your data. If your employees need access to some resources, then you can grant access for a limited amount of time. Thus, you don’t need to provide privileged accounts to all your users.
• Record your employee actions: It is important to track all your user activities. This will ensure that your data is protected. Also, it will help you in meeting compliance and audit requirements.

4. Cloud-based IAM

Cloud computing is changing the technology world. Companies are using cloud technology for increasing their efficiency. There are many benefits of using cloud servers like flexibility and scalability. You can easily scale up or down your resources. If you are already using the cloud, then cloud IAM is perfect for you. IDaaS or identity and access management-as-a-service will help you in simplifying your management challenges. It will help you in improving your business security.

Your cloud provider will monitor your physical and IT assets. They will make sure that your network is protected from hackers. Data recovery plans will help you in preventing data loss. They will take a scheduled backup of your data. Thus, you don’t need to worry about data loss. These measures will also help you in meeting compliance requirements. You don’t need to worry about creating an internal plan.

Conclusion

It is important to have an IAM strategy. This will help you in protecting your data from attackers. Also, it will ensure that you are meeting your audit and compliance requirements. First, you should try to understand your business needs. You should monitor your processes and systems. This will help you in creating an effective IAM strategy. Also, you need to make sure that your users are following your strategy. Cloud-based IAM solution is perfect for most of the businesses. You don’t need to worry about monitoring your system. If you need more information about Identify and Access Management, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.