The Complete Guide To Identity And Access Management

In 2023, 83% of organizations experienced at least one identity-related data breach, according to the Defined Security Alliance. These incidents—ranging from unauthorized access to stolen credentials—cost companies millions and eroded customer trust. 

This tells us how crucial it is to have a well-defined Identity and Access Management (IAM) strategy. IAM is a collection of procedures, guidelines, and instruments that guarantee that only the appropriate individuals have secure access to the appropriate resources at the appropriate times and for the appropriate purposes.

What is Identity and Access Management?

The goal of identity and access management is to make sure that the right people have access to the information and resources that a company wishes to provide. It is a cybersecurity technique that enables IT managers to manage and restrict access to company resources to those who need them.  Essentially, an access control system regulates access to systems and data. 

In other words, IAM has to do with achieving data protection and defining proper, yet unrestricted, usage of assets. It encompasses functions like:

1. Authentication – Verifying if users are who they claim to be. 
2. Authorization – Determining what users can do once they are inside the system. 

Types of authentication like single sign-on, multi-faceted authentication, and role-based access control are commonly used authentication factors to provide secure and seamless access. 

Why is Identity and access management important for your organization?

IAM is an essential cybersecurity practice as it ensures that your data is not compromised by restricting access. 

AI-driven threat detection, which can recognise odd behavior patterns and instantly react to risks before they escalate, is one of the sophisticated capabilities that modern IAM solutions include. In the event of a cybersecurity attack, this improves your security posture and guarantees that your vital operations can continue with the least amount of interruption. 

How does an Identity and Access Management system work? 

IAM systems provide a framework that ensures that the right individuals have access to the right resources at the right time. It is a combination of things, and here’s a closer look at how it works:

Authentication 

Identity authentication is the initial checkpoint when doing Identity and Access Management (IAM). This process confirms the identity of a specific individual before a user is allowed access to any of the resources.

Multi-factor authentication makes use of at least three factors namely: something only the user knows (like a password), something the user has (like a security token) and something the user has (like fingerprint or facial recognition). Due to the implementation of different levels of credential check, MFA offers an additional level of protection to the system to prevent unauthorized users from accessing their personal and sensitive details.

For example, an employee opens a password-protected internal portal of a company using his or her working password. First, they are locked out and the system sends a short message to their smartphone for fingertip identification. This additional layer of protection known as multi-factor authentication (MFA) means that even if the hacker successfully intercepted their password, they couldn’t log in without the fingerprint scan.

Authorization

Once user identity is confirmed, IAM systems determine what resources the user can access. This is managed through models like role-based access control (RBAC) or attribute-based access control (ABAC), where permissions are assigned based on a user’s role or specific attributes. 

RBAC simplifies authorization by granting access based on predefined roles (such as employee, contractor, or manager), while ABAC offers more granular control by factoring in user-specific attributes such as department or location. These models ensure that users can only access the resources they need, minimizing the risk of over-privileged access.

Here’s an example of RBAC, in a company using role-based access control (RBAC), the IT team can access things like network servers, while the marketing team only gets into tools they actually use, like the CRM or email platforms. 

This way, everyone has access to exactly what they need to do their job, and there’s less risk of someone accidentally stumbling into sensitive information they shouldn’t see.

Access management

IAM systems automate the processes of creating, modifying, and deactivating accounts, ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to resources and that accounts are deactivated promptly when no longer needed. This component is vital for maintaining up-to-date access controls and minimizing the risk of unauthorized access.

Additionally, IAM systems continuously monitor user activity, logging access events to provide visibility into who accessed what, when, and from where. This monitoring supports both security audits and the detection of suspicious activities. Regular access reviews are also carried out to ensure that permissions remain appropriate and that any outdated or unnecessary access is revoked.

Identity and Access Management, implementing a system for your organization

Implementing an Identity and Access Management system is more than just a technical deployment. A successful IAM system balances security, user experience, and compliance needs. 

Here are six steps that you can undertake to implement an identity and access management system. 

Step 1: Define IAM objectives and scope 

Start by identifying the resources and data that must be protected and clearly outline your IAM goals. This should serve as a foundation for the entire process. Aside from the technical measures, you must align your IAM initiatives with your organizational goals and regulatory requirements. This involves going beyond understanding what needs to be secured and delving into the why and how it will align with your broader business priorities, like digital transformation or expanding into new markets. 

You must also account for industry-specific regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX, which 

may dictate specific IAM practices or controls.

The objective of this step is to get some answers before choosing an IAM tool.

1. Are you doing this for regulatory compliance, to improve security, or streamline user access? 
2. What business processes do you expect the IAM to impact?
3. Who will use and administer the IAM system?
4. What existing systems must be integrated, like HR platforms, cloud services, and other applications? 
5. What is the current state of your identity data? 
6. How scalable do you want the solution to be? 
7. What is the expected growth in terms of remote or hybrid work?
8. Do you have any budget constraints?

Step 2: Get stakeholder buy-in  

IAM affects not only IT but all departments that handle data and access resources. It is important to involve stakeholders from HR, legal, compliance, and other business units to gather a comprehensive video of access needs and potential challenges. This step also ensures that you have buy-in from stakeholders. 

Step 3: Design your process

A complex IAM system will eventually require workarounds, reducing its effectiveness. To reduce disruptions, prioritize user-friendly processes and software design. Balancing security and usability should be on your priority list because it is critical to ensuring that IAM policies are constantly obeyed. 

Step 4: Choose a tool 

IAM should integrate into your existing security and IT environment – HR systems, Saas and/or cloud, legacy systems & applications. This does away with duplicates and ensures that the data is well standardized. This reduces the possibility of security gaps and anomalies. 

When choosing an IAM solution, you need to consider how well it connects with your existing systems, such as directory services like Azure AD or LDAP, as well as critical SaaS applications like Office 365, Salesforce, or Amazon Web Services. Additionally, check that the tool supports hybrid environments, which require the management of both on-premise and cloud resources.

Look for multi-factor authentication, single sign-on across all linked systems, and the ability to implement compliance rules, such as division of roles.

Finally, assess its capability to provide audit trails, access reviews, and reporting features for regulatory compliance, as well as the overall user experience for tasks such as authentication and self-service password resets.

Step 5: Convey the cost-benefit analysis to the stakeholders 

While presenting the Cost-benefit analysis of implementing an IAM solution, it’s important to show the financial investment and the tangible benefits your stakeholders can expect. Demonstrate the increased user experience and productivity gains from automated provisioning, as well as the strengthened security posture and regulatory compliance alignment. 

Provide a break-even point and anticipated return on investment (ROI) at the end to 

show the financial and strategic advantages of implementing an IAM solution.  

Step 6: Implement the system and monitor  

Implement the solution gradually as it allows you to meticulously integrate your system with the tool. While you’re at it, set up roles, permissions, and access levels for various user groups, including employees, contractors, and partners. 

Keep a few things in mind:

1. Regularly review access controls, audit trails, and authentication methods.
2. Automate activities like user provisioning and deprovisioning to reduce vulnerabilities.
3. Map out data flows between the system to verify that information is consistent.  
4. Thoroughly test your integration points as well 

Once you’re done with the integration, conduct comprehensive tests, including functional, security, and user acceptance testing, to ensure that it is running smoothly. 

Implementing an IAM system is a significant achievement, but it’s only the first milestone. You have to monitor your system to ensure it remains effective and up-to-date. 

Monitoring your Identity and Access Management system 

Here are some areas you should monitor after implementation:

1. Access management and policy enforcement: This means making sure that; the system properly adheres to the right roles, the right permissions and the right access level according to your organization standards. 
2. User activity and behavior: To identify compromised accounts or insider threats, you can monitor patterns such as login locations, frequency of access, or unusual behavior 
3. Incident response and threat detection capabilities: When a possible threat is identified, the system should be able to generate immediate notifications and carry out a preset set of steps to contain the situation. 

Moreover, post-incident analysis is essential. Your IAM solution should help gather data from incidents to identify root causes and improve future defenses

Does an Identity and Access Management system enable compliance? 

IAM and compliance are intertwined because it encompasses tools for enforcing security solutions, identifying and managing user accounts, and overseeing the guidelines in determining access to secure information. All of which are the basic aspects of any compliance framework.

IAM systems also help in several procedures required in compliance, for example, operation of the principle of least privilege (this principle grants users the minimum levels of access that is required for them) or even ease of access for reviews. 

Moreover, the logs produced by these systems are quite beneficial when it comes to compliance evaluation – especially when you have to prove compliance in order to get certified. 

Challenges in implementing an Identity and access management system

Managing the various requirements of many identity providers, integrating with the current infrastructure, and ensuring robust security measures like multi-factor authentication and role-based access restrictions are just a few of these problems.

1. Integration complexity: Integrating IAM systems with current access management solutions, such as cloud services, enterprise apps, and different identity suppliers, can be difficult and time-consuming. This is because disparate systems may use distinct identity management and authentication procedures.
   1. Start by taking a thorough inventory of your existing IT setup, and choose an IAM solution that offers adaptable interfaces and APIs to ensure seamless integration with your current systems.
2. User adoption and experience: Implementing identity management systems, especially those involving user authentication or new role-based access controls, can disrupt workflows and lead to resistance from individual users.
   1. Invest in user training and awareness programs to educate users, like enhanced security, streamlined access, and reduced security risks. Start with user-friendly features like SSOs and gradually introduce MFAs and RBAC to minimize disruption.
3. Compliance and security requirements: Implementing security features like multi-factor authentication and role-based access systems can be challenging..
   1. Make sure your IAM system includes compliance-friendly features like reporting and automated auditing. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to managing access, so, take the time to evaluate different methods—like RBAC or attribute-based access control (ABAC)—and choose what works best for your specific setup. 
4. Data management and identity governance: Managing a large number of digital identities and keeping track of access rights across various systems can lead to identity sprawl, which could make maintaining visibility difficult.
   1. Utilize identity governance features within your access management system to automate access reviews, certification processes, and de-provisioning of inactive accounts.

The real impact lies in choosing the right tools to support these efforts with measures like risk-based authentication and access controls. Risk-based authentication dynamically adjusts the level of security and level of access based on the context of the login attempt, such as location, device, or time of access, thereby reducing the reliance on static rules.

IAM tools

Modern tools leverage artificial intelligence to enhance security.  AI can trigger additional authentication steps when it detects unusual activity, ensuring potential threats are addressed without unnecessarily disrupting legitimate users.

Let’s look at some tools that can help address the challenges and provide robust identity management systems while securing and streamlining your organization’s operations. 

Okta

Okta is a highly flexible IAM solution, offering support for OpenID Connect to help organizations manage access and security across various applications. The features make it ideal for enforcing access policies and reducing security risks. 

Here are some of Okta’s features:

1. Okta’s ThreatInsight helps keep your organization safe by blocking login attempts from suspicious IP addresses. 
2. With passwordless authentication, Okta helps users avoid the hassle of passwords while keeping security tight..
3. Employees and customers can use their biometrics to securely access systems. 
4. Okta Verify is a simple way for users to confirm their identity during login..
5. By analyzing the context—like device, location, and login history—Okta can adjust security measures, like requiring multi-factor authentication (MFA). 

Microsoft Azure Active Directory

Azure AD is a cloud-based identity service that integrates easily with both Microsoft and non-Microsoft applications. Azure AD can quickly spot anomalies and modify access permissions to keep your systems secure without interrupting the user experience. 

Here are some of the features provided by Azure AD: 

1. Azure AD allows organizations to assign permissions based on user roles, ensuring that each employee has access only to the resources they need.
2. Azure AD automatically adjusts security measures depending on the context of each login attempt.
3. With conditional access, Azure AD lets you define specific policies based on various conditions like location, device, or user behavior
4. Leveraging artificial intelligence, Azure AD’s identity protection feature monitors user activities for anomalies, like unusual login patterns.
5. Azure AD allows users to reset their own passwords without needing help from IT.

Ping Identity

With capabilities like SSO, MFA, and risk-based authentication, Ping Identity focuses on protecting digital identities. It supports a wide range of standards like OpenID Connect and can integrate with various applications to enforce consistent access policies. 

Ping Identity’s features include:

1. Ping automatically provisions and deprovisions user access based on their role and status.
2. It verifies users’ identities through additional authentication methods to enhance security.
3. It also allows users to log into multiple resources using just one set of credentials.
4. Ping Identity offers users self-service options to request access, reducing help desk costs.

SailPoint

SailPoint is an identity governance and administration (IGA) solution designed to manage access privileges in large enterprises. With strong compliance reporting and automated access controls, it helps organizations adhere to regulations like SOX or Sarbanes-Oxley Act or GDPR while maintaining secure access throughout their digital infrastructure.

Here are some of SailPoint’s features:

1. SailPoint enables seamless user onboarding and offboarding, ensuring access is granted or revoked as needed.
2. Self-service access requests allow users to request permissions, reducing reliance on IT teams.
3. With smart and automated provisioning, access is granted quickly and accurately based on role or status.
4. Approval workflows ensure that access requests are routed through the proper channels for review.
5. It has good reporting capabilities to help track and audit access across the organization, making compliance easier.

IBM Security Verify

IBM Security Verify is a comprehensive solution offering risk-based authentication, identity governance, and single sign-on (SSO). Leveraging artificial intelligence, it detects potential attacks and adjusts access permissions dynamically to reduce security risks.

Here are some of IBM Security Verify’s features:

1. Risk-based authentication tailors security measures based on the user’s behavior and context.
2. It provides role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring users only have access to the resources they need.
3. Seamless integration with multiple identity providers makes it highly adaptable to different infrastructures.
4. Artificial intelligence helps detect potential security threats and dynamically adjusts permissions to mitigate risks.
5. Comprehensive reporting and auditing features help organizations maintain compliance and track user access.

Wrapping up

At the heart of any good IAM system is the principle of least privilege, which simply means giving users just enough access to do their jobs—nothing more. By keeping permissions tightly controlled, organizations can drastically cut down on the chances of someone getting into sensitive areas they shouldn’t. An IAM system is a critical component of your cybersecurity infrastructure. 

Paired with multi-factor authentication (MFA), this approach makes sure that even if login details are compromised, the damage is limited. IAM systems are built to enforce this principle, adjusting access based on what people need at the moment, keeping everything more secure without making things complicated for users

Sprinto provides a seamless solution to bridge the gap between security and accessibility. It enables organizations to manage the full lifecycle of user access—from onboarding to offboarding—without the headaches of manual reviews.

Here’s how Sprinto does it: 

• Automated system access management for critical infrastructure
• Continuous tracking and auditing of access controls to ensure compliance
• Role-based access control (RBAC) and self-service access requests to streamline operations
• Zero-trust security policies, ensuring only the right people have access to sensitive resources
• Easy setup and integrations that allow you to manage multiple systems from a single interface

Sprinto doesn’t just stop at managing access—it helps you stay compliant with regulations like SOC 2 and GDPR, providing automated evidence collection and audit readiness. By aligning security measures with your compliance needs, Sprinto enables smooth, efficient operations without sacrificing the safeguards necessary to protect your critical infrastructure.

Book a call with us to know more! 

FAQs 

What are the four pillars of IAM?

The four pillars of Identity and Access Management (IAM) are:

1. Identification involves creating and managing unique digital identities for users, devices, and applications within an organization’s ecosystem.
2. Authentication: This pillar focuses on verifying the identity of users, devices, or systems attempting to access resources. It typically involves passwords, biometrics, security tokens, or multi-factor authentication.
3. Authorization: Once authenticated, this pillar determines what level of access and permissions an identity should have within the system. It ensures users can only access the resources necessary for their role.
4. Auditing involves monitoring, logging, and reporting all identity and access-related activities. It’s crucial for maintaining security, ensuring compliance, and detecting potential threats or policy violations.

What is IAM and its purpose?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is a framework of policies, processes, and technologies that enable organizations to manage digital identities and control access to resources. It aims to: 

• Enhancing security
• Ensuring compliance
• Improving efficiency
• Streamlining user experience
• Managing risk

What is an example of IAM?

Imagine a large corporation where employees need access to multiple applications and systems to perform their jobs. With an IAM system implementing SSO:

1. An employee logs in once with their corporate credentials.
2. The IAM system authenticates the employee’s identity.
3. Based on the employee’s role and permissions stored in the IAM system, they are automatically granted access to various applications they need (e.g., email, CRM, project management tools).
4. The employee can switch between these applications without needing to log in again.
5. All-access activities are logged for audit purposes.
6. If the employee’s role changes or they leave the company, their access can be quickly modified or revoked across all connected systems from a central point.

What is the IAM’s role in cyber security?

Identity and Access Management (IAM) significantly enhances cybersecurity through various crucial functions. It enforces stringent access control measures, ensuring users only have the necessary permissions. By verifying identities through robust authentication methods, IAM prevents unauthorized access.