Identity and Access Management (IAM) — that is, the ability to control exactly who can access your data and systems at any given time — is a central pillar of cybersecurity. Done right, IAM acts as a strong layer of security, helping you build a better-protected and more compliant business overall.
However, there are also risks involved, and you need to remain aware of these threats if your identity and access management is to remain effective.
This article will take a look at why identity and access management is so important, as well as some of the most dangerous and common threats in this area.
What Is Identity & Access Management?
Identity and access management is a way of restricting access to certain elements of your organization — assets, data, systems, and so on. Among its many benefits, IAM:
- Drives better data security, allowing you to protect your key assets much more effectively and reducing the risk of insider attacks and threats like phishing.
- Helps you comply with data privacy regulations and decreases the risk that you’ll run afoul of the law by allowing your data to be compromised.
- Makes it easier to manage complex IT networks, for example by using single sign-on (SSO) to consolidate identities so IT teams no longer have to manage huge numbers of user accounts.
Simply put, IAM enables IT administrators to set rules that control who can access specific areas, ensuring that important information is protected from inappropriate use.
5 Unexpected Threats to Your Identity & Access Management
To get the best results from your identity and access management efforts, you need to remain aware of the many threats here, many of which aren’t immediately obvious. Let’s explore five unexpected threats to pay attention to when it comes to IAM.
Attackers Targeting Remote Workers
Remote work surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and today large numbers of employees around the world continue to work from home — either entirely or as part of a hybrid model.
Accessing sensitive data from outside the company network comes with a risk, and attackers know it. Managing consistent policies and access controls for remote workers is hard, and requires juggling a ton of different responsibilities, privileges, and rules.
Many cyber criminals now explicitly target remote workers so they can bypass on-network IAM controls and access your internal systems more easily.
The Internet of Things
While the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to enormous benefits for businesses of all kinds, it also comes with risks, especially in the realm of identity and access management. Each IoT device represents an endpoint on your overall network, which means more potential access points for attackers.
Organizations that rely heavily on the IoT have to take a more comprehensive approach to endpoint security as well as IAM, ensuring access is tightly controlled from all possible angles.
Biometrics
Biometrics are often lauded as a powerful game-changer in the world of identity and access management. Instead of asking your employees to maintain strong, regularly updated passwords and other security practices, biometric devices can simply scan their fingerprints or irises to grant secure access to whatever they need. It’s safe, simple, and convenient. Right?
Unfortunately, biometric access controls are not foolproof. Smart attackers have started to find ways around these technologies, for example by using voice recordings to trick a sensor into thinking you’re an authorized person. On top of that, storing sensitive biometric data can make you a target in itself, opening up a plethora of legal consequences.
Escalating Privileges
Access to sensitive data is often managed on the basis of your seniority or role within the company. Often, as employees change roles, prior privileges are not reviewed or revoked.
Hackers can take advantage of this by gaining access to your systems and escalated controls This allows them to access highly sensitive assets and data that would otherwise be off-limits to all but senior staff. In a worst-case scenario, an organization may have no role based access controls, giving a hacker access to all, including sensitive information.
Insider Threats
As is often the case in cybersecurity, some of the greatest threats come from within. Internal employees, especially those with high-level permissions and privileges, can do an enormous amount of damage, either consciously or through human error.
It’s important to remember that insider threats aren’t always the result of malicious bad actors — they can also be the result of careless behavior (for example, failing to maintain secure passwords) or a lack of awareness of warning signs.
Secure Identity & Access Management With DYOPATH
DYOPATH can help you avoid many of the above threats by building a more robust and sophisticated security infrastructure, backed by highly sophisticated technologies and overseen by a team of seasoned IT experts.
If you’re ready to start taking identity and access management — along with your security as a whole — more seriously, reach out to us for a call.
