Cloud Identity Governance can Overcome Entitlement Risks

Of the many problems that threaten enterprises, entitlement and access management risks are a significant cause for concern. These issues become even more menacing as the current remote and hybrid work scenarios have fragmented and distributed the enterprise workforce. This workforce uses cloud platforms for essential tasks and data sharing daily, making it increasingly difficult for an organization to implement a reliable identity and access management (IAM) infrastructure.

Most enterprises were forced to build upon their preexisting IAM strategies and measures; extending those to protect cloud platforms and servers in the form of cloud identity governance.

What does Cloud Identity Governance Mean?

Cloud identity governance is a form of IAM that uses automation to control the access that users have to an application. These controls apply to users on infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms.

Cloud identity governance involves a combination of identity-as-a-service and enterprise mobility management that help enterprises achieve greater flexibility with user management even in cloud ecosystems.

The Need for New IAM Measures

Cloud-based identity security products will replace 75% of existing identity management measures by 2022. This statistic shows just how much cloud governance has to offer enterprise application security. Why will it gain so much traction in such a short period of time?

To understand this, it is important to outline the access management risks enterprises have to mitigate.

Access to excess: According to recent reports, around 63% of data breaches are the result of internal attacks. This statistic highlights the vulnerability that crops up when a user can access any and all information. Employees are often able to access sensitive information and may knowingly or unknowingly leak that information. The absence of data governance and access management, in this case, can significantly handicap the cybersecurity measures that a company puts in place.

Absence of identity life cycle management: All enterprises are accustomed to seeing employees leave and new ones replace them. In an ideal scenario, the old employee(s) will lose their ability to access the enterprises’ databases while the new ones should receive authorization to access all the data, information and systems they need. However, without a proper IAM infrastructure, new employees do not receive access quickly enough while former employees retain access long after they leave.

SSOs into SPOFs: At times, the only identity management measure that an enterprise implements is a single sign-on (SSO) system. This can be problematic when the data pools are too large to handle, resulting in an SSO becoming a single point of failure (SPOF).

Difficult data security audits: Finally, carrying out accurate data security audits is a significant problem. Aspects like granting authorization to an individual or group along with efficient data verification can prove exceptionally challenging. In addition, the chances that administrators are granting access to unknown parties are high. This is because in a multi-system environment, controlling and tracking individual users becomes very difficult.

Addressing Cybersecurity Issues

Cloud identity governance makes it possible for enterprises to revolutionize their cybersecurity measures in the following ways:

Simplifies processes. Access requests, password resets, user provisioning and even access certifications are easier with cloud identity governance platforms. Administrators have more control over the access that employees have and can better control the duration of that access, as well.

Increases integration capabilities. Traditional IAM solutions are restricted to handling logins that take place in a single location like enterprise applications or known endpoints. Cloud identity governance makes it possible for organizations to control access across several devices, operating systems and applications, giving organizations an unprecedented amount of flexibility.

Control over Wi-Fi. Cloud identity governance can also manage users that connect via Wi-Fi networks, cloud servers and more through authentication. This can help to prevent external attacks that use Wi-Fi networks to propagate malware and infect several devices simultaneously.

Cloud identity governance has made it possible for enterprise cybersecurity measures to better adapt to changing working conditions. Organizations can mitigate identity and access problems they may face by exerting greater control over the workflow even when employees are working remotely. Through cloud identity governance, organizations can foster better coordination without negatively impacting operational costs.

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Rakesh Soni

Rakesh Soni is co-founder and CEO of LoginRadius.

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