6 Reasons Cybersecurity Requires Access Management
Cybersecurity became paramount for businesses and individuals alike over 30 years ago. Cyber threats abound, and data breaches and malware attacks are costly. Attacks today come from all directions, including the cloud tools you use every day.
The average employee uses 36 cloud-based services daily in the course of their workday. Managing access to sensitive data and resources has become crucial. It’s a vital piece to maintaining robust security. One breached account in a business app leads inevitably to significant consequences.
Login credentials remain lucrative for hackers. Various online account credentials represent a goldmine on the dark web. For instance, an email administrator login can fetch between $500 to $140,000.
Any business owner must ensure they’re addressing access management in the company’s cybersecurity strategy. Otherwise, the business suffers serious financial consequences in addition to the loss of reputation that comes with a data breach.
We’ll look at six reasons access management has become essential to good data security. These roles play a pivotal role in safeguarding valuable assets and ensuring data integrity.
Why Identity & Access Management (IAM) Should Be a High Priority
Mitigating Insider Threats
Insider threats result from either malicious actions or unintentional errors. By definition, they originate from employees within an organization or their breached accounts. IAM solutions enable businesses to install granular access controls and permissions to ensure that employees have access only to the data necessary for their roles.
By minimizing excessive privileges organizations reduces insider threats dramatically. Access management also provides visibility into user activities. Using IAM enables businesses to detect and respond to suspicious behavior in real-time.
Strengthening Data Protection
Data breaches enforce severe consequences on businesses. They can lead to things like:
- Reputational damage
- Financial losses
- Regulatory penalties
- Permanent closure for those that can’t recover
Effective access management strengthens data protection by limiting access to sensitive information and enforcing strong authentication measures.
Multi-factor authentication, encryption, and user authentication limit who can access what in a system. Access management solutions also enable organizations to track and control data transfers, ensuring that data remains secure throughout its lifecycle.
By implementing robust access controls, businesses mitigate their risks. They reduce the chance of unauthorized data access and protect their most valuable assets.
Enhancing Regulatory Compliance
Compliance with data privacy laws represents a top priority for many organizations. IAM solutions play a vital role in ensuring regulatory compliance by providing necessary controls and audit trails.
IAM tools also help companies adopt best practices, such as:
- Role-based access control (RBAC)
- Least privilege principles
- Contextual multi-factor authentication
Using access management, businesses demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements. IAM solutions also help with regular access reviews. They enable organizations to maintain an accurate record of user access and permissions, which remains essential for regulatory audits and assessments.
Streamlining User Provisioning and Deprovisioning
Managing user accounts and access privileges manually constitutes a time-consuming process quite prone to human error. Just one miskeyed entry increases the risk of an account breach.
Access management solutions automate user provisioning and de-provisioning. This automation ensures that employees have appropriate access rights throughout their employment lifecycle.
When an employee joins an organization, access management simplifies the onboarding process. By design, it quickly provisions the necessary user accounts and permissions based on their role.
When an employee leaves the organization, IAM tools ensure prompt de-provisioning of accounts along with revoking of access rights. This quick, packaged action reduces the risks of dormant or unauthorized accounts.
Remember the big data breach at Colonial Pipeline a few years back? That breach originated from an old unused business VPN (virtual private network) account that had never been de-provisioned properly.
Streamlining user provisioning and de-provisioning enhances security and improves operational efficiency.
Enabling Secure Remote Access
Two factors largely changed the look of the traditional “office” in the last decade. Namely, the rise of remote work and the increasing reliance on cloud services. These changes makes secure remote access vital for organizations.
IAM solutions provide secure authentication and authorization mechanisms for remote users without having to worry as much about individual network security. Team members can access corporate resources and data securely regardless of location. IAM is there whether employees are working from home, traveling, or accessing data via mobile. Access management ensures that they can do so without compromising the company’s security.
It includes features like:
- Virtual private networks (VPNs)
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
These features help secure remote access while maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of corporate data.
Improving Productivity
Using an identity and access management system frequently boost productivity. Imagine how much time your HR or IT team spends provisioning user accounts. It can take a significant amount of time to add all those login credentials and individually decide on user access permissions in each tool.
IAM systems automate this entire process. Using role-based access protocols, they immediately assign the right level of access to a new employee. If an employee leaves, the system can also immediately revoke access. This automation saves your administrative team considerable time and effort.
Why Is This Published By A Business Phone Company?
Here at NoContractVoIP, we believe that your success creates our success. And, since we specialize in business communication, we work to help you communicate better while staying safe. We create the cutting edge communication systems that modern companies need. And we geek out on tech stuff, so we study it for you.
To talk to a business phone system specialist and never worry about any of this again, call 866-550-0005 or contact us today.
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