Does your business have the best identity and access management (IAM) tools to stay secure against modern cyberthreats? Learn more about IAM, why it’s important, and what tools and solutions you need to stay protected from what cybercriminals can throw at you today.
Why is Identity and Access Management Important?
70% of all sophisticated cyberattacks were aimed at stealing user credentials. People tend to be a business’ biggest weakness, especially when they aren’t given the appropriate training or tools to stay secure. Targeting people to steal their credentials is one of the most common ways cybercriminals gain access to a business’ network to exfiltrate data, plant viruses, and more.
Identity and access management is important for modern businesses because it makes accessing data safe for anyone authorized to do so by limiting who can access what and providing secure ways to log in and store credentials.
IAM is just one part of the complex, layered cybersecurity approach that’s necessary to stay secure in today’s world. Today, download our eBook, What Makes a Good Cybersecurity Defense for a Modern SMB?, to learn more about what you need to be protected.
Top IAM Tools and Solutions
Here’s a look at the tools and software available to businesses that help protect login credentials and establish identity and access management procedures and protocols.
Multi-Factor Authenticators
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has become a necessary part of cybersecurity and access management to help protect login credentials by introducing an additional step in the process.
MFA has many benefits for businesses that implement it. The first one (and the most obvious) is that it makes for better security. Cybercriminals work hard to steal credentials from workers by luring them with phishing and spear phishing emails in order to access data. Having MFA in place means that even if a username or password is acquired, there’s still another step needed before those bad actors can get into your system.
MFA comes in many forms, including:
- Biometrics: Using things like face scanning and fingerprints, biometrics utilizes your own unique physical features to unlock devices.
- Third-Party Apps: Using apps like Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator, this extra step uses unique codes to authenticate a user. This can be done using different devices (like phones or tablets) or web applications (like password managers) or through email, text messages, or phone calls.
- Devices: Separate devices, like USB drives, can be used to authenticate a user by requiring it to be plugged into a computer in order to access certain things or to log in.
Password Managers
For businesses that use passwords, having password management software is critical. Tools like Passpack or Passportal help organize your organization’s many passwords and usernames and can even provide MFA codes.
These secure programs provide a protected way for everyone within your organization to access existing login credentials, create stronger passwords with password creation tools, store new credentials, and decide who should have access to them.
Without a password manager, credentials are typically stored physically. Sometimes security is considered and passwords are locked away. But what happens most often if people aren’t given an easy and secure way to store passwords is that they are kept on a scratch piece of paper in a desk drawer, ripe for the taking. Or people use the same password for many sites, something like this.
This might be the biggest benefit of a password tool: creating ways to store passwords so easily that people will actually use them.
Professional-Level IAM Software
A professional-level IAM software will help businesses make their IAM protocols the most effective that they can be. These tools handle the core aspects of IAM:
- Determining access levels for users based on assigned levels and granting permission based on if that person is authorized or not
- Assigning roles to users to help determine their access level
- Tracking roles, users, and authorizations to ensure the right people always have the right level of access and to prevent misuse of privilege
When set up and operated successfully, professional IAM software will minimize the risks of data breaches, improve your business’ ability to restrict who accesses what with controls that get as specific as they need to be, and simpler on and offboarding and access management.
But is having a professional-quality IAM tool enough? What if you or your team have limited (or no) experience using these tools or creating access controls? Having the software simply isn’t enough anymore, not when modern cybercriminals have access to just as much technology (if not more) than your business.
Now, you need a team of experts to aid you in implementing these tools and solutions and to help you learn how to manage access controls over time. Enlisting the help of cybersecurity experts, either in-house or outsourced with an MSP, to provide IAM services is vital to staying secure.
What else do you need to stay protected against modern cyber threats? Today, download our eBook, What Makes a Good Cybersecurity Defense for a Modern SMB?, to explore everything your business needs.