How is Identity-Based Access Swiftly Becoming the Foundation for Secure Critical Infrastructure?

In a world where data breaches aren’t uncommon, and businesses lose millions of dollars every year, the identity-based security model becomes the need of the hour in establishing secure critical infrastructure. 

With identity-based access, businesses have visibility over who has access to IT assets and resources. Organizations can also enforce granular security policies based on user attributes such as location, role, or access type. 

For instance, if only select employees have access to sensitive data stored in the cloud or mobile devices, this approach allows IT or security teams to enforce these policies regardless of where your users are located or what device they use. Businesses continuously seek increased speed, efficiency, and cost savings in executing increasingly sophisticated business processes. 

As a result, many organizations have become more broadly connected with the advent of cloud computing and internet-dependent data storage and transmission systems. These changes rapidly shift the boundaries of businesses’ internal perimeter toward an increasing number of potential cyber-attack targets. 

While this expansion may improve operational efficiency and productivity, these growing networks also expose companies to greater risk from cyber criminals who scan for new attack vectors within the expanding corporate environment. 

Let’s uncover the aspects of incorporating identity-based access through an identity management system and how it helps businesses securely navigate digital transformation. 

Why Identity Security Matters Now More than Ever Before?

Businesses are navigating their overall transformation journey with the increasing adoption of the cloud. However, the risks associated with the cloud can’t be overlooked. 

As per stats, phishing is one of the most common cloud attacks that most enterprises face while they leverage cloud computing. 

Apart from this, the COVID-19 pandemic era has also shifted enterprises to the new remote-working environment. And cybercriminals were able to bypass newly-established weaker lines of defense to exploit customer identities and business data. 

Hence, a robust mechanism to protect customer data, identities, and business information became the need of the hour. 

Mitigating Cyber Risks Through Identity-Based Security

Identity-based security has emerged as a promising approach for mitigating cyber risks. 

Unlike the conventional perimeter-based security mechanisms that grant access based on inherited parameters, identity-based access ensures that users are explicitly verified and continuously authorized as they seek access to various resources. With robust authentication through several security layers, organizations can ensure their customer data and sensitive business details remain secure. 

This approach also limits the ability of attackers to gain visibility into potential application vulnerabilities. Regarding critical infrastructure, perimeter-based technology is especially problematic because remote access is often vital to operations. Additionally, cutting-edge identity management systems help ensure the highest level of security without compromising user experience. 

Since a great user experience is vital for overall business success, organizations can deliver the same by incorporating the true potential of an identity and access management solution. 

Whether we talk about a seamless login experience through social or passwordless login, users love to interact with platforms incorporating innovative identity management solutions. 

How Can Businesses Incorporate Identity-Based Access Management?

One of the best ways to protect your organization against cyber attacks is to implement strong access controls, including identity-based solutions. 

And identity-based access can be quickly incorporated into a platform through an identity provider that provides stringent authentication and authorization security layers.

Once an organization understands how these solutions work, it can add an identity management system to critical applications and gradually transition other groups of users to more robust authentication methods.

Here’s the list of benefits that an organization gets with robust authentication and authorization through an identity management system: 

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Multi-factor authentication helps businesses ensure that the right person has access to critical resources by reinforcing the traditional authentication process. MFA provides that a user demanding access to resources or applications is the same person it claims to be by going through multiple authentication processes. MFA is a crucial part of identity management and contains various authentication processes, including OTP verification, email verification, or question and answer-based authentication. 

Risk-Based Authentication (RBA): Risk-based authentication is yet another stringent security mechanism that reinforces MFA in a way that another authentication layer is added in a high-risk situation. RBA determines any unusual activity around a user account in terms of authentication and automatically increases account security by adding another authentication layer. This ensures the version remains secure even if two or more authentication layers are compromised. 

Data Encryption: Data encryption helps ensure that user information is securely transferred and stored over the cloud, and it becomes pretty difficult for cybercriminals to sneak and exploit sensitive data. With an identity management system, businesses get the security benefits of data encryption that minimizes the chances of identity theft. 

Global Data and Privacy Compliances: Another advantage of incorporating an identity management platform is that it helps organizations comply with several global data privacy and security requirements. For instance, organizations can quickly get the GDPR and CCPA compliance, which is the primary condition for organizations to serve the customers of the EU and California, respectively. Moreover, these compliances ensure that customer data is collected, stored, and managed securely. 

Final Thoughts 

Identity management is quickly becoming the fuel for keeping online platforms up and running without compromising security. Businesses that haven’t yet incorporated identity-based access control would indeed lag behind their competitors and risk their users’ accounts. 

The aspects mentioned above portray the importance of an identity management system and how organizations can benefit from it.