The information provided by identity management determines how access management will work. Because users only enter identity information, they don’t realize a completely different management system in place to establish their access. Identity and access are so closely linked that it is hard to remember that they are not the same thing. As a result, malicious users can be used against their intended victims. If identity management is detailed and descriptive, but access management is not clearly defined, it is easy for black hat hackers to find people with access to the data or information they want to access. If access management is detailed but identity management is too vague, it can cause countless problems for legitimate users trying to get through the day. Both need to be clear and consistent to ensure proper processes and tighter security. Both are fundamental concepts that are critical to the safety of the entire system.
It is important for a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because without either one, a company will be left vulnerable.
For example, if an organization makes the mistake of thinking that identity management and access management are the same thing, then it is possible that the organization implements just one type of system: a system with identity management but no authorization, or access management without authentication.
Both identity management and access management work together to help provide an organization information about who is allowed to access what types of information, as well as verifying the identities of their employees.
I agree with you that it is important for enterprises to care about the difference between identity management and access management as it relates to the key to protecting sensitive business systems and assets from unauthorized access. Protecting the enterprise from potential threats through an added layer of security around digital identities is an important part of an effective business security program. At the same time, enterprises are concerned that the distinction between identity management and access management affects the sustainability of their business.
As stated above, “It is essential for a business to care about the difference between identity and access management because, without either one, a company will be left vulnerable’. Without access management and Identity management, an organization cannot identify who does what within the network, creating a high level of risks from adversarial and internal attacks, negating change and configuration management ideology.
A business needs to care about identity and access management differences because of the core security principles of least privilege and separation of duties. It is against best practices to indiscriminately provide employees access to every resource within an organization. For example, not all employees require access to server rooms or financial systems. Businesses can manage or ‘control’ unauthorized access by only granting access to employees authorized to access such resources by using access management. Identity management works in tandem with access management to know who accessed or attempted to access a particular resource but does not cover authorization concerns. Therefore controlling for who ultimately can access specific resources is a vital security control to implement.
I also think that it’s best practice to designate roles early on to determine who’s responsible for what. Even if this is a security measure to protect certain resources from disclosure/tampering – it’s good to know who exactly is liable for what. It also helps with future business processes because it enforces identity/access management practices and also allows different individuals to rotate in designated roles while doing so. Which is great for the organization as they not only expose different individuals to roles, it prevents burn out and adds redundancy to the role.
With the new approach of digital transformation of services and products offered by organizations, identity management became more important than ever. Covid required people to access business servers and softwares from anywhere in the world. Workplace environment shifted from offices to homes and remote working scenarios requires more security controls to verify user identities. Identity management and controls are priority because it eliminates the risk of bad actors from gaining physical or digital access.
Access management assures the systems and help business to keep track of employee activity. The configurations to limit employee’s access to specific application secures and strengths the security. It’s also important because organizations often needs to meet compliance requirements.
You make a good point about the effects of COVID-19 and how many companies needed to pivot to remote work. Proper identity management is important with a remote workforce, especially the use of multi-factor authentication. This helps to properly authenticate users and mitigates the risk of compromised identities. Remote workers often don’t have the same physical security posture as central offices. This increases the risk of theft and unauthorized login attempts.
It is important to care about the difference between identity management and access management because you really can not have one without the other. If we take my organization’s software for example. Knowing the difference between the two makes a difference in how employees get work done. First, an individual has to authenticate to the software through an identity management program, once authenticated they will be provided access to the pages and tools that will allow them to do their work, without the first initialization phase no one would be able to access their programs or jobs and have no way of conducting any work.
Hello Dhaval, one is contingent upon the other, and both identity management and access management complement each other to ensure adequate security through elements such as access provisioning, review, de-provisioning, account management, etc.
Yes we need both to the well-functioning of a company. You do not want anyone to access your system without knowing who they are. You want to limit all risks that can have a huge impact in your system as much as possible especially with the sensitive data and costs associated to it.
It is important for organizations to properly use and distinguish between identity management and access management. Access management provides authorization, and identity management performs authentication to confirm that access is granted. People who have access to the system do not have full access to the system, but rather have limited permission to access content that matches the access rights of that identity. Identity and access management (IAM) technology is not only about managing access to systems, but also about protecting the enterprise from potential threats by adding layers of security around digital identities.IAM is a critical component of an effective business security program. Cyber attacks often involve the use of compromised credentials to gain access to enterprise systems. At the same time, reducing the risk of exposing data to third parties, IAM is key to protecting sensitive business systems and assets from unauthorized access.
Hi Dan,
I agree that Identity and Access Management (IAM) technology can protect organizations from potential threats by adding a security layer around digital identities. Ensure the right processes and tighter security.
Having reliable Identity and Access Management systems are very important for businesses providing the means for close control of user access, which lessens the risk of inside and outside data security breaches. It’s important for a business to care about the difference between Identity and Access because although they are linked to one another, they’re functions are still different. Identity determines who the user is and Access evaluates the user to determine what they can actually see and access. In other words, one manages identities digitally, while the other manages authorization.
Thanks for sharing Christopher! I certainly agree and situations very depending on the organization as to how involved the business is in regards to identity and access management. In some cases IT relies on the business to provide them with any updates to a user’s identity (i.e. promotion). However, if this change is not formally communicated to IT then the user will not be able to perform functions which require additional authority limits in their new role.
Yes totally agree with you. A business must know the difference between access and identity management that way they will give permission to only users that need to access certain software. It’s also good for a company to make the difference because they want to know who they hire and who has access to their systems in case of hacking or malicious attacks from inside.
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
It is extremely important for a business to know the difference between identity management and access management because misunderstanding can lead to potential security issues. If access management is well defined but identity management isn’t, it can create issues for users trying to gain that information that is needed.
Identity and access management helps enhance security across applications and devices. It makes it easier to identify security violations, remove inappropriate access privileges, and revoke access. This ensures that users, including clients, employees, contractors, third-party vendors, and partners to only be allowed to efficiently be organized with the correct access.
Additionally, the information sharing is protected by identity and access management. Identity management and access management will allow information sharing about user identity to grant access to resources.
Hi Victoria
Thanks for the detailed response. It is very important to be able to identify the differences between the two. it would be a nightmare for a company who misunderstood the differences and allowed for inappropriate access to software or system. being able to sure up all potential security issues is very important and not letting minor details slip by is key.
Well said, the phrase that “Identity and access management helps enhance security across applications and devices and makes it easier to identify security violations, remove inappropriate access privileges, and revoke access.” is very accurate.
Businesses should care about the differences between identity and access management as the understanding of this nuance allows them to better manage the authentication and authorization of their users. Businesses should strive to create auditable logs of user actions while following the principle of least permissions. Users should be assigned the minimum access required to complete their job. Their identity should be clearly understood within the logs so their actions can be audited.
If identity is not properly managed, repudiation is easier. For example, businesses that issue shared accounts across multiple users. If access is not properly managed, then over-permissioning is a concern. This could result in users having access to inappropriate resources.
I like the way you highlighted that access management is the key points where the principle of least permissions can be enacted. Granting an individual the minimum authorization or access to data and systems required to perform their duties is best practices with respect to access management!
It is important for business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because of the different uses and applications it imposes in their company. If it is not clearly stated it can create a wide variety of issues with auditing as there is no clear indication as to who has access to what from an access management standpoint and no identity relationship to the access on a user role based for identity management. Without this order it will be disorganized and dysfunctional because not everyone should have access to the same things, it should all be correlated appropriately by position and authorization.
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
It’s important to a business to care about the difference between these two concepts because you don’t want certain users having access to higher level information or users who aren’t authorized at all gaining any access. On top of this, you want to make sure that the right users are being authenticated to use this information within the organization. Not having these two concepts clearly understood could lead to the wrong users gaining access to unauthorized information which could lead to multiple risk exposures.
Good points Michael. It is imperative that authorized users have the right credentials and that those who do not have those same credentials be prevented from having that access. Otherwise, this will lead to private or sensitive data being exposed, and also a disruption of business functions.
The significant advantage of IAM is that both(Identity management and Access Management) assist an organization in managing who can access and what level of access is permitted to their data. Both are mainly implemented via technical and automated controls.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) assists businesses in protecting themselves against disruptions by enabling several technical automated controls to manage who uses what and what level of usage is allowed within the network.
Based on the scope of user identification and permission granted, understanding the difference between user identification and the level of access given through technical/automated controls enables organizations to save money while reducing several business risks.
You make a great point about reducing business risk, IAM can certainly help by applying restrictions to individual users and limiting their access which in turn can protect the organization from any disruptions as you stated.
One of the reason why identity and access management is important in cyber security is because organizations must comply with increasing, complex and distributed regulations, and they must ensure and demonstrate an effective customer identification process, suspicious activity detection and reporting, and identity theft prevention. Identity and access management solutions can be leveraged to manage various regulatory requirements such as having a Customer Identification Program, It’s very essential to a business to show much concerns about the users having access to higher level information or users who aren’t authorized at all gaining any access. this, you want to make sure that the right users are being authenticated to use this information within the organization. Whereas =having these two concepts clearly understood could lead to the wrong users gaining access to unauthorized access
It is important to consider that an organization must comply with regulatory requirements. And as we learned, these regulatory requirement are just another risk that an organization has to manage. Through IAM this is certainly a tool that they can use to help manage this risk.
Hi Ryan,
I agree with you as regards your suggestion of complying with regulatory requirement. However, you must understand in the same way that one of the reason why identity and access management is important in cyber security is because organizations must comply with increasing, complex and distributed regulations, and they must ensure and demonstrate an effective customer identification process.
It is important for the business to care about the difference between identity management and access management to keep their resources confidential. Access management reviews the attributes set within the identity management before granting access to the resources. If the attributes are not set properly then user might not be able to access the resources that they should be having access to, or they might be able to access more resources then they should have.
You make important points defending why businesses should care about the difference between these two concepts. Not having these two concepts clearly understood could lead to the wrong users gaining access to unauthorized information which could lead to multiple risk exposures. You don’t want vital resources in the wrong user’s hands.
It is important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because this difference highlights the importance of ensuring that employees are identified correctly, and are placed in the right domain groups so that they do not have too many or too little access privileges.
Business leaders likely worry about the access privileges that employees have more than the domain groups they are assigned to or how administrators manage user accounts, but at the end of the day, that is how access privileges are assigned. If this concept was understood by all business owners and top executives/managers, the importance of identity management would be understood by more than just IT employees and auditors. It would also aid in emphasizing information security in the company as a whole, and would allow less errors such as old user accounts/logins still having access to systems, or employees who switched departments still having access to old directories they no longer need to use. This decreases the risk of information security breaches and sensitive information being leaked or placed in the wrong hands.
It is important for a company to care about the difference between identity management and access management because it is important for groups of users to have only the appropriate access, they need to perform their duties. If you have identity management without access management then anyone who can authenticate will have access to whatever resource they so choose. This is very problematic and can lead to easier attack vectors for bad actors. If you have access management without identity management then you really don’t have a system in place to authenticate users and have them prove who they say they are. Either way creates an unsustainable situation. It is very important for companies to successfully implement both identity and access management.
The principle of least privilege is described by your point, Ryan, which as you say should be implemented to safeguard the business against its own employees as well as outside users trying to gain access. It is crucial that both identity management and access management are implemented in a way such that they both work towards better securing the business’ systems. They are both needed equally, which is probably why they are commonly referenced together with the term IAM (identity and access management).
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
It is of utmost importance for a business to implement and monitor these two aspects of security for a wide number of reasons all involving very negative outcomes for the business owners and general availability of the business. Either of these unmanaged or poorly implemented with insecure practices present major risks involving potentially large losses in availability, profits, and potentially reputation in the event that unintended users gain access to areas in which they should not have permissions to enter or make changes. Access management is controlled by authenticated users and user groups which make permissions within those groups purposeful. If a user outside of the intended group is given access to a higher privileged area, the data in visible by that user now is at risk. If the business contains confidential information or trade secrets, improper access could lead to the downfall of the entire business in the worst case scenario. If an attacker is able to impersonate a highly privileged identity and gain access to a more sensitive area based on the data contained in that environment, any number of consequences could ensue. The business may be primarily concerned with sensitive data disclosure or exfiltration.
It’s important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because of their security and privacy. An organization would not want anyone to access their system due to incidents or breaches that can cause real damages to the business such identity theft, blackmail, and even cause profit loss. It is also important for an organization to know the difference as it standardizes and automates critical aspects of managing identities, authentication, authorization to saving time and money while reducing risk to the business.
Great job tying in all of this week’s topics into your post by calling out how understanding the difference between Identity and access management can help address privacy concerns. Too often businesses are focused on reducing the likelihood of damage to availability or theft which are of course critical incidents. However, privacy violations are quickly becoming a real threat to businesses with staggerring fines. Implementing a robust IAM program and understanding the differences can help reduce the likelihood of such privacy violations. Very thoughtful post!
It’s important for a business to understand the difference between access and identity management. Treating both as the same can lead to issues regarding separation of duties and cause personnel to having escalated access from data that is sensitive and is not required by their role. This could lead to data tampering/leaks or access to systems that should not typically have access to that defined role. The result could lead to a barrage of issues especially if the particular role is not briefed on how to handle the data. In fact, you could probably write an entire essay dedicated to the subject because it bleeds into a variety of issues that we see organizations fail with every day.
Ultimately the organization should be aware that personnel should have attributes that define their roles so that proper access can be granted after authentication. Failure could mean unnecessary risks are open that would fall well above an organization’s acceptance and potentially aggregate to critical leading to impact organizational operations.
I like how you emphasized the businesses should care about the different between identity and access management because of separation of duties. Two employees who have the same job title may be assigned completely different tasks, and each employee having access to data that is really only required to be used by the other employee creates extra risk that does not need to be in existence and could potentially be exploited in the future. It could also cause friction among the team.
IdM is the method of authenticating users. This reduces the ability of threat actors to gain access to the network, therefore reducing the frequency of attacks.
IAM is the method of authorizing users. You should always follow least privilege when setting up user accounts. This means that if a threat actor gains access to that account, the data they have access to is limited. This reduces the severity of attacks.
Risk management is focused on both reducing severity and frequency of adverse events, since the multiple of those two numbers generates an expected cost. If we’re able to reduce both severity and frequency, the expected cost of an incident will decline dramatically.
It’s important for business to know the difference because they are different in ways. While identity management provides authentication of users who are allowed access to systems or applications. Access management will provide the authorization of access to a user for a system or application. The different is important for a business because without one or the other, the business can become vulnerable and is more easily open for an attack.
Hey Corey,
I do agree with you post. In addition to that if the attributes are not set of the user within the identity management phase then it could impact during the access management phase. When they user are trying to access the resources that they are allowed to access and if the attributes are not set properly for their account then their account could forbidden from access that resources.
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
Identity Management is critical so you know who you are allowing access (or denying). This happens at the individual level and they need to know that ‘you are who you say you are’ in order to know what Authorizations to grant you. ‘Mary’ is granted access to things that ‘Brad’ might now be allowed to see (and vice versa). Add in the fact that Mary is CFO and Brad is a director in HR and the differences in Authorization become even more evident. All businesses have some level of information that should be restricted in its share-ability – those restrictions come from either the role or the individual making the request. As a result the first step is Identify the user and then manage the access/authorizations appropriately.
It is important for a business to know the difference between identity and access management due to the security objectives supported by each concept. Identity management ensures system integrity, data confidentiality, and even in some cases, availability, by proving that critical users are indeed who they say they are (tying right back into the security objective of nonrepudiation). An organization can have all of the authorization protocol they want; but if their identity management system is compromised, then any delegated privileged access will ultimately be rendered useless.
Likewise, access management supports similar principles of confidentiality, availability, and especially integrity, by ensuring the right people are accessing the right material. Access management to me, really ties into the idea of insider threats (although identity management can also prevent insider threats). If an employee, potentially disgruntled, is properly authenticated into a system, but gets access to more than what is needed, either accidental or purposeful actions can lead into a data breach/loss of data integrity and availability. This kind of threat reminds me of Aldrich Ames, a KGB insider that compromised nearly every undercover US allied entity in the Soviet Union. I listened to a podcast about him and recalled that he accessed files irrelevant to his job in the CIA and sold it to KGB insiders; if proper access management was enforced in this case, perhaps such a large military breach could have been prevented.
Nonetheless, without sufficient identity management, access management is rendered useless; and without sufficient access management, identity management is rendered useless. Organizations must comprehend this concept before implementing an information security management program and effective prepare for relevant threats. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/aldrich-ames
Disgruntled employees (former ones as well) pose a considerable risk to companies. Without taking precautionary measures to handle accounts (activating/deactivating access), they can also have ties to unauthorized company operations, which of course is dangerous when dealing with highly sensitive information.
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
As I touched on in question one, Just because you have strict authentication requirements does not mean that you have strict authorization standards. You can have a single admin login account that is used for authenticating users and users can only access the desired information if they have the login for the account, however once accessed that account may have access to all kinds of data that should only be accessed by a certain level employee. This could create a problem with users having access to data they should not, and on the other we do not want certain users not having proper access to critical data if they should have access. Also, if the access management is not set properly it could make things easier for an outside threat such as a hacker to gain access to critical data, the hacker will have more work to do if the access management is set properly
It’s important for the business to understand that identity management provides a means of authentication while access management provides users the ability to perform certain functions in the system. In my full time job, I find that asset owners on both the business and sadly even the IT side often use the terms authentication and authorization interchangeably when I bring up access related questions. Typically, they’ll review a listing of user access and will focus solely on whether each user is actively with the company or whether they have recently left the company. Often times they won’t consider or inspect the entitlements of each user, which are typically categorized via roles or groups. When this happens, the fundamental access management standard of providing users with “least privilege” to perform their daily job duties is compromised since events such as departmental changes or promotions are not considered. It’s important for both business and IT reviewers to consider the role/group permissions for all active users to ensure “least privilege” is maintained.
Identity and access management standardizes and even automates critical aspects of managing identities, authentication, and authorization, saving time and money while reducing risk to the business. The varying aspects of protection offered by IAM solutions are key to building a strong information security program.
It is essential for every business to care about differences between identity management and access management because knowing the difference is vital to the security of the organization, and without the distinction they are leaving themselves vulnerable to a multitude of threats, inside and outside. The organization should have strict access management, such as authorization levels, as well as thorough identity management, such as a user’s job title, job description, department, login credentials, etc. Even with detailed identity management controls in place, somebody could still gain access to a system with weak access management by obtaining appropriate identification information. On the other hand, weak identity management with strong authentication management can become a nightmare for legitimate users. By having both of the components, identifying “the who” and also the extra of level of “what they can access”, organizations greatly reduce a the risk of unauthorized information ending up in the wrong hands, and keeping the entire system tight and secure.
Together identity management and access management plays an imperative role in ensuring confidentiality. For instance, a user may have access to a system but not access to certain components within the system. Identity management works together with access management to ensure that only certain people or groups are allowed access to a particular system or application. It is important for an organization to understand this because with both implemented, a security breach can be avoided.
The difference between Identity and access management is very important due to the security discipline, framework, and solutions for managing digital identities. Identity management encompasses the provisioning and de-provisioning of identities, securing and authentication of identities, and the authorization to access resources and/or perform certain actions. While a person (user) has only one singular digital identity, they may have many different accounts representing them. Each account can have different access controls, both per resource and per context. The overarching goal for IAM is to ensure that any given identity has access to the right resources (applications, databases, networks, etc.) and within the correct context
zijian ou says
The information provided by identity management determines how access management will work. Because users only enter identity information, they don’t realize a completely different management system in place to establish their access. Identity and access are so closely linked that it is hard to remember that they are not the same thing. As a result, malicious users can be used against their intended victims. If identity management is detailed and descriptive, but access management is not clearly defined, it is easy for black hat hackers to find people with access to the data or information they want to access. If access management is detailed but identity management is too vague, it can cause countless problems for legitimate users trying to get through the day. Both need to be clear and consistent to ensure proper processes and tighter security. Both are fundamental concepts that are critical to the safety of the entire system.
Andrew Nguyen says
It is important for a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because without either one, a company will be left vulnerable.
For example, if an organization makes the mistake of thinking that identity management and access management are the same thing, then it is possible that the organization implements just one type of system: a system with identity management but no authorization, or access management without authentication.
Both identity management and access management work together to help provide an organization information about who is allowed to access what types of information, as well as verifying the identities of their employees.
Dan Xu says
I agree with you that it is important for enterprises to care about the difference between identity management and access management as it relates to the key to protecting sensitive business systems and assets from unauthorized access. Protecting the enterprise from potential threats through an added layer of security around digital identities is an important part of an effective business security program. At the same time, enterprises are concerned that the distinction between identity management and access management affects the sustainability of their business.
Olayinka Lucas says
Hello Andrew, very well said.
As stated above, “It is essential for a business to care about the difference between identity and access management because, without either one, a company will be left vulnerable’. Without access management and Identity management, an organization cannot identify who does what within the network, creating a high level of risks from adversarial and internal attacks, negating change and configuration management ideology.
Thank you
Kelly Sharadin says
A business needs to care about identity and access management differences because of the core security principles of least privilege and separation of duties. It is against best practices to indiscriminately provide employees access to every resource within an organization. For example, not all employees require access to server rooms or financial systems. Businesses can manage or ‘control’ unauthorized access by only granting access to employees authorized to access such resources by using access management. Identity management works in tandem with access management to know who accessed or attempted to access a particular resource but does not cover authorization concerns. Therefore controlling for who ultimately can access specific resources is a vital security control to implement.
Michael Duffy says
I also think that it’s best practice to designate roles early on to determine who’s responsible for what. Even if this is a security measure to protect certain resources from disclosure/tampering – it’s good to know who exactly is liable for what. It also helps with future business processes because it enforces identity/access management practices and also allows different individuals to rotate in designated roles while doing so. Which is great for the organization as they not only expose different individuals to roles, it prevents burn out and adds redundancy to the role.
Miray Bolukbasi says
With the new approach of digital transformation of services and products offered by organizations, identity management became more important than ever. Covid required people to access business servers and softwares from anywhere in the world. Workplace environment shifted from offices to homes and remote working scenarios requires more security controls to verify user identities. Identity management and controls are priority because it eliminates the risk of bad actors from gaining physical or digital access.
Access management assures the systems and help business to keep track of employee activity. The configurations to limit employee’s access to specific application secures and strengths the security. It’s also important because organizations often needs to meet compliance requirements.
Matthew Bryan says
You make a good point about the effects of COVID-19 and how many companies needed to pivot to remote work. Proper identity management is important with a remote workforce, especially the use of multi-factor authentication. This helps to properly authenticate users and mitigates the risk of compromised identities. Remote workers often don’t have the same physical security posture as central offices. This increases the risk of theft and unauthorized login attempts.
Wilmer Monsalve says
Great example Miray! Yes indeed identity management and access management was utilized more often especially with remote work from home.
Dhaval Patel says
It is important to care about the difference between identity management and access management because you really can not have one without the other. If we take my organization’s software for example. Knowing the difference between the two makes a difference in how employees get work done. First, an individual has to authenticate to the software through an identity management program, once authenticated they will be provided access to the pages and tools that will allow them to do their work, without the first initialization phase no one would be able to access their programs or jobs and have no way of conducting any work.
Jason Burwell says
Hello Dhaval,
Good point about not having one without the other, I believe they go hand and hand
Olayinka Lucas says
Hello Dhaval, one is contingent upon the other, and both identity management and access management complement each other to ensure adequate security through elements such as access provisioning, review, de-provisioning, account management, etc.
Ornella Rhyne says
Hi Dhaval,
Yes we need both to the well-functioning of a company. You do not want anyone to access your system without knowing who they are. You want to limit all risks that can have a huge impact in your system as much as possible especially with the sensitive data and costs associated to it.
Dan Xu says
It is important for organizations to properly use and distinguish between identity management and access management. Access management provides authorization, and identity management performs authentication to confirm that access is granted. People who have access to the system do not have full access to the system, but rather have limited permission to access content that matches the access rights of that identity. Identity and access management (IAM) technology is not only about managing access to systems, but also about protecting the enterprise from potential threats by adding layers of security around digital identities.IAM is a critical component of an effective business security program. Cyber attacks often involve the use of compromised credentials to gain access to enterprise systems. At the same time, reducing the risk of exposing data to third parties, IAM is key to protecting sensitive business systems and assets from unauthorized access.
zijian ou says
Hi Dan,
I agree that Identity and Access Management (IAM) technology can protect organizations from potential threats by adding a security layer around digital identities. Ensure the right processes and tighter security.
Christopher Clayton says
Having reliable Identity and Access Management systems are very important for businesses providing the means for close control of user access, which lessens the risk of inside and outside data security breaches. It’s important for a business to care about the difference between Identity and Access because although they are linked to one another, they’re functions are still different. Identity determines who the user is and Access evaluates the user to determine what they can actually see and access. In other words, one manages identities digitally, while the other manages authorization.
Bryan Garrahan says
Thanks for sharing Christopher! I certainly agree and situations very depending on the organization as to how involved the business is in regards to identity and access management. In some cases IT relies on the business to provide them with any updates to a user’s identity (i.e. promotion). However, if this change is not formally communicated to IT then the user will not be able to perform functions which require additional authority limits in their new role.
Ornella Rhyne says
Hi Christopher,
Yes totally agree with you. A business must know the difference between access and identity management that way they will give permission to only users that need to access certain software. It’s also good for a company to make the difference because they want to know who they hire and who has access to their systems in case of hacking or malicious attacks from inside.
Victoria Zak says
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
It is extremely important for a business to know the difference between identity management and access management because misunderstanding can lead to potential security issues. If access management is well defined but identity management isn’t, it can create issues for users trying to gain that information that is needed.
Identity and access management helps enhance security across applications and devices. It makes it easier to identify security violations, remove inappropriate access privileges, and revoke access. This ensures that users, including clients, employees, contractors, third-party vendors, and partners to only be allowed to efficiently be organized with the correct access.
Additionally, the information sharing is protected by identity and access management. Identity management and access management will allow information sharing about user identity to grant access to resources.
Corey Arana says
Hi Victoria
Thanks for the detailed response. It is very important to be able to identify the differences between the two. it would be a nightmare for a company who misunderstood the differences and allowed for inappropriate access to software or system. being able to sure up all potential security issues is very important and not letting minor details slip by is key.
Olayinka Lucas says
Hello Victoria
Well said, the phrase that “Identity and access management helps enhance security across applications and devices and makes it easier to identify security violations, remove inappropriate access privileges, and revoke access.” is very accurate.
Thank you.
Matthew Bryan says
Businesses should care about the differences between identity and access management as the understanding of this nuance allows them to better manage the authentication and authorization of their users. Businesses should strive to create auditable logs of user actions while following the principle of least permissions. Users should be assigned the minimum access required to complete their job. Their identity should be clearly understood within the logs so their actions can be audited.
If identity is not properly managed, repudiation is easier. For example, businesses that issue shared accounts across multiple users. If access is not properly managed, then over-permissioning is a concern. This could result in users having access to inappropriate resources.
Richard Hertz says
I like the way you highlighted that access management is the key points where the principle of least permissions can be enacted. Granting an individual the minimum authorization or access to data and systems required to perform their duties is best practices with respect to access management!
Wilmer Monsalve says
It is important for business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because of the different uses and applications it imposes in their company. If it is not clearly stated it can create a wide variety of issues with auditing as there is no clear indication as to who has access to what from an access management standpoint and no identity relationship to the access on a user role based for identity management. Without this order it will be disorganized and dysfunctional because not everyone should have access to the same things, it should all be correlated appropriately by position and authorization.
Michael Galdo says
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
It’s important to a business to care about the difference between these two concepts because you don’t want certain users having access to higher level information or users who aren’t authorized at all gaining any access. On top of this, you want to make sure that the right users are being authenticated to use this information within the organization. Not having these two concepts clearly understood could lead to the wrong users gaining access to unauthorized information which could lead to multiple risk exposures.
Christopher Clayton says
Good points Michael. It is imperative that authorized users have the right credentials and that those who do not have those same credentials be prevented from having that access. Otherwise, this will lead to private or sensitive data being exposed, and also a disruption of business functions.
Olayinka Lucas says
The significant advantage of IAM is that both(Identity management and Access Management) assist an organization in managing who can access and what level of access is permitted to their data. Both are mainly implemented via technical and automated controls.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) assists businesses in protecting themselves against disruptions by enabling several technical automated controls to manage who uses what and what level of usage is allowed within the network.
Based on the scope of user identification and permission granted, understanding the difference between user identification and the level of access given through technical/automated controls enables organizations to save money while reducing several business risks.
Dhaval Patel says
Hi Olayinka,
You make a great point about reducing business risk, IAM can certainly help by applying restrictions to individual users and limiting their access which in turn can protect the organization from any disruptions as you stated.
kofi bonsu says
One of the reason why identity and access management is important in cyber security is because organizations must comply with increasing, complex and distributed regulations, and they must ensure and demonstrate an effective customer identification process, suspicious activity detection and reporting, and identity theft prevention. Identity and access management solutions can be leveraged to manage various regulatory requirements such as having a Customer Identification Program, It’s very essential to a business to show much concerns about the users having access to higher level information or users who aren’t authorized at all gaining any access. this, you want to make sure that the right users are being authenticated to use this information within the organization. Whereas =having these two concepts clearly understood could lead to the wrong users gaining access to unauthorized access
Ryan Trapp says
Kofi,
It is important to consider that an organization must comply with regulatory requirements. And as we learned, these regulatory requirement are just another risk that an organization has to manage. Through IAM this is certainly a tool that they can use to help manage this risk.
kofi bonsu says
Hi Ryan,
I agree with you as regards your suggestion of complying with regulatory requirement. However, you must understand in the same way that one of the reason why identity and access management is important in cyber security is because organizations must comply with increasing, complex and distributed regulations, and they must ensure and demonstrate an effective customer identification process.
Vraj Patel says
It is important for the business to care about the difference between identity management and access management to keep their resources confidential. Access management reviews the attributes set within the identity management before granting access to the resources. If the attributes are not set properly then user might not be able to access the resources that they should be having access to, or they might be able to access more resources then they should have.
Michael Galdo says
Hi Vraj,
You make important points defending why businesses should care about the difference between these two concepts. Not having these two concepts clearly understood could lead to the wrong users gaining access to unauthorized information which could lead to multiple risk exposures. You don’t want vital resources in the wrong user’s hands.
Michael Jordan says
It is important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because this difference highlights the importance of ensuring that employees are identified correctly, and are placed in the right domain groups so that they do not have too many or too little access privileges.
Business leaders likely worry about the access privileges that employees have more than the domain groups they are assigned to or how administrators manage user accounts, but at the end of the day, that is how access privileges are assigned. If this concept was understood by all business owners and top executives/managers, the importance of identity management would be understood by more than just IT employees and auditors. It would also aid in emphasizing information security in the company as a whole, and would allow less errors such as old user accounts/logins still having access to systems, or employees who switched departments still having access to old directories they no longer need to use. This decreases the risk of information security breaches and sensitive information being leaked or placed in the wrong hands.
Ryan Trapp says
It is important for a company to care about the difference between identity management and access management because it is important for groups of users to have only the appropriate access, they need to perform their duties. If you have identity management without access management then anyone who can authenticate will have access to whatever resource they so choose. This is very problematic and can lead to easier attack vectors for bad actors. If you have access management without identity management then you really don’t have a system in place to authenticate users and have them prove who they say they are. Either way creates an unsustainable situation. It is very important for companies to successfully implement both identity and access management.
Antonio Cozza says
The principle of least privilege is described by your point, Ryan, which as you say should be implemented to safeguard the business against its own employees as well as outside users trying to gain access. It is crucial that both identity management and access management are implemented in a way such that they both work towards better securing the business’ systems. They are both needed equally, which is probably why they are commonly referenced together with the term IAM (identity and access management).
Antonio Cozza says
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
It is of utmost importance for a business to implement and monitor these two aspects of security for a wide number of reasons all involving very negative outcomes for the business owners and general availability of the business. Either of these unmanaged or poorly implemented with insecure practices present major risks involving potentially large losses in availability, profits, and potentially reputation in the event that unintended users gain access to areas in which they should not have permissions to enter or make changes. Access management is controlled by authenticated users and user groups which make permissions within those groups purposeful. If a user outside of the intended group is given access to a higher privileged area, the data in visible by that user now is at risk. If the business contains confidential information or trade secrets, improper access could lead to the downfall of the entire business in the worst case scenario. If an attacker is able to impersonate a highly privileged identity and gain access to a more sensitive area based on the data contained in that environment, any number of consequences could ensue. The business may be primarily concerned with sensitive data disclosure or exfiltration.
Ornella Rhyne says
It’s important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management because of their security and privacy. An organization would not want anyone to access their system due to incidents or breaches that can cause real damages to the business such identity theft, blackmail, and even cause profit loss. It is also important for an organization to know the difference as it standardizes and automates critical aspects of managing identities, authentication, authorization to saving time and money while reducing risk to the business.
Kelly Sharadin says
Hi Ornella,
Great job tying in all of this week’s topics into your post by calling out how understanding the difference between Identity and access management can help address privacy concerns. Too often businesses are focused on reducing the likelihood of damage to availability or theft which are of course critical incidents. However, privacy violations are quickly becoming a real threat to businesses with staggerring fines. Implementing a robust IAM program and understanding the differences can help reduce the likelihood of such privacy violations. Very thoughtful post!
Kelly
Michael Duffy says
It’s important for a business to understand the difference between access and identity management. Treating both as the same can lead to issues regarding separation of duties and cause personnel to having escalated access from data that is sensitive and is not required by their role. This could lead to data tampering/leaks or access to systems that should not typically have access to that defined role. The result could lead to a barrage of issues especially if the particular role is not briefed on how to handle the data. In fact, you could probably write an entire essay dedicated to the subject because it bleeds into a variety of issues that we see organizations fail with every day.
Ultimately the organization should be aware that personnel should have attributes that define their roles so that proper access can be granted after authentication. Failure could mean unnecessary risks are open that would fall well above an organization’s acceptance and potentially aggregate to critical leading to impact organizational operations.
Michael Jordan says
Michael,
I like how you emphasized the businesses should care about the different between identity and access management because of separation of duties. Two employees who have the same job title may be assigned completely different tasks, and each employee having access to data that is really only required to be used by the other employee creates extra risk that does not need to be in existence and could potentially be exploited in the future. It could also cause friction among the team.
-Mike
Madalyn Stiverson says
IdM is the method of authenticating users. This reduces the ability of threat actors to gain access to the network, therefore reducing the frequency of attacks.
IAM is the method of authorizing users. You should always follow least privilege when setting up user accounts. This means that if a threat actor gains access to that account, the data they have access to is limited. This reduces the severity of attacks.
Risk management is focused on both reducing severity and frequency of adverse events, since the multiple of those two numbers generates an expected cost. If we’re able to reduce both severity and frequency, the expected cost of an incident will decline dramatically.
Lauren Deinhardt says
HI Madalyn, great job tying POLP in your response. Likewise, RBAC (role based access) can suffice as a proper IDM security control.
Corey Arana says
It’s important for business to know the difference because they are different in ways. While identity management provides authentication of users who are allowed access to systems or applications. Access management will provide the authorization of access to a user for a system or application. The different is important for a business because without one or the other, the business can become vulnerable and is more easily open for an attack.
Vraj Patel says
Hey Corey,
I do agree with you post. In addition to that if the attributes are not set of the user within the identity management phase then it could impact during the access management phase. When they user are trying to access the resources that they are allowed to access and if the attributes are not set properly for their account then their account could forbidden from access that resources.
Richard Hertz says
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
Identity Management is critical so you know who you are allowing access (or denying). This happens at the individual level and they need to know that ‘you are who you say you are’ in order to know what Authorizations to grant you. ‘Mary’ is granted access to things that ‘Brad’ might now be allowed to see (and vice versa). Add in the fact that Mary is CFO and Brad is a director in HR and the differences in Authorization become even more evident. All businesses have some level of information that should be restricted in its share-ability – those restrictions come from either the role or the individual making the request. As a result the first step is Identify the user and then manage the access/authorizations appropriately.
Lauren Deinhardt says
It is important for a business to know the difference between identity and access management due to the security objectives supported by each concept. Identity management ensures system integrity, data confidentiality, and even in some cases, availability, by proving that critical users are indeed who they say they are (tying right back into the security objective of nonrepudiation). An organization can have all of the authorization protocol they want; but if their identity management system is compromised, then any delegated privileged access will ultimately be rendered useless.
Likewise, access management supports similar principles of confidentiality, availability, and especially integrity, by ensuring the right people are accessing the right material. Access management to me, really ties into the idea of insider threats (although identity management can also prevent insider threats). If an employee, potentially disgruntled, is properly authenticated into a system, but gets access to more than what is needed, either accidental or purposeful actions can lead into a data breach/loss of data integrity and availability. This kind of threat reminds me of Aldrich Ames, a KGB insider that compromised nearly every undercover US allied entity in the Soviet Union. I listened to a podcast about him and recalled that he accessed files irrelevant to his job in the CIA and sold it to KGB insiders; if proper access management was enforced in this case, perhaps such a large military breach could have been prevented.
Nonetheless, without sufficient identity management, access management is rendered useless; and without sufficient access management, identity management is rendered useless. Organizations must comprehend this concept before implementing an information security management program and effective prepare for relevant threats.
https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/aldrich-ames
Christopher Clayton says
Disgruntled employees (former ones as well) pose a considerable risk to companies. Without taking precautionary measures to handle accounts (activating/deactivating access), they can also have ties to unauthorized company operations, which of course is dangerous when dealing with highly sensitive information.
Jason Burwell says
Why is it important to a business to care about the difference between identity management and access management?
As I touched on in question one, Just because you have strict authentication requirements does not mean that you have strict authorization standards. You can have a single admin login account that is used for authenticating users and users can only access the desired information if they have the login for the account, however once accessed that account may have access to all kinds of data that should only be accessed by a certain level employee. This could create a problem with users having access to data they should not, and on the other we do not want certain users not having proper access to critical data if they should have access. Also, if the access management is not set properly it could make things easier for an outside threat such as a hacker to gain access to critical data, the hacker will have more work to do if the access management is set properly
Bryan Garrahan says
It’s important for the business to understand that identity management provides a means of authentication while access management provides users the ability to perform certain functions in the system. In my full time job, I find that asset owners on both the business and sadly even the IT side often use the terms authentication and authorization interchangeably when I bring up access related questions. Typically, they’ll review a listing of user access and will focus solely on whether each user is actively with the company or whether they have recently left the company. Often times they won’t consider or inspect the entitlements of each user, which are typically categorized via roles or groups. When this happens, the fundamental access management standard of providing users with “least privilege” to perform their daily job duties is compromised since events such as departmental changes or promotions are not considered. It’s important for both business and IT reviewers to consider the role/group permissions for all active users to ensure “least privilege” is maintained.
Bernard Antwi says
Identity and access management standardizes and even automates critical aspects of managing identities, authentication, and authorization, saving time and money while reducing risk to the business. The varying aspects of protection offered by IAM solutions are key to building a strong information security program.
Alexander William Knoll says
It is essential for every business to care about differences between identity management and access management because knowing the difference is vital to the security of the organization, and without the distinction they are leaving themselves vulnerable to a multitude of threats, inside and outside. The organization should have strict access management, such as authorization levels, as well as thorough identity management, such as a user’s job title, job description, department, login credentials, etc. Even with detailed identity management controls in place, somebody could still gain access to a system with weak access management by obtaining appropriate identification information. On the other hand, weak identity management with strong authentication management can become a nightmare for legitimate users. By having both of the components, identifying “the who” and also the extra of level of “what they can access”, organizations greatly reduce a the risk of unauthorized information ending up in the wrong hands, and keeping the entire system tight and secure.
Joshua Moses says
Together identity management and access management plays an imperative role in ensuring confidentiality. For instance, a user may have access to a system but not access to certain components within the system. Identity management works together with access management to ensure that only certain people or groups are allowed access to a particular system or application. It is important for an organization to understand this because with both implemented, a security breach can be avoided.
Bernard Antwi says
The difference between Identity and access management is very important due to the security discipline, framework, and solutions for managing digital identities. Identity management encompasses the provisioning and de-provisioning of identities, securing and authentication of identities, and the authorization to access resources and/or perform certain actions. While a person (user) has only one singular digital identity, they may have many different accounts representing them. Each account can have different access controls, both per resource and per context. The overarching goal for IAM is to ensure that any given identity has access to the right resources (applications, databases, networks, etc.) and within the correct context