Workforce Identity & Access Management (IAM) Archives | Page 2 of 5

Boost security, streamline operations: Here’s how IAM can help your ITeS/BPO business

In the ITeS and BPO industry, striking the right balance between productivity and security can mean the difference between success and failure. Security breaches can have serious financial and reputational consequences, but at the same time an excessive tilt to security at the cost of efficiency can hurt competitiveness.

Let’s dive a little deeper into the key challenges that most ITeS and BPO businesses face, which find solutions in identity an access management.

High employee turnover

The BPO industry is known for its high employee turnover (some reports peg it as high as 40%). This means a continuous cycle of provisioning, de-provisioning, and updating access for constantly changing staff – a logistical nightmare for your IT admin team, and a high risk for unauthorized access.

Remote work

The pandemic may be behind us, but remote work remains 3-4x as prevalent as it was in 2019. Ensuring secure access is a major challenge this presents because the office firewall just doesn’t cut it anymore. At the same time, applying excessive restrictions across the board often stifles productivity.

Data sensitivity

At most ITeS and BPO companies, there are significant volumes of sensitive client data to be managed. Unauthorized access to this data is a major can result in major erosion of client trust and loss of business.

Complex access needs

Employees often need access to multiple systems and applications, each with different access requirements. Improper manual management of these access rights can lead to errors and security gaps.

Here’s how IAM solves each of these problems.

Automated provisioning and deprovisioning

Advanced IAM systems such as Akku help you automate the process of provisioning, de-provisioning, and updation of user access permissions. When employees join or leave, their access rights are automatically updated, reducing the risk of unauthorized access and ensuring compliance.

This means significant amounts of time saved when new employees join your organization or change roles, with the required access permissions assigned with a single click. And when an employee leaves the company, your administrators no longer need to delete the user from each of your applications separately. With one-click deprovisioning, you save time and ensure no access permissions are accidentally left active which could leave the door open to security risks.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

SSO allows employees to access multiple applications with a single set of credentials. This improves their user experience and efficiency, and also enhances security by reducing the number of credentials that your users need to manage, which could potentially become compromised.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA adds an extra layer of security on top of your password. This is even more important in remote or hybrid operations where you have no way of verifying that the person logging in with a set of credentials is actually a genuine user. MFA goes a long way toward securing your organization’s sensitive data from fraudulent login attempts with stolen user credentials.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

A comprehensive IAM solution like Akku enables you to enforce role-based access control, ensuring that employees only have access to the information necessary for their roles. RBAC allows you to control what end-users can access by assigning them to roles such as administrator, team lead, executive, or business analyst, for example. Permissions can then be aligned with these roles ensuring job functions can be performed without providing excessive or universal access which opens up security risks.

Secure remote access

When it comes to remote operations, ensuring secure access practices is vital to protect sensitive data and applications. An IAM solution like Akku addresses this in multiple ways.

For example, you can set up an IP-based access restriction to allow access to certain sensitive data only from the office to prevent misuse and ensure security. All other functions can be performed remotely to promote productivity and convenience.

Or access to certain resources can be limited to only whitelisted devices using device-based restriction.

Each user can be limited to access resources relevant to them only during their defined work shift and access can be prevented at other times through time-based restrictions.

And access can even be disabled from other countries to prevent malicious activity originating outside your area of operations through location-based restriction.

Partnering with a service provider such as Akku, which has tailored IAM solutions for the BPO and ITeS industry can help you protect sensitive data and maintain compliance with industry regulations besides enabling streamlined operations and collaboration across departments. Contact Akku today to learn more!

The urgent need for Identity & Access Management at Universities and Educational Institutions

Cyber threats can affect any educational setting, from elementary schools to universities, whether online or brick-and-mortar. Limited resources, budget constraints, outdated software, and inadequate security systems, cause some of the biggest risks.

Education ranks as the fifth most targeted industry for security breaches in the United States, with more than 1600 publicly disclosed cyberattacks on schools between 2016 and 2022. Just last year, a security lapse in India’s Education Ministry app, Diksha, exposed millions of students’ and teachers’ personally identifying information due to an unprotected cloud server storing the data.

With the increasing adoption of technology in education, and even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for Identity & Access Management (IAM) systems is now vital for security and productivity at educational institutions.

But first, what are the unique challenges in IAM for educational institutions?

Diverse user base

Educational institutions cater to a diverse range of users including students, faculty, staff, administrators, and sometimes even external collaborators. Managing identities and access rights for such a diverse user base can be complex.

Outdated IT systems

Limited IT budgets result in legacy systems that are challenging to maintain, costly to fix, and may lack effective customer service. They also pose security risks due to outdated infrastructure. Users with multiple roles face challenges as each role is treated as a separate ID, leading to multiple credentials and fragmented access.

Remote learning

The rise of remote learning and the prevalence of BYOD or Bring Your Own Device policies have introduced additional difficulties in managing identities and securing access to resources. Educational institutions must ensure secure access to resources from any location and on any device while maintaining data privacy and security.

Data breach risks

Educational institutions handle large amounts of personal and sensitive information, including academic records, personal information, and research data making them prime targets for data breaches. Maintaining data security is essential for building trust and preventing breaches or leaks.

Changing user roles

Colleges and universities frequently onboard and offboard thousands of new users or new students each semester, each of whom require access to university resources before arriving on campus. Also, access for graduating students needs to be disabled promptly. Also, colleges handle transient users on a massive scale, including students taking semesters off and contingent faculty.

Manual provisioning and de-provisioning

Manual provisioning and de-provisioning of user access leads to high costs, security threats, and help desk overload. Manual authorization workflows for user access are prone to delays, mistakes, and compliance/security concerns. IT staff are responsible for frequently authorizing access requests, leading to inefficiencies. Also, there is a lack of auditing.

No integration with cloud-based platforms

Educational institutions face challenges integrating IAM systems with cloud-based platforms. The absence of dedicated IT help desk teams results in an increased workload for IT staff to resolve password and account unlock requests.

How can IAM address these challenges?

Centralized management and access

IAM solutions provide a centralized platform for managing user identities, authentication, and authorization. This helps to streamline user provisioning, de-provisioning, and access management across the institution, reducing administrative overhead.

For users too, with a single sign-on provided by an IAM platform, all applications are brought onto a single platform. This eliminates the hassle of multiple passwords and logins and makes the login process fast and effortless.

Automated provisioning and de-provisioning

A comprehensive IAM solution like Akku automates the process of provisioning and de-provisioning user accounts based on predefined rules and policies.

This ensures users have timely access to resources they need and access is revoked promptly upon role changes or departure from an institution, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Also, IAM solutions implement role-based access. This granular control ensures users have access only to resources necessary for their job functions.

Learn-from-anywhere security

IAM solutions often go beyond user permissions to access applications. For example, Akku offers extensive access management features that let you permit access to your institution’s resources only from specific whitelisted network IP addresses, or only from whitelisted devices.

Suspicious login attempts can also be identified and flagged when a user attempts to log in from an unfamiliar location or at an unexpected time.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Many IAM solutions offer MFA capabilities, adding an extra layer of security beyond passwords. By requiring users to authenticate using multiple factors such as passwords, biometrics, or one-time codes, MFA helps prevent unauthorized access even if credentials are compromised.

Akku makes implementation of MFA effortless and cost-effective with a range of authentication factors to choose from, including passwordless authentication.

Integration with LMS and other education-specific platforms

IAM solutions integrate with LMS platforms and other applications used in educational settings, which allows for single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, enabling users to access multiple resources with a single set of credentials, thereby enhancing user experience and productivity.

With Akku, the process of integration is effortless with plug-and-play connectors to over 500 popular applications.

Auditing and compliance reporting

An end-to-end IAM solution like Akku provides robust auditing and reporting capabilities, allowing institutions to monitor user activity, track access privileges, and generate compliance reports. Akku’s Smart Analytics dashboard provides clear visibility across the institution’s users as well as intelligent insights on unused application licenses, provisioned user access, and more.

IAM solutions can help educational institutions improve security, streamline administrative processes, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, enabling a safer learning environment for students and staff. Akku’s IAM solutions are tailored to meet these unique challenges, so reach out to us today so we can help you stay secure.

Passwordless Authentication: Why you need it, how it works, and how Akku takes it further

How do you strengthen your identity verification processes? Most organizations go the route of stronger password policies and tight password management. However, did you know that passwords are inherently among the most vulnerable components of your organization’s cybersecurity environment?

The risks of password-based login

When you use passwords as the primary key to your secure assets and data, you open up your systems to certain risks: weak password policies, improperly shared access, database hacks, credential stuffing and social engineering.

Weak passwords due to improper policies

Poor policies could permit the use of very weak passwords. On the other hand, very stringent rules result in employees hunting for workarounds. If you’re using password-based authentication, prioritize a password policy management module in your IAM.

Database breaches

Since user credentials are stored in a single centralized database, the database is naturally under some risk of hacking. Passwordless authentication does away with this risk, since there’s no centralized database of passwords to be breached.

Credential stuffing attacks

It’s common for employees to use the same password on multiple websites, from the local movie theater’s online booking system to your business applications. If the movie theater happens to get hacked, your business-critical assets are suddenly vulnerable.

Social engineering attacks

When creating a password, users gravitate towards names and dates of personal importance. These details aren’t public, but they can be discovered! Malicious actors can learn such data from in-person social interactions or from social media, and crack the user’s login.

Enter passwordless authentication

How do you avoid passwords in your identity verification process? Passwordless authentication is a zero-trust login method that works well with modern applications and systems. It entirely does away with credentials based on the username-password dynamic. Instead, passwordless authentication is typically device-centric, where a previously approved action needs to be taken on a verified device (smartphone, personal computer or hard token) to authenticate a user.

The credentials are non-shareable and are not stored centrally. No passwords are shared with users, and they cannot be inappropriately shared or compromised, meaning unauthorized individuals cannot access your business-critical assets even if they were to obtain a user’s credentials. Credential stuffing, social engineering and hacking attacks are not just unlikely; they’re impossible. As a system administrator, you don’t need to worry about the strength of your users’ passwords or the frequency with which they’re updating them.

The benefits of passwordless authentication

As discussed above, it strengthens the security of identity credentials
It improves user experience for administrators, business management and users too
It simplifies the login experience for the user
It reduces long-term IT costs, as fewer support tickets are raised

How does passwordless authentication work?

You could use a number of techniques to enable passwordless authentication. These include hard tokens, OTPs, private keys, magic links, push notifications and QR codes.

Passwordless authentication is based entirely on a device or object that the user already possesses.

QR codes can be scanned by a specific application downloaded on the user’s mobile phone.
Hard tokens are physical devices that provide users with direct access to specific software.
OTPs, push notifications and magic links could be connected to mobile devices, a phone number or an email address.
Private keys are stored on the user’s approved devices; these alphanumeric strings are used in association with a public key to verify the user’s identity.

Akku and blockchain-based identity management

Akku’s upcoming blockchain-based identity management method has added a new layer of security to the customizable IAM solution. Using a private distributed ledger, the Akku blockchain-based IAM is virtually unhackable and extremely secure. At the same time, this revolutionary technology is user-friendly and accessible.

Using the new system, your administrator would provision new users exactly as they did earlier on the original Akku system. Each user would be provided with credentials consisting of a public key stored on the blockchain servers, and a private key pushed to the user. Blockchain credentials are created based on the decentralized identifier that your organization chooses. This could be an email ID, employee ID, or any other unique identifier.

Once their access has been provisioned, employees download the Akku app and enter their decentralized credentials. On the Akku login page, they will see a QR code which needs to be scanned through the Akku application. They will then receive a private key, and their access is activated.

This QR code based passwordless authentication method is enabled by the use of blockchain credentials with each user’s public key being stored on the blockchain, and their private key being stored in a blockchain wallet on their approved device – in this case the wallet being the Akku app.

The use of the QR code based passwordless authentication method eliminates some of the risks associated with other forms of passwordless authentication. This includes as SIM swapping or cloning in the case of OTP based methods, and biometric hacks in the case of fingerprint or retina scan methods.

Do reach out to our team to learn more about the blockchain and its use in identity and access management. Get in touch with us today.

The risks of depending on password-based login

Logging in to a system without a password may seem unsafe. After all, a long, complex password has long been considered fundamental to secure login. However, though they are difficult to crack, password complexity has its own associated risks.

The vulnerabilities of passwords

Complex passwords are difficult to remember, as a result of which they need to be stored in a separate location. The requirement for frequent password changes also increases the difficulty of remembering them. This risks exposing them to hacking, cracking or phishing attacks.

The greater risk, however, is that the corporate user may use the same password across multiple sites. This creates a risk of credential stuffing attacks and also makes it more difficult to change the password on all websites if required.

(You can learn more about some of the attacks your passwords are vulnerable to, here: 6 Password Policy Management Best Practices for a more secure IT environment)

Security without passwords

When your applications are accessed through password-based login, the credentials can be shared very easily. This is a major risk, since secure credentials may be shared with unauthorized individuals.

Another potential security risk is that application developers and vendors can access user credentials; a real risk to data privacy. Such databases are also vulnerable to phishing attacks.

Passwordless authentication

Instead of logging in with passwords, modern applications and tech systems use passwordless device-based authentication. Since passwordless authentication is a zero-trust login, it prevents all the above risks.

There’s no need to maintain a record of complex passwords or regular password rotations. Since the credentials are non-shareable, unauthorized individuals cannot access your critical data and applications using approved credentials.

Passwordless authentication depends on individual device keys to authenticate user identity. Since the data is not recorded digitally, phishing attacks to gain access to the credentials are impossible.

The device keys are generated by the user, and not even the application owner or vendor can gain access to the user data in question. This helps boost data privacy and security.

(You can learn more about passwordless authentication here: Passwordless Authentication 101: What it is, How you can adopt it, and Why it’s the future)

Akku and passwordless login

As part of our range of MFA (multi-factor authentication) options, Akku offers device-based passwordless authentication. Your single sign-on (SSO) can be customized to deliver passwordless login. Akku offers this feature to protect user data privacy. Do reach out to our team today to learn more about passwordless authentication and how to get started with Akku, the customizable IAM.

Here’s why your apps built with no-code platforms need an external IAM

Have you heard of no-code application builders? They are ideal for minor applications without heavy technological requirements. These no-code apps can be taken to market much faster, are cheaper to develop and can deliver a great experience in many cases.

However, while they are easy to build and use, securing apps made with a no-code app builder requires an external IAM.

Access management for internal applications

Consider a desktop-based application such as MS Access, which is used for combining, processing and editing large groups of data from different sources. It’s largely being replaced by web-based equivalents. This kind of small internal application has a clear function, and is therefore easy to build using a no-code development tool.

Internal applications such as data management tools, onboarding tools and other HR applications are often considered lower priority as they are purely internal in use. Therefore, low-budget no-code app builder tools are used in these cases.

However, these applications process a great deal of valuable internal data, and it’s important to take their security seriously and guard access to them. That’s why it’s important to implement a strong IAM tool for all your internal-facing applications.

The risk of web-based applications

With web-based apps, whether or not it’s developed with a no-code tool, you have the freedom to deploy the application on cloud servers on flexible pricing models, and access them from anywhere. Since such apps are hosted on the cloud, it can be risky to access them directly without a VPN.

Tiny no-code app builders don’t invest the necessary time and effort into security and privacy, which is why it’s difficult to set up good protection for such apps. Additionally, the user working on a no-code app builder typically doesn’t have the necessary time and knowledge to do so.

Syncing your IAM

While some well-known no-code app builders offer plugins to integrate with external IAM through SAML and OAuth2, others do not. In cases where such plugins exist, you can use any external IAM system.

When the plugins do not exist, however, and especially in cases where you would rather reduce the coding footprint of your project, consider an IAM product like Akku. Since Akku is a customizable solution, you can use it as a gateway for any major or minor internal or external application, even when the app being used does not support SAML, OAuth2 or OIDC.

Your minor internal applications often contain or process the most valuable data at your organization. Protect them with an external IAM that’s easy to set up, integrates with any setup, and restricts access to these key internal corporate resources. Protect them with Akku, the customizable IAM.

Maintaining in-house control of your digital access gateways

Unless you have the right kind of access control, you don’t have ownership of your assets. For digital assets, you also need a proper access gateway, which should not be under third-party control for storage and management. That’s because losing access keys means losing control of assets. With digital gateways, one can access the assets without needing to know where the keys are. It is very important to always keep these gateways running, disaster-free and tamper-free, and free of vendor lock.

Digital vaults

In a smart society and business set-up, every person has the right to their own digital vault to store their digital keys, with a common gateway to access all their assets. This digital gateway should be tamper-free, immutable and self-sovereign. You need a reliable, dependable single gateway for all digital assets wherever they are, with distributed and decentralized systems.

Multi-cloud data storage

Cloud computing makes this possible, as it works with distributed and elastic principles itself. Data can be distributed into multi-cloud platforms. One can build need-based custom IAMs for digital gateways by spanning its infrastructure into a multi-cloud environment with distributed storage like Hadoop and distributed databases with hash sharding, as distributed technology has self-balancing and auto-scaling features.

In-house or third-party?

It is extremely complex to build such a system manually. Instead, you can achieve the same result with the Google Anthos multi-cloud platform. As it can work on other cloud platforms as well as on on-prem platforms, it is vendor-lock-free.

Google Anthos

Since Anthos is a multi-cloud platform, you are not forced to depend on specific highly integrated tools specific to that cloud service provider. Rather than siloize each cloud environment, you can use Anthos to deploy and manage workloads to multiple cloud platforms. Google Anthos allows the creation of Kubernetes clusters in both AWS and Azure environments.

For any organization to keep its digital world alive and healthy, this kind of multi-cloud environment with hybrid cloud architecture is required. It might be the foundation of the smart world.

At CloudNow – creators of the Akku Identity and Access Management solution – we understand the importance of maintaining the sustainability and privacy of digital gateways, the real holder of all digital assets. Contact our team to learn more about how to implement a cloud-based access control system that works for your organization.

When should you implement an IAM solution?

In which stage of the user or employee lifecycle should an IAM solution ideally be implemented? The answer is: Right at the beginning, during onboarding. When the IAM is implemented early, it becomes part of the organization’s culture and ethos.

Provisioning and onboarding

Access to necessary applications and data needs to be provisioned as soon as the employee is onboarded. When an IAM is not used, access may be provisioned improperly with the intent to keep track manually and perform proper provisioning later.

For enterprise-level organizations with a huge number of employees, this causes issues at a later stage, as you may not have a proper record of the rights provided to each individual. When access provisioning is done properly with an IAM, access privileges will be tracked automatically to keep track of what access is and is not given to each employee.

Redundant data capture is also a real problem as the same data is entered by the new employee in the HRMS and then in the IAM for provisioning. By using a single platform, the redundancy is eliminated.

Single-platform onboarding

Instead of onboarding through multiple tools such as an HRMS or ERP, you can complete onboarding through a single platform – an IAM, such as Akku. You can also integrate your HRMS with Akku’s REST API, if you prefer. When using Akku for onboarding, your employees can upload all required induction documents through the IAM dashboard itself. This could include proof of identity documents, experience certificates, etc. Akku also allows you to set deadlines and schedule reminders for each employee.

Why choose Akku?

Many businesses choose to work with Active Directory to simplify onboarding. However, there are certain issues with AD, including non-seamless remote working and of course, the enterprise-level costing.

Additionally, in as much as 50-70 percent of cases, in our experience, employees are brought in via a different tool and then asked to provide details on IAM as well. Instead, you can streamline the process with Akku, a tool that allows single-point data capture for onboarding.

Think beyond Active Directory for hybrid working

In 2020, the pandemic had a major impact on security and cyberattacks. The year saw the highest number of data breaches and cyberattacks in decades. In India alone, more than 1.1 million cyberattacks were reported in 2020, almost three times the number reported in 2019.

The new norm of work-from-home, paired with the Great Resignation, made cybersecurity even more challenging for enterprises. There was a steep increase in staff turnover and that came with access and privilege requests – all to be administered remotely.

On-prem IAM solution

The traditional, on-premises model for cybersecurity was to implement a solution like Active Directory (AD). This identity and access management solution helped to regulate device and user authorization through password policies and account privilege policies.

Many organizations (approximately 90% of the Global Fortune 1000 companies, says Frost & Sullivan) for identity and access management. Active Directory works on the enterprise network to manage the organization’s devices based on company policies for software and content access, password creation and maintenance, and other security requirements.

It pushes these enterprise policies securely to all network devices. It offers several advantages, primarily control and fast access to information. However, implementation of AD infrastructure in an organization requires proper planning and investment, and that can prove expensive depending on how many systems are being managed. AD depends on the office network and is located in the server room on the office premises.

Working remotely with AD

When using an on-prem IAM solution like Active Directory (AD), users sign on to the single AD portal to access their data and applications. The only way to sign on to AD is via the organization network.

During the pandemic, enterprises suddenly moved to remote working – rendering the on-prem solution useless. Suddenly, users needed to log on to their network from a remote location, through a VPN. The investment in multiple VPN licenses would result in a huge expense, while free or open-source VPNs could lead to security vulnerabilities themselves! This also created an additional step in the log-in/access process.

In addition, since the AD infrastructure depends on the office network and is entirely located in the company’s server rooms, it requires on-premises monitoring and maintenance by at least two trained technicians.

Azure AD

Microsoft understood that these problems could be faced by pandemic-stricken users of AD, and recommends that in such cases, Azure AD (the cloud version of Active Directory) may be used. However, Azure AD is associated with high initial CAPEX and ongoing maintenance costs and requires training for the technicians to be able to manage it.

These expenses are hard to justify, for businesses that had already invested in AD – typically, AD costs a significant amount of time and money. Some small and medium businesses simply could not afford the fresh costs, and instead looked for workarounds that potentially resulted in new vulnerabilities.

So are your only options expense, operational difficulties, or potentially vulnerable workarounds?

Opt for customized IDaaS

With a custom IDaaS (Identity as a service) solution, you gain the flexibility and usability of Azure AD, at a cost that suits your needs. Service providers like Akku offer complete automation of the identity and access management function, on any device accessing enterprise assets, from anywhere.

On-prem is old-school; the future is the cloud. Consider a cloud-native IAM solution like Akku, that’s completely customizable to your requirements. It’s more cost-effective and hassle-free. Contact our team to learn more.

The Goldilocks Zone of Content Restriction: Not too wide, not too narrow, but just right

Do you need to restrict content for your employees? Or can you allow them complete and free access to the worldwide web? There’s simply too much information out there, which can result in distraction and lowered productivity. At the same time, too many restrictions can make your team feel suffocated!

It’s important to strike a balance between allowing your team to access the information they need or may need, and keeping your company’s reputation clean by blocking illicit, illegal or unnecessary material.

Here’s a quick ready reckoner to help you plan your company’s content restriction strategy.

What content do you really need?

Let’s say your organization works in the e-learning space. Your team will need to use the internet to better understand some of the content inputs that they’ve received from their client. They’ll need to watch YouTube videos on how to create specific interactive elements. They may need to read technical papers on gamification and game-based learning, in order to stay updated and create content that will make an impact. They’ll also need to refer to material created by competitors, including promotional material put up by them on social media, to position the client’s product in the available learning gaps. These are essential content categories that the employee must be able to access.

What content might you need?

Many employees find that they are more effective if they work while listening to music. For their safety, it’s important to allow them access to the news and local weather updates. You could consider a midway solution by allowing access to audio-only music options, and restricting access to reputed news sites alone – and the amount of time that employees can spend on the site.

Perhaps the most controversial content category is viral social media. Would it help your team to be able to include the latest viral moment in the e-learning content, to keep it relevant and topical? If so, how do you allow access to viral content without losing employee productivity? Can you put a time cap on certain applications or websites?

What content do you definitely NOT need?

Access to personal email is a security risk as much as a productivity issue.

Entertainment content can waste a great deal of time and company bandwidth.

Illegal or illicit material found on official systems and networks can also impact your company’s reputation.

Can this be controlled by blacklisting certain URLs?

No, unfortunately not!

A lot of the video content your employees may need is on YouTube. So is a lot of the content that they don’t! Similarly, personal email may be accessed through the same URL as professional email.

Not to mention that blacklisting thousands – or even millions – of URLs is simply impractical. A more refined solution is required.

Whitelisting specific content categories

The kinds of content that you want to allow your team to access depends on the kind of work your company does. Each category of employee will also need different kinds of content access.

Open source content categorizations for websites and video streaming portals are available online. It is possible to restrict access to content – whether on YouTube or on the internet at large – based on this categorization.

This makes for a much more relevant form of content access control, with necessary content types remaining accessible while irrelevant content is blocked. This helps to save company bandwidth and unproductive employee time.

Wondering how to create content restrictions for your business? Allow our experts to help you. You can set up personalized content filters with Akku, a 100% customizable IAM.

Data Logging and Audit: The IAM advantage

One of the key functions of an effective Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution is data logging, to capture and store information about which users access what applications, and when. These logs can help to drive effective decision-making through auditing in three key areas – financial, security, and compliance. Here’s how.

Financial audits

Optimization of software licensing is an area where your IAM can play a role in financial auditing.

Through the logs maintained by your IAM, it is possible to extract actionable insights on the actual usage of software licenses that your organization owns, and therefore the number of users actively using each application, and whether there is very low usage of certain applications.

This makes optimization possible by reducing the number of licenses for specific applications if they are in excess, and by dropping or retiring applications that are not being used.

It is important to note that most IAMs will only capture the base data that would feed such audits and analysis, and generally would not provide these insights within the platform. However, if you are working with a highly flexible IAM, such customizations should be possible to implement.

Security audits

Logging user actions can help companies improve security as it is a way for administrators to detect breaches early, and also analyze and provide verifiable evidence of the source of breaches.

An effective IAM solution would maintain detailed logs monitoring all access and activity on the organization’s apps, ensuring that there is no unaccounted access. This provides complete visibility into which users have accessed which applications, and when.

Security auditing verifies whether all documented protocols are being followed and assists in preventing and tracking down malicious activity. To maximize the security benefits of audit logging, logs should be reviewed regularly and often enough to detect security incidents.

Compliance audits

Compliance audits help to ensure the efficiency of compliance programs, to ensure that your organization achieves and maintains certifications and recognized standards, in turn leading to improved customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Your IAM can help to provide verifiable evidence of compliance with security, data protection, and privacy standards and laws. This is achieved through features such as multi-factor authentication and enforcement of strong password policies. Similarly, prompt deprovisioning of user accounts through a single sign-on (SSO) functionality, and dissemination of mandatory employee communications through the common platform of the IAM go a long way towards complying with statutory standards.

Compliance logs are also useful when it comes to following General Data Protection Regulation such as respecting employees’ right to be forgotten.

Are you making the most of the logs captured by your IAM to manage financial, security, and compliance audits at your organization? Unlock the value of your data, and take it even further with customized reporting and dashboards with a highly flexible IAM solution like Akku.