Identity and Access Management: Protecting Digital Identities
Remote working is suddenly in the news, and high on the agenda of executives and IT teams. One thing that is vital when providing remote access to systems is security. Allowing access to those who should have it, without placing too many onerous hoops for them to navigate, while at the same time ensuring that malicious actors and cybercriminals don't get access. One mainstay in security infrastructure that delivers on these goals is a robust Identity and Access management solution.
The best way to implement such as solution will be dependent on your current security infrastructure and how your (now larger!) remote workforce needs to connect and work with business systems and collaborate with their colleagues. Renaissance and our partner network have decades of experience in the design and implementation of secure and easy to use identity and remote access authentication and authorisation solutions. Contact us today to discuss your particular requirements, and we'll direct you to the best solution for now and into the future. Read on for an overview of some of the techniques that can be used to secure digital identities.
Digital Identities are Important
Protecting digital identities and ensuring that users and devices that require remote access to IT systems are legitimate has always been important. But it is even more critical now that there is a rapid spike in remote working. Cybercriminals will undoubtedly use the cover of increased remote access network traffic to try to hide their attempts to infiltrate corporate IT systems. Both systems hosted in private and on-premise data centres, and those hosted in the public Cloud.
It's not just staff and other users who need their digital identities protected. The rapid uptake in IoT devices and sensors adds to the things that need to have digital identities to access systems and share data. Unsecured IoT devices are a significant threat in many deployments. As an aside, the current isolation approach to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 causing virus will be another driver to accelerate the adoption of remote sensors on machines and equipment. Monitoring equipment 24/7 remotely, and only sending an experienced and valuable human technician to a site when required is a good business policy. Especially when unforeseen circumstances, of whatever kind, makes it hard for humans to travel to some locations.
Protecting Digital Identity
We can take it as read in 2020 that digital identities are important. And that they need to be adequately protected from cybercriminals. Here are some of the techniques used by the Identity and Access Management solutions that Renaissance and our partner network deliver:
- Complex password enforcement
- Unique password enforcement to prevent password reuse for multiple systems
- Biometric authentication (fingerprints, Face Recognition)
- Multi-factor authentication
- Single-use authentication
Using one or more of these, depending on your requirements will protect your digital identities. But if a solution is implemented poorly, or with over draconian methods, they can also frustrate users and lead to weaker security as people find ways to make their lives easier. Passwords being written on sticky-notes on screens or under keyboards anyone? Thankfully we can advise you on the best way to implement identity security, without placing a burden on your users.
Conclusion
The Renaissance partner network is ideally placed to design and deliver the best Identity and Access Management solution for each organisation's particular needs. Contact us to start a conversation, and lets design and deploy a solution that will protect your users, data, and systems for years to come.