Access management is the first line of defence when it comes to keeping your IT systems safe and secure - it is far more than just having a username and password.
It is important to ensure employees only have access to those areas of sensitive data, information and privileges relevant to them. The company receptionist does not require access to the HR drive - only the HR team will need that information.
Having a robust access management strategy in your company will not only help to protect your business from outside attacks, it will also reduce the threats from inside your organisation - whether that be from malicious actions or human error.
Dire consequences
Compromised data can have a devastating effect on a business: Damaging its reputation, incurring penalties from regulatory bodies, sparking significant financial losses and ultimately result in the permanent closure of a company. Cyber attacks should be anticipated from all directions, including the use of cloud tools.Did you know that the average employee uses 36 cloud-based services every day? Or that the log-in details of an email administrator can demand anything up to £70,000 on the dark web?
All of which presents a significant risk that cannot be ignored.
Your access management plan will:
- Defend against insider threats
- Toughen up protection of data
- Deliver regulatory compliance
- Ensure secure remote access
- Improve productivity
Robust access management measures limit access to data and sensitive information, toughens up authentication procedures through multi-factor authentication and encryption, and enable the control and tracking of data transfers. In short, it reduces the threat of unauthorised access while protecting a company’s most valuable assets.
Identity and access management
The need to comply with data privacy laws is a vitally important consideration in today’s fast-moving digital world and implementing Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions can play a key role in ensuring regulatory compliance through the provision of all the necessary audit trails and controls.
It takes the time-consuming manual management out of the equation while also eliminating any prospect of ‘user error’ - whether deliberate or accidental - automating user provisioning and de-provisioning.
Remote users
IAM also ensures secure authentication and authorisation mechanisms for remote users, an ever-increasing trend since Covid, which gives these employees privileged access to company resources and data securely - wherever they are working from.
And just think about how IAM can increase productivity within a business by employing this automated system. Savings in cost and man hours through the immediate assigning of the right levels of access.
Dan Ellis, EPX CEO, said:
"Companies often do not think about employee access and putting a strategy in place until sensitive information has already been accessed by an employee with inappropriate permissions.
"I am the owner of EPX but even I do not have log-in rights to all of our systems - because I simply don't need them. As a company owner, my details are spread far and wide online, making me a target for cybercrime - having access to systems I do not require would be irresponsible in terms of business security needs."
Want to know more about Access Management?
If you do not have an access management strategy or plan and would like to work with an IT team to enhance your security please do get in touch with the team.JTNDZGl2JTIwaWQlM0QlMjJzbGlkZUJ1dHRvbiUyMiUyMGNsYXNzJTNEJTIyc2lkZS1idXR0b24lMjIlM0VHZXQlMjBJbiUyMFRvdWNoJTNDJTJGZGl2JTNF
