The role of effective Identity and Access Governance (IAG) has become critical, especially given the fact that data breaches and cyber threats constantly increase. IAG is also referred to as Identity and Access Management (IAM), it being a subset of an organization’s security architecture, which oversees issues related to the protection of digital identities and assets.

Since the digital transformation and cloud solution becomes more popular in organizations, the possibility of threats increases, and thus efficient IAG measures should be taken. The consequences of failure to follow these measures include loss of data, monetary loss, reputational loss, and failure to meet the required legal requirements.

Advantages of a User-Centric IAG Model

Adopting a user-centric IAG model has many benefits, some of which are not necessarily security related as presented below. By placing users at the core of your IAG strategy, you can unlock the following benefits:

Enhanced User Adoption and Productivity: IAG solutions that are easy to use and fit well into current working practices will be adopted more readily by users. If they see the measures put in place to secure them, as convenient and easy to deal with, then they will easily follow them because doing anything that would counteract this security would be out of their system.

Improved User Experience: A user-centric approach to IAG enshrines the goal of minimizing interference to the use of the content by the authorized parties. If unnecessary barriers are reduced, it means that users shall be productive while at the same time observing security measures in place.

Increased Security Awareness: Thus, involving the users into IAG and explaining them the necessity of the security measures implementation will help you build the security awareness within your organization. Savvy users mean that the organization is not prone to falling for social engineering schemes or whipping up accidental security blunders.

Reduced Administrative Overhead: Some of the best practices for IAG solutions are more user-centric with functionalities such as use of automated procedures and self-serving tools that minimize the workload for IT departments. This makes it possible to reduce the costs of security and pool resources in other more important activities since this system guarantees their security.

Scalability and Flexibility: It is thus easier to scale your organization and develop a user-centric IAG model that can provide for the organization’s changing needs and demands. Hence, integrating user feedback and posing oneself under modern technologies you will be able to guarantee the relevance and effectiveness of the provided IAG solutions.

Implementing User-Centric IAG: Key Steps

Hence, transforming the IAG model to a user-centric one must be strategic and systematic. Here are some key steps to consider:

Conduct a Comprehensive Assessment: The first step to performing the assessment is to assess your current-state IAG processes, tools, and users’ touchpoints. Find out problems, delays, and opportunities. It is important to get feedback from as many users as possible both in terms of their department and responsibilities within the organization.

Define User Personas and Profiles: Create concrete user profiles incorporating the various users that interact with your business. Examples of possible segregation include employment responsibilities, entitlement to specific areas, skills, and communication methods. This will enhance the possibilities to adapt the IAG solutions to the needs of each group of users.

Implement Adaptive Authentication: Incorporate the notion of adaptive authentication, that is, the continuously changing the security levels depending on the situation and the user’s risk factor. These can range from device, location, network, and behavior. Here, it means that when configuring further authentication, one should do it depending on the level of risk, and this approach will allow to combine security and convenience.

Leverage Modern Technologies: Investigate and embrace many possible advanced technologies for IAG including, but not limited to biometrics, SSO, MDM, and cloud-based identification services. These technologies can help to make access easier, safer and similar on all platforms and across multiple devices.

Promote Self-Service and Automation: Enabling users with the tools required to manage their own request, using IAG for self-service and automation to areas like password reset, access request, account creation, etc. This not only optimizes the user experience, but the experience of the IT workers who no longer need to deal with the thousands of bogus accounts.

Continuously Educate and Train: Conduct periodic security awareness creation and orientation for the users and management to enable them appreciate the utility of IAG and importance of their contribution to ISO22442-2010 compliance. Be specific in your instructions and recommendations of security practices and frequently share new risks and security solutions.

Safety Guidelines when implementing User-Centric IAG

Although it is necessary to make more focus on IAG users, it remains important to set high levels of security. Here are some best practices to consider:

Implement Least Privilege Access: Avoid the use of accounts with Universal Administrator accounts and where user accounts are being created, they should be given only the level of access that is needed for them to perform their duties effectively. As a result, one should keep track of the subject’s access rights and make necessary changes depending on his or her role or position.

Enforce Strong Authentication Methods: Healthy passwords to be used or passphrases should be put into practice have to be unique and strong, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to be adopted. Passwords can also be replaced by biometrics or by some physical tokens like the hardware security keys.

Maintain Comprehensive Audit Trails: Implement stringent audit features that provide detailed traces of user interactions, access attempts and configuration modifications to the IAG. It can help in identification, analysis and reconstruction of a certain event, investigations and reports.

Regularly Review and Update Policies: Regularly check with other branches of the company as well as speak with other IAGs to ensure that all your policies and procedures stay current with new security threats, implementing new regulations, and conform to industry standards. This process must have inputs from the different stakeholders especially those from different departments of the organization.

Implement Segregation of Duties: Follow principles of segregation of duties which cuts out conflicts of interest as well as reduces opportunities for violative access or use of privileges. It is therefore important to describe within the IAG framework the various roles and responsibilities.

Conduct Regular Risk Assessments: Conduct biennial risk assessments which aim to identify risks and costs associated with the IAG infrastructure commerce. Focusing on the risks that have been pinpointed and classified according to the likelihood and importance of their occurrence.

That is why we must think about the user in the context of Identity and Access Governance (IAG) not only as about best practices, but as about the imperative in the current environment of constant change in cyber threats. With users in the center of your IAG approach, it is possible to find a balance between effective security and great experience for a user.

The IAG model that should be designed with focus on the users should be based on modern technologies and key principles such as self-service, automation, and constant education. In this way, you are able to make everyone more security conscious, increase usage and minimize instances of security vulnerabilities due to human factors.