Today, the consumer’s online data is protected by various forms of user identity systems which rely quite heavily on trust both between the organization and its consumers as well that same organization to protect it from malicious elements. Identity Lifecycle Management alludes to several processes and technologies that guarantee the entire life cycle of an identity- from its origination, conception to retirement – is effectively managed. Let’s go deeper into the essential aspects and importance of implementing such systems.
Understanding the Fundamental Elements of Identity Management
As a whole, identity management is the implementation of an administrative plan for managing identification information about every user within that organization. It includes user accounts management, deals with company’s resources access and safety of confidential data. Identity management comprises identity governance, provisioning of identities, and verifying the same.
Identity governance is a term used to describe the user identity management policies, processes and procedures. It includes role definition and responsibilities, centralized access control features and regulatory compliance enforcement system. Identity governance must be able to facilitate the assignment of access rights, prevent security risk and irregularities in granting hubs. Implementation with effect can help protect an organization’s assets from leakage and unwarranted exposure.
Conversely identity provisioning is about creation, modification and deletion of user accounts. It includes automated user accounts provisioning as per audience-pre defined basis like job role or type of shadow and source, where the account is required to be created further into.
Identity verification is another important factor that forms part of identity management. It encompasses validation of user identity before allowing him to access resources. Though they have guaranteed that by strong identity verification, provide safe and grant protection against unauthorized access.
Stepping into the Identity Access Management Lifecycle
IAM lifecycle denotes the identity and access during a user’s tenure with an organization. This lifecycle typically consists of four stages: onboarding, provisioning or access governance and off board.
User accounts and system credentials are defined during the onboarding process. During the onboarding phase, any vital training or orientation is incorporated to orient new users with regard to organization’s policies and procedure. Once these people are successfully installed; provisioning comes in action to grant access by giving correct password that enables them authorized admittance over resources which they could require but only after finishing accounts rules consented. The provisioning activity can be automated.
The governance of access is the next phase defined by IAM lifecycle. It entails persistent control and regulation of user access privileges in conformity with organizational policies and the political forums.
The last phase in the IAM lifecycle is offboarding. When user’s leave or change their roles- different access rights must be changed and denied to them. The netiquette process of offloading should be done promptly and derived adequately to maintain the security as well as integrity in regards with the systems of an organization.
Identity Management Systems and Their Functions
Identity lifecycle management is effectively managed by implementing, and also managing identity systems in organizations. These systems offer a unified infrastructure for controlling identity, authorization and security. They provide variety of features and functionalities to simplify identity management processes that help ensure security.
The most famous identity management system is the active directory of Identity Active Directory. It provides user provisioning capabilities, offers password management and single sign-on as well. Because of IAD; organizations are able to have managed user identities and controlled access resources.
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
IAM systems look at the issue of managing user identities and degrees of access from a broad perspective. They provide identity verification, role-based access control to various groups of users having right privileges along with audit trails. IAM systems allow organizations to have very rigid policies in place, significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access and compliance with regulatory requirements.
The best practices to be followed during the implementation of an IMS include:
- Doing a complete assessment of the organization’s current identity management processes and spots for improvement.
- Determining defined goals and objectives towards identity management system implementation.
- Ensuring that stakeholders from various departments are included during the decision-making process.
- Conducting a thorough risk assessment to determine possible security weaknesses as well as mitigation strategies.
- Making sure employees are given adequate training and education to help them understand the new system.
- Frequently checking and adjusting security policies as welll as access controls to accommodate changes in threat landscape, compliance standards
- Frequent system monitoring and auditing to detect and fix security problems or abide by norms.
With these best practices in mind, organizational entities stand to reap maximum returns from their identity management systems thus ensuring the security and accountability of any system or data.
Advantages of the Well Performed Identity Management
Identity management allows organizations in different domains to reap a lot of benefits. Some of the key benefits include.
- Enhanced Security: With Identity Management Systems, organizations can significantly improve their systems’ security and prevent unauthorized access to information as well protect from data breaches.
- Improved Operational Efficiency: Identity management systems provide efficient user identity and access rights administration, thus removing substantial administrative burden overheads while improving operational efficiency.
- Compliance with Regulatory Requirements: Identity management solutions make it possible to organize service access by activating and deactivating the digital identities of users and regulating their terms, methods, duration etc.
- Better User Experience: Users can easily get access to the resources they need without exposing themselfs because identity management systems grant a simple and secured working environment.
- Cost Savings: When identity management processes are automated, organizations save the costs that could have been incurred on manual administrative tasks as well eliminate instances of data breaches which would mean no potential legal liabilities.
Identity Management Solutions in Various Industries
Today, identity management platforms prove necessary for organizations across all industries characterized by specific requirements and issues. Let’s explore how identity management systems cater to specific industries.
Healthcare: Identity Management offers administration with secure access to patient profiles and confidential medical data in the health care sector. They assist organizations in ensuring compliance to rigid privacy regulations such as HIPAA and keep the intrusions accessing patient data unauthorized.
Financial Services: As it was mentioned above, the number of identity management systems is significant and they are widely used for protection in many spheres especially when cases of frauds become prevalent in businesses including financial services. The help facilitate financial organisations to adopt strong authentication measures and also strictly apply control access policy so as remain safe their confidential data.
Retail: As opposed to many other industries, the retail industry uses identity management systems for organizations that want to administer its customers’ identities offering them unique and personalized programs. They ensure secured internet transactions and also prevent identity theft, or other forms of fraudulent practices.
Government: The Identity Management Systems are critical for the agencies dealing with individuals such as the government organizations, where control and management of citizen identity is an essential. Also they have to be sure that every individual who wants to access a particular service should get it safely through secure facility promotion by IDMS systems considerations lawfully (Dewan & Oliver 19). They allow sound identification and thereby eliminate the prospects of identity thefts or improper use of government resources.
Education: Identity management systems aid in managing student identities as well as their access to educational resources. They guarantee that only allowed persons access the private details of students and aid prevent data leaks.
Conclusion: Identity Lifecycle Management to Come
With security threats and regulatory requirements changing over time, identity lifecycle management proves to be crucial for organizations. By deploying sound identity management technologies and observing best practices it is possible for organizations to successfully manage user accounts, allow access to assets while complying with laws.
The incorporation of the emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning should be considered to move identity lifecycle management forward. These technologies are capable of improving the accuracy and speed with which identity verification procedures can be conducted, mechanism to detect fraud in real time as well automate almost all managerial activities.
To conclude, organizations should realize that they have no choice but to allow the benefits of identity management solutions to secure their workplaces.
