Having robust IAM systems helps businesses stay secure from external threats while keeping employees, contractors, business partners and customers happy. IAM systems can reduce the risk of internal and external data breaches and prevent costly and time-consuming system outages by providing centralized management.
Implementing IAM may require a shift in processes and policies, so it’s important to ensure everyone understands what changes are being made. Here are some of the top benefits of IAM systems:
Boosts Security
An IAM system allows businesses to implement policies requiring strong passwords, limit access to sensitive data, and monitor activity. This can also help with compliance and regulatory requirements. Some IAM systems offer multifactor authentication that can help prevent cyber threats, reducing the risk of breaches and unauthorized access to sensitive information.
The primary benefits of IAM systems is the peace of mind that comes with knowing who has access to what and when. This not only applies to employees within the business but also to contractors and mobile users as well as consumers.
IAM provides transparency in security policies, configurations, norms, and privileges – making it easy for security teams to spot breaches or revoke access when necessary. In addition, it helps with adopting a zero-trust approach to security, which requires that all users are authenticated before any access is granted. This means a more robust defense against security breaches and a lower risk of internal threats. This can be particularly helpful as research shows that internal threats are behind 34 percent of all data breaches.
Reduces Risk of Data Breaches
With IAM systems in place, companies can manage user access privileges and prevent unauthorized hackers from exploiting weak points in the business framework. This minimizes the risk of costly data breaches that can result in monetary fines, legal repercussions, and damage to the company’s brand.
A robust IAM system will provide clear structures for each role, guiding the administration of permissions and ensuring that users only get access to what they need to do their jobs. This requires collaboration between the human resources department and other leadership within the business, as a clear understanding of the specific responsibilities and duties will help determine which permissions should be granted.
Modern IAM systems also use behavioral authentication to monitor mouse-use characteristics and keystroke dynamics to recognize anomalous activity. This type of technology is more effective than passwords in reducing the risk of cybersecurity breaches.
Increases Efficiency
In today’s digital workplace, the number of systems and applications employees use has skyrocketed. This proliferation of IT infrastructure creates islands of identity where user accounts are not linked and can be difficult to manage.
However, implementing IAM provides you with a powerful solution to this challenge. With centralized tools, administrators can easily and efficiently control access to systems and data. This helps ensure the right people have the right resources to meet business requirements.
Another benefit of IAM is that it improves internal security by limiting the risks from insider threats. A recent report identified internal threat actors as the source of 34 percent of all breaches. IAM allows system admins to assign privileges based on a person’s role and not their name or email address, thus making it more difficult for a malicious actor to exploit an employee’s account.
Additionally, by reducing the need for password resets and help desk requests, IAM can free up IT staff time to focus on more important tasks. This also lowers costs by minimizing manual work for IT teams.
Increases Employee Satisfaction
A secure IAM system allows employees to work more efficiently without security concerns. This improves employee satisfaction and can help grow your business by making it easier for your team to be productive and meet goals.
With IAM, access is limited to only the necessary information and resources for each role. If an employee has a role change or is terminated, their account can be deactivated quickly with no lingering access. This helps to reduce the risk of a data breach caused by a compromised password.
IAM systems also help to keep costs down by streamlining user registration, account configuration, and permissions management. This reduces administrative costs and frees up IT resources that can be used for other important tasks like preventing data breaches or responding to cybersecurity threats. IAM systems that include single sign-on (SSO) help reduce the danger of internal threats by ensuring employees use only one set of credentials to access the necessary information.
Boosts Customer Satisfaction
Ultimately, the biggest benefit of an IAM system is peace of mind when you know exactly who can access your data and when you can rest easy knowing that hackers will have a harder time breaching your network.
IAM systems also help you protect your users by ensuring only certain employees can view programs and applications, making it more difficult for bad actors to plant ransomware or steal sensitive information. Additionally, IAM can monitor communications and activities to spot suspicious activity before it becomes a major issue.
With IAM, your business can easily secure systems for employees, partners, contractors and consumers. You can even use IAM to secure remote work or BYOD environments without compromising security.
IAM combines your authentication infrastructure with identity governance, which ensures that decisions inform your data access policies about your employees’ roles and needs. Plus, IAM can automate changing privileges for promoted or fired employees and reduce the risk of security breaches by allowing you to revoke access rights quickly. This saves your IT team a lot of time and effort and reduces the number of support tickets that must be resolved.
