The Ultimate Guide to Assess IAM infrastructure!

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IAM Assessment is a “Most Important” Component of an IAM Solution

Credentials are, and have always been, the easiest way for hackers to hack into important data. The significant majority of breaches related to hacking include lost or stolen credentials or brute force attacks. Also, at a time when an organization has been hacked, the mass of these attacks will result in privileged user credentials being stolen.

It is very crucial to prevent attacks based on credentials, and it can happen by building an effective identity and access management (IAM) program, which starts with a comprehensive IAM assessment.

You must be wondering what the IAM assessment is. How to assess IAM infrastructure? What is an S+ IAM Health Check-up? No worries! This blog has the answers to all your questions.

Let’s dig in!

What is an IAM Assessment?

An IAM assessment evaluates an organization’s identity governance landscape. It examines the present-day IAM state, identifies gaps, and creates a landscape to help improve the overall IAM process using these details.

IAM assessments also assist in checking the effectiveness and efficiency of an organization’s IAM processes. Businesses engage in IAM assessments to:

• Improve the IAM solution and ensure business-wide adoption of policies and procedures.
• Define more rigorous IAM security standards.
• Better secure and manage the changing identity landscape, including concerns related to remote work, legacy systems, and on-premise, hybrid, and cloud applications, systems, and platforms.
• Minimize the risk of breaches and attacks from both insiders and external threat actors.

How to Assess IAM infrastructure?

IAM Infrastructure assessment includes:

• Who —The users connected with the business.
• What —The access patterns of the users as well as business assets along with their needs, compliance concerns, current security architectures and tools, and existing policies and procedures.
• Where —The location of users as well as assets.
• When — The time of the asset.
• How — The suitable solutions, recommendations, and strategic path required to meet the organization’s IAM needs.

IAM Assessment: “Who”

Professionals usually refer to users in the world of IT and security. In the early days of computing, a “user” generally always meant a person. But as time passes, this definition has changed drastically, and today, “user” can be defined in various ways. It can be defined as a person, an identity (e.g., login), distributed systems, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, software and applications, external devices (e.g., cameras), and “smart” tools such as tablets and phones. When referring to a person, “user” can also refer to an employee, contractor, or third-party vendor who has access to an organization’s systems.

It is a critical step in the assessment of the IAM process to identify and document network and system users to ascertain who has access to systems, who needs access to systems, and what sort of privileges each user requires.

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IAM Assessment: “What”

The identification and documentation of the assets and their patterns of use are also included in the assessment process. It looks at overall business strategies, anticipated areas of growth, and any requirements related to compliance. The “What” phase will also inspect the current security architectures, technologies, and tools, as well as current identity and access management (IAM) policies and procedures. Gaps in current processes, policies, and technologies are noted to ensure future solutions correct any deficiencies.

IAM Assessment: “Where”

When it comes to security, location has taken a whole new direction in the last two years. Remote work has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made identity and access management (IAM) an important part of the security process. In fact, few people believe that remote work is really helping to reshape the IAM process by redefining the number as well as the type of digital identities and how those changing identities are secured. The growing number of identities in disparate locations, including identities associated with on-premise or cloud-based systems, data, networks, and software applications, underscores the importance of knowing “where” identities are located in order to ensure that the right IAM security configurations and privileges have been applied.

IAM Assessment: “When”

Even though users may be distributed geographically, it’s likely that the vast majority maintain a regular working schedule. Whether that be a 9 to 5 local to their time zone or assigned shifts at odd hours, knowing when users access systems is a key component in establishing a pattern for access management. Or, if they work regular shifts monitoring and maintaining critical resources, it’s likely they will always be requesting access at the same time as the resource they are accessing. This behavioral profile is a critical component of a well-governed IAM program.

IAM Assessment: “How”

After the who, what, where, and when are identified and documented, the IAM assessment will then look at the “how,” that is, what IAM solutions are required to meet the organization’s current as well as future access use cases. The “how” phase generally includes a solution blueprint based on the present state of user access management, notes existing security gaps, and provides recommendations for remediation and improvement. The strategies and programs for policies, processes, and technologies will also be included in the ‘how’ phase. This phase will also align the strategies, processes, and technologies with compliance requirements, the organization’s goals, as well as current security architectures.

What is S+ IAM Health Check-up?

The S+ Identity and Access Management (IAM) Health Check service is helpful for businesses that have deployed IAM technology earlier but have been unable to keep up with the pace of evolving and emerging capabilities, changing needs, and organizational restructuring. Sennovate’s team of IAM experts provides a valuable evaluation of the technology’s architecture, the hardware and application performance, and the effectiveness of integration with other systems, as well as alignment with organizational requirements.

The result of our health check is a report of our findings and recommendations that will help get your identity and access management program back on track.

Wrapping Up

To reach the certain point at which organizations can confidently implement a comprehensive and long-term IAM solution, organizations need IAM assessments. The assessment will help businesses identify security gaps as well as ement a comprehensive and long-term IAM solution, organizations need IAM assessments. The assessment will help businesses identify security gaps as well as create a perspective on why certain IAM policies are necessary. It also helps organizations understand what sort of security is required to support future growth or changing market conditions. With an assessment process, organizations can mature their overall identity governance program and position it to support business objectives and deliver value.

Try our Sennovate+ to assess your IAM infrastructure and check your IAM health. We are just a call away!

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About Sennovate

Sennovate delivers custom identity and access management (IAM) and managed security operations center (SOC) solutions to businesses around the world. With global partners and a library of 2000+ integrations, 10M+ identities managed, we implement world-class cybersecurity solutions that save your company time and money. We offer a seamless experience with integration across all cloud applications, and a single price for product, implementation, and support. Have questions? The consultation is always free. Email [email protected] or call us at: +1 (925) 918-6565