With the adoption of technology on a large scale, businesses must also think about the security of their digital infrastructure. A business organization depends on several software systems that must be protected from cyberattacks. Businesses are focusing more on security monitoring for identifying threats in advance. When you can identify security risks in advance, you can fix them proactively to maximize your service availability. Among all the processes involved in security monitoring, Identity and Access Management (IAM) always poses a challenge for IT teams.

Understanding IAM

IAM is a framework of policies and technologies that define the role of each employee in an organization. With the help of IAM, the right individuals in an organization can access the right information whenever they need it. With IAM, a digital identity is given to each individual along with the required authentication. Those identities are then managed by an IAM system throughout the entire lifecycle. IAM only decides what resources can be accessed by any digital identity after they log in to any software system.

IAM is not only done for the employees of an organization. It is also used to provide required information to stakeholders and collaborators in a secure way. Security IAM management tools make sure that the users have access to only what they require. They stand in the way of hackers trying to compromise the IT infrastructure of an organization. You can restrict cyber attackers from gaining control of sensitive business data with IAM. Security IAM management tools help CXOs in restricting the entry points for hackers. A centralized management system will make sure employees and stakeholders are accessing only those resources which they have clearance for.

Challenges with traditional IAM systems

In the current scenario, traditional security IAM management tools cannot handle the complexity of data breaches and cyberattacks. The best cyber security services companies are using new-age technologies to make IAM tools better. The challenges for CXOs in identity and access management in the current scenario are as follows:

• An organization may use several business applications to connect with its users. As users try to connect across multiple business applications, it is a possibility that they might forget their passwords. Your users may spend more time resetting and changing their passwords. Also, they may use the same password for different business applications to not forget it. Some users also save passwords in a text file of their PCs and desktops. Password fatigue can result in serious security issues and, your users may lose their sensitive data. Businesses must look for security IAM management tools that can bring all the user information/access under a central location.
• When a new employee joins an organization, he is handed access to the IT network, databases, printers, and other resources. The access rights are usually handled from the central office and may take more days. The new employee cannot perform his duties due to inadequate resources which, disrupts the service availability. Businesses need IAM solutions that can allocate access rights to new employees quickly and automatically.
• You are not done by just deciding access rights for each of your employees and stakeholders. You must continuously monitor what are they doing with the enterprise information. You need to know where the employees have accessed the business information. If an employee is selling the enterprise data to a rival, you can know about it via security monitoring. The biggest challenge for CXOs is to make sure the enterprise data is only used for business operations and not for personal reasons.
• Due to the recent remote work habit, employees log into business applications from different locations. Virtual desktop infrastructure solutions come with huge security risks. Business organizations must perform security monitoring for remote endpoints. The lack of real-time user monitoring tools is forcing organizations to look for better IAM tools.

How to overcome IAM challenges in 2021?

Due to these challenges, businesses are looking for better security IAM management tools. AIOps has proved to be a solution to the challenges faced by CXOs in identity and access management. Security monitoring can be made more rigorous with predictive analytics models used by AIOps. AIOps products and tools help in overcoming the following IAM challenges:

• AIOps-based monitoring tools can quickly identify user identities as they log in. The identities of your employees or stakeholders can be identified discretely by an AIOps-based monitoring system. Throughout their login session, AIOps based analytics platforms collect information to detect any anomalies.
• AI for application monitoring has the power to detect user anomalies in real-time. If a hacker is pretending as an employee and is trying to enter the organization’s network, you can detect it immediately with AIOps. AIOps can detect user behavior and normal patterns which users follow. If an anomaly occurs, you will also know the exact location of unidentified access.
• Security monitoring must be performed round the clock even if employees are on leave. AIOps based analytics platforms have the power to monitor user identities and access rights without stopping. It is helpful for security monitoring in the remote work culture.
• Businesses must comply with government regulations for managing internal controls and sharing information with shareholders/users. With AIOps, you can quickly cope with the latest IAM regulations. The onboarding and offboarding process can be managed more effectively with the best AIOps products and tools in the market.

Conclusion

According to a study, more than 60% of data breaches occur due to passwords being stolen. With IAM, you can eradicate password breaches and other security issues within your IT infrastructure. You can use AIOps digital transformation solutions for perfecting identity and access management.