4 reasons access management matters

Cybersecurity has become one of the most important things for both companies and individuals. Cyber threats keep growing. Attacks come from every direction, including the cloud services you use every day. The average employee uses 36 cloud services per day. Managing access to sensitive data and company resources is an essential element keeping your company safe. One compromised account in a critical company service can have devastating consequences.

In this article I'll show you 4 reasons why access management is one of the most important areas of cybersecurity.

Why IAM — Identity & Access Management — should be a priority

Limiting insider threats

Insider threats can start as a deliberate attack or as an accidental mistake. With IAM you can ensure employees only access the data they actually need. Minimizing access drastically reduces the blast radius of a cyberattack and limits the damage. IAM also lets you monitor and respond to any suspicious activity in real time.

Strengthening data protection

Data breaches have devastating impact on companies. Consequences include:

· Reputation damage

· Financial loss

· Regulatory penalties

· Bankruptcy

It's also important to use multi-factor authentication, encryption, etc. alongside IAM — this way you reduce the chance of a breach the most.

Streamlining granting and revoking user permissions

Account and permission management is exhausting and time-consuming, and it's prone to human error. One small mistake and the risk of compromised data shoots up. Access-management services automatically arrange privileged data access for employees — for example: when a new employee joins, IAM quickly provisions the necessary accounts and permissions based on their role.

Enabling secure remote access

Two things have changed in the "traditional" office over the past decade: the option to work from home and the dependence on cloud services. Because of these two shifts, it's essential to set up secure remote access. Access management ensures your staff can work safely from anywhere — using things like:

· VPN (virtual private network)

· SSO (single sign-on)

· MFA (multi-factor authentication)

These services help secure remote access and preserve the integrity and confidentiality of company data.