1 The Challenge
Organizations are facing increasing challenges in managing access to critical systems that can be addressed through access governance solutions. The types of identities that are supported has expanded to non-human identities along with employees, contractors and third parties. Ensuring who has the right access is complex, leading to the risk of over-privileged users. Regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, SOX and HIPAA are updating on a regular basis and require strict adherence to data protection and access control, and non-compliance can result in hefty penalties. In addition, cybersecurity threats are on the rise, with insider risk and unauthorized access posing significant dangers. Identity and Access Governance (IAG) solutions provide visibility and control to help mitigate these threats by ensuring users have the right permissions. Efficient onboarding and offboarding of users is another challenge, as the orphaned accounts pose risks related to unauthorized access and fraud. The complexity of managing hybrid and cloud environments further complicates access management, requiring centralized solutions to ensure consistency. Issues related to excessive privileges also increase as employees accumulate unnecessary access over time, increasing security risks. Finally, managing third-party access, ensuring segregation of duties (SoD) and maintaining compliance are critical to maintaining security.
The most common types of access governance challenges that organizations have to contend with are:
1.1 Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory frameworks are updating on a regular basis. Identity and Access Governance (IAG) supports better visibility of identity administration and access entitlements across its IT infrastructure. Governance can provide simple reporting and dashboarding to more advanced capabilities that can include AI and/or machine learning techniques enabling pattern recognition to deliver valuable intelligence for process optimization, role design, automated reviews, and anomaly detection.
