What is identity and access management? Guide to IAM

<p>Identity and access management, or IAM, is a framework of business processes, policies and technologies that facilitates the management of digital identities. With an IAM framework in place, IT security teams can control user access to critical information within their organizations.</p>
<p>Using methods such as single sign-on (<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/single-sign-on”>SSO</a>), <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/two-factor-authentication”>two-factor authentication</a> and <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/privileged-access-management-PAM”>privileged access management</a>, IAM technologies securely store identity and profile data and manage data governance functions to ensure that only necessary and relevant data is shared.</p>
<p>IAM performs the following fundamental security actions:</p>
<ul class=”default-list”>
<li>Identifies individuals in a system through <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/answer/Authentication-vs-digital-identity-Whats-the-difference”>identity management and authentication</a>.</li>
<li>Identifies roles in a system and how roles are assigned to individuals.</li>
<li>Adds, removes and updates individuals and their roles in a system.</li>
<li>Assigns levels of access to individuals or groups of individuals.</li>
<li>Protects sensitive data within the system and secures the system itself.</li>
</ul>
<p>An enterprise’s ability to know who is accessing which data and which systems and from where is not only helpful but critical to data protection. Employees are in far-flung locales, sometimes in branch offices and sometimes working remotely from their homes. Traditional defenses built around a known perimeter are no longer adequate, which is one reason why cybersecurity experts now refer to identity as the new perimeter.</p>
<p>This comprehensive guide examines the many aspects of identity and access management, including its challenges, technologies and trends. Hyperlinks direct readers to related articles that provide additional insights and guidance about how to understand, implement and manage IAM.</p>
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