Much like your physical security systems ensure that your building is safe and protected from anyone unauthorised entering, the same is true for your cyber security. After all, someone gaining unauthorised access to your system can wreak havoc on your business, so ensuring you’re secure is vital.

One key way to protect your business is by utilising identity access management. Identity management is — much like a physical ID card system — the stop gate to ensure that nobody can access your system unless they have authorised access. By having a tight identity access management system in your business, you can ensure that you stay protected and keep a tight shield against anyone trying to access your systems.

In this article, we’re going to go over identity access management, and how you can utilise identity access management to protect your business and ensure that you have the best security possible for your business.

Importance of IAM in Modern Organisations

Identity and access management (IAM) is a critical part of the modern technological world. After all, any attacker is after your data. This may not seem critical — but data is the modern currency for modern businesses. Whole decisions are made on data, and data can make or break a business.

Taking security seriously is the difference between having the sanctity of mind that your business is going to be okay in the long run, and the headache of having to handle a cyberattack — or compliance issues. IAM is core to this — it protects the entrance to your virtual world.

Much like a physical lock and key security system, IAM essentially ensures that nobody outside of your organisation can gain access to your most important information. This means that there’s no risk of an attacker waltzing in and gaining easy access to your data, protecting you in the long run. On top of this, IAM lets you ensure that only those who need access to a certain set of data have access to it — this will ensure that no data leakage occurs, as the data will only be available to a controlled set of people.

This is called the ‘principle of least privilege’, and IAM is vital to enforcing it. By doing so, you not only protect your business from attackers but also ensure that you’re complying with all of the relevant laws and compliance requirements that your business must adhere to.

Overview of Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft Entra ID — formerly known as Azure Active Directory — is a cloud-based IAM service provided by Microsoft. It gives you all of the tools that you need to protect your business, as well as a host of tools and features that help keep productivity high — while always keeping security as a priority.

Key Features

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a must in the modern world. As passwords get more and more outdated, MFA provides another way for you to provide credentials to access your most important accounts.

Entra ID offers a multitude of MFA methods, including SMS, physical key, and even biometrics, and even links in with SSO to be able to use MFA to protect those applications too.

Conditional Access

Conditional Access is a security game changer. It uses data such as location, time, device, and other factors to essentially evaluate the access attempt as a risk or as a genuine attempt.

This means that a lot of external threats get neutered immediately, simply due to the strength of Conditional Access and how it can use policies to restrict based on the above factors. Entra ID has top-of-the-line Conditional Access features, letting you take advantage of this technology to bolster your security strategy.

Identity Protection

While safeguarding your business is vital, safeguarding your employees is also just as important. This includes protecting their identities — and IAM is a great way to safeguard your user identities.

With features to protect against identity theft, phishing, and tools for identity governance, Entra ID ensures that you can protect your employees’ identities and reduce the risk of a disaster in the long run.

Integration with Existing Systems

Entra ID integrates with other Microsoft products such as 365 and Azure to be able to help you reap the benefits of IAM throughout the workplace. Using single sign-on, API integrations, and other integrations, you can use Entra ID throughout your business without having to change your existing workflow.

All of this makes integrating Entra ID simple and reduces the IT overhead required to be able to integrate IAM into your systems — rather than a complicated new technology, Entra ID is designed to work for you seamlessly throughout the whole Microsoft ecosystem.

Best Practices for Implementing IAM

Simply implementing an IAM isn’t the end of using it to protect your business. Using it actively to protect your business — and take security into your own hands —  is vital, and part of this is working with a trusted partner to figure out what’s best for your business.

A service provider will be able to help you fill in the gaps and make sure that everything is implemented properly, and give you a true strategy when utilising IAM.

On top of this, regular audits will help you ensure that security remains at a high standard, and implementing zero-trust policies will give you an — albeit brutal — but watertight security strategy all around.

How We Can Help

Your business’s security is vital — data is king in the modern business world, and your cyber security strategy will protect your data and ensure that you don’t face catastrophe in the future. By using IAM tools such as Entra ID, you can ensure that you take control of your security and identity management.

If you need a helping hand in getting started, reach out to us today. We’re here to help, and our experts will ensure that you have security completely handled within your business so you can prosper in the long-term.

Get in touch with us now and see how we can help.