IAM systems are designed to cover the access authorizations of an entire network, including all internal and external compliance regulations. Consequently, they include a wide range of technologies, tools, software, and apps, including password managers, provisioning software, and apps for security policies, reporting and IONOS Help: "How to create a monitoring policy".
IAM systems need these features to be flexible, powerful, and secure enough to meet today’s requirements. Simply authenticating or monitoring users in a system is no longer sufficient. That’s why Identity and Access Management now goes much further. It provides a simple way of managing user access rights independently of location or network, whether that means customers all over the world, or employees working from home. This applies to hybrid environments too, from SaaS computing to modern BYOD management. The functions of IAM make the system flexible enough to run on all common IT architectures: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, UNIX, and IoT devices.
However, having so many possibilities also increases the security risk. The more complex an IT environment, the more complex the threat situation. At a basic level, IAM systems regulate access using conventional authentication methods like passwords, hardware tokens, digital certificates, and card systems. Modern Identity and Access Management systems use biometric authentication on top of this: fingerprints or facial recognition on smartphones for instance.
And nowadays, machine learning and artificial intelligenceare also being used to ensure the best possible protection of user data. Let’s take a look at an example. Companies today rely on IAM systems that use Multi-Factor Authentication. The factors are: the password chosen by the user, the user’s smartphone, and the related authentication method (fingerprint, or face or iris scanning). That’s already three factors that verify the user’s identity.
IAM functions serve a practical purpose as well as ensuring security. For example, they have a mechanism that allows users to use a single login for several networks. This feature is particularly widely used in today’s smartphones. By logging in to just one account (Google or Facebook for example), users can access all kinds of apps which would otherwise require them to sign in. Private users really appreciate this, because it means they don’t have to set up new login details for each account.
This model is known as federated IAM. It relies on cooperation and trust between the parties. Providers like Google and Facebook vouch for their users by allowing them to use their account to log in to partner sites or apps.The technical function at work here is called Single Sign-On (SSO). Once verified, users can use the same identity to log in to multiple networks. Authentication between the different partners takes place in the background without the user realizing, via an identity protocol such as Security Assertion Markup Language.