By IT Brew Staff
less than 3 min read
Definition:
IT professionals rely on their identity and access management (IAM) system to define and manage user roles and access privileges, making it an important part of any organization’s overall cybersecurity strategy. The rise of AI agents with system access needs has made IAM more complicated (and crucial) in recent years; not all “users” on a network are human.
Standard IAM tools include single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), privileged access management (PAM), and anything else that allows sysadmins and other IT professionals to authenticate users, authorize their access to particular resources on the network, and audit those access privileges when necessary.
Another crucial IAM element is access control tools, which allow IT professionals to enforce access policies. While some organizations might opt for the highly centralized authority offered by mandatory access control (MAC), for instance, others might choose to give their users a little more freedom with discretionary access control (DAC), where owners of resources on the network can determine who gets access to a particular file, application, or other asset.
Organizations with hybrid environments (i.e., lots of remote workers handling digital assets across multiple cloud services and on-premises installations) may consider identity fabric, a framework that seeks to weave together IAM infrastructure into a cohesive whole. This can give IT pros greater visibility into their network and the users relying on it.
