Identity Management

Authentication, Authorization, & Accounting

PETRO IAM SOLUTIONS

The AAA framework is the logic behind identity management systems. AAA stands for authentication, authorization and accounting.

In the current market, traditional IT cybersecurity countermeasures are not sufficient to protect against attacks. In some cases, countermeasures can trigger network compromises, denial of services and security breaches. 

Cybersecurity risks are created in a multitude of ways, but some of the most common risks are introduced by:

  • Personnel, disgruntled employees, contractors and insiders who seek to damage systems and steal intellectual property

  • Professional cyber thieves who steal and sell information

  • Adversarial nations or groups who use the Internet for cyber warfare, IP theft and civil disobedience

Insiders pose a serious threat because they often already have access to the system and sometimes possess legitimate reasons to misuse computer systems, extend their privileges, and impersonate other users. Outsiders can use the Internet, remote access, and partner network tunnels to penetrate your network and even you facilities. Attackers exploit any and all vulnerabilities by using a variety of techniques and tools to probe networks, publicize targets, stifle operations, gain business advantage and promote causes.

Petro Cybersecurity identity management offers comprehensive IT risk management software and services that protect employees, companies, shareholders, customers and vendors. Our team has experience in many environments, including Windows, Macs, Android, iOS, and Linux and can provide an Identification and Authentication framework to make your system compliant.

Identity and Access Management (IAM) ensures the right users get the authorized access to critical systems and assets of the organization. It offers properly authenticated, authorized, and audited access privileges, with the provision of singular digital identity for every individual, who use this identity for managing multiple accounts. It also helps avoid potential threats from transforming into catastrophic events.

SOLUTIONS

AAA

Federated Identity

SSO

SAML

Oauth

OpenID

Kerberos

Active Directory

OpenLDAP

Biometrics

Multi-Factor Authentication

Context-Aware Authentication

Smartcards

Tokens

THE IMPORTANCE OF IAM IN CYBERSECURITY

  • The pure identity function is about creating, managing, and deleting the identified users to change the status of their access privileges. A ‘pure identity’ is represented by a set of axioms in a given namespace, which is generally associated with real-world entities.

  • The User Access Function permits users to assume a digital identity and to communicate with all the access controls. By using a single digital identity across different platforms streamlines the administrator’s workload. This simplifies the ability to monitor, verify, and manage the access of clients.

  • As companies add new services for internal and external users, the need for identity management becomes critical. Identity management has been separated from application functions. This separation helps in monitoring/managing a single digital identity of a person. This can then be associated with his/her different activities. IAM is also evolving to control device access.

  • Under this arrangement, one or more systems combine to form a single centralized system. This system then permits users to log in after authenticating it against the participating systems. This configuration is based on trust among all the participating systems. This configuration is often known as the “Circle of Trust.” Identity federation has two dedicated systems – Identity Provider (IdP) and Service Provider (SP). When users request access to services, IdP first authenticates users to permit use of services controlled by the SP. For that, a secure assertion, SAML assertions, is sent from IdP to SP. This statement verifies if users are reliable or not.

Key Benefits of Identity and Access Management in Cybersecurity 

The four primary functions of identity and access management are the basis of how IAM can benefit an organization.

How Can IAM Prevent a Cyber Attack?

Automating the access privilege provision
Every new employee needs to be assigned privileges based on their roles and business rules. You can automate this process workflow. This automation for every employee resignation or termination, ensure that all the privileges will be taken away automatically. This practice will limit and prevent unnecessary privileges. 

Privileged Account Controls
State-sponsored and organized attacks target the most privileged accounts of an organization. Once these accounts get compromised, it escalates the opportunities for a massive security breach. Phishing attacks and social engineering are some common methods of deceiving privileged users into sharing their access passwords. These attacks can remain undetected for a long time. A robust set of controls on these accounts can help in deter the compromise of privileged accounts. 

Frequent Change in Passwords
Company staff should be asked to frequently change their passwords. This should be made compulsory for privilege account holders and administrators. This frequent change of passwords protects a company from undetected breaches. 

Strong Password Policy
By increasing the complexity of a password, a company can improve its breach ability. Companies can prevent the use of weak passwords by enforcing mandatory use of special characters, numbers, capital letters, etc. These practices can help prevent a brute-force attack. 

Use of Multi-Factor Authentication
By adding an additional layer in security precautions, makes a cybercriminal’s job difficult. Using One Time Password (OTP), token, and smart card for multi-factor authentication reinforces the security infrastructure.  

Rotation of Encryption Keys
By rotating encryption keys for databases can lessen the risk of identity theft. DevilDog recommends this practice whenever a breach is suspected. The rotation of encryption keys should be scheduled regularly. 

Removal of Orphan Accounts
Any inactive/unmanaged accounts are a potential threat. By deleting/removing these accounts from the servers will help prevent a cyber-attack. Idle accounts and servers can be used for fraudulent activities. Scheduling a routine scan with a report for identifying inactive accounts will help in mitigate this risk.