Identity and Access Management—A Key to Modern Work and Secure Productivity
According to research from Zippia, 27% of U.S. employees work remotely, as of 2023. But that isn’t the full picture. 66% of U.S. employees work remotely, at least part-time. With up to 92% of employees working at least one day per week remotely, the average U.S. worker works 5.8 remote workdays per month. How, where and when we work has dramatically changed over the last 4 or 5 years.
Securing the remote work force is a reality for most IT departments.
Identity and Access Management is a tool that most organizations deploy.
People often think that IAM is a single tool but Identity and Access Management (IAM) is actually a framework of policies, business processes, and tools used to regulate and facilitate the appropriate access to a company’s resources. In other words, IAM is all about ensuring that the right individuals have access to the right data at the right time and for the right reasons
Microsoft has been in lockstep with the changing work landscape by providing tools for secure productivity in the evolving modern workplace.
In August 2023, the Microsoft Entra ID name replaced the Azure AD name across Microsoft product experiences including the newly upgraded Microsoft Entra admin center, Azure portal, Microsoft 365 admin center, and other Microsoft commercial products, documentation, learning content, and websites. The name changed, but the capabilities, licensing, and pricing remain the same.
Azure Active Directory is a directory service that was built by Microsoft in 2000 and released with Windows 2000 Server edition. Azure AD has been a mainstay for many years and for many of us in IT that “grew up” using it at work.
Sitting down with Jason Stuhre, a Microsoft Entra ID Support Engineer, gave me a bit of insight. Jason works with military and government based customers. Given his client base, its beyond critical to ensure that the right individuals with the appropriate amount of access at the right time is leveraged. Inappropriate access in this client base can cause catastrophic outcomes. Jason and I chatted about a recent Forbes article that stated that 74% Of Data Breaches start with privileged credential abuse. He shared that “We trust more than we should”. Jason believes there should be stricter guidelines, more boundaries set up, and that companies should their employees more security training.
Since AI and ML is top of mind for everyone in tech today, I asked Jason about a few trends that are happening in the IAM space, like leveraging AI and ML for better identification and security. Jason was of the thinking that given how quickly AI was being incorporated and utilized, there is a place to use the technology in conjunction with other tools like MFA or 2FA and perhaps add in facial recognition as a way to further validate identity.
We talked about other ways that IAM and AI, coupled together, could make a difference for organizations. For example, could IAM help organizations stay up to date and remain aligned with compliance like GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, etc.? Jason was of the belief that the combined efforts of Identity and Access Management and an AI solution would present the opportunity for AI to learn about the most recent and updated Rules /Laws/ Guidelines and then associate that to a tailored solution for a company keeping regulatory considerations like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX in the fold. Jason also shared Identity and Access management best practices and procedures can create employee and organizational awareness.
It’s fair to say that in the security world, the only constant is change. Look for Microsoft to continue to enable that change securely as tools like Entra continue to evolve.
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