The rise of cloud computing shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, according to Gartner the public cloud service market is projected to reach $266 billion by 2023. But what does this mean for security and how can organizations go about meeting the challenges that come with digital transformation?

In a recent blog, we defined Identity and Access Management. Now, we’d like to go into more detail on why identity and access management has become such a challenge, why ‘identity’ has become so important, and what you need to consider when addressing identity and access management in your company.

Identity & Access Management | A Growing Challenge

In our increasingly cloud-based, mobile world, traditional identity and access solutions can't keep pace. Essentially, we’re experiencing an identity crisis. We need the best solutions and technology right now. We need to connect with customers, partners and co-workers in an instant. We need to access sensitive data on the fly. And we need to do it all in a secure manner. What's fueling this identity crisis? We believe its being fueled by 3 major trends:

1. The sheer scale and types of cloud deployments.
2. The change in how we conduct business
3. The increased frequency of identity-based cyber attacks.
   

The sheer scale of cloud deployments
First, let’s start with scale. According to ComputerWorld, more than 80% of organizations are predicted to migrate toward the cloud, hosting, and colocation services by 2025. This will result in a massive increase in the number of users, apps and devices. Not only are companies having to worry about securing corporate devices, but now they have to worry about securing what they don’t own, manage, or control.

Think about it this way. A few years ago, remote access was offered to a limited number of employees, using a corporate laptop, over a VPN that connected you to a specific number of internal applications like email and sales force automation.

Today, we have entire work forces using their own laptops and smartphones, accessing applications in the cloud, over untrustworthy networks. We used to describe the disappearing perimeter as a security concern, but today we have no boundaries. They’ve been turned upside down, yet the pressure to secure the environment remains the same (or maybe even stricter).

A change in how we conduct business
A second trend that has brought about identity challenges is the tendency for companies to take advantage of technology advances by building new applications and using data to make decisions and aggregate data to create new value. Companies are employing extended work forces, while assembling partner and supplier relationships as needed. The result? An increasing strain on our ability to adequately secure the interactions between people and information.

The increased frequency of identity-based cyber attacks
The third trend is the forever changing threat landscape, which has resulted in rivals that are more daunting than ever, and who can’t be stopped with typical tools and methods.

A decade ago, most cyber security strategies were focused on securing data against direct intrusion and theft attempts. Today, 94% of organizations have suffered an identity-related breach at some point and 66% say phishing attacks constitute the most common attack vector for identity-related breaches.

Improving  Identity Management
Given these trends, its no surprise that Identity and Access Management has become a huge challenge. But, what can you do to make sure you have the right tools, policies and procedures in place? A good starting place is to consider the following.

• Scaling Single Sign On. Single Sign On makes it easy for businesses to scale upward by supporting cloud applications and lowering IT costs. Automated credentials take the pressure off IT desks and systems administrators, who would otherwise spend countless hours handling regular service requests pertaining to login information and authentication.
  
  
• Centralizing Identity & Access Management. As cloud systems become more diverse and fragmented, the value of bringing all your Identity and Access Management functionality into one place is only growing. Consider centralizing your identity and access management technologies with a vendor like Microsoft.
  
  
• Scaling Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). In addition to centralizing Single Sign On systems, companies may want to scale their MFA capabilities. MFA adds another layer of security on top of firewalls and malware protection. It’s like adding an extra password on top of your current password, though only you can enter it.

What kind of security policies does your Company have in place? Sign up for our Security Workshop to see how protected your environment is. 

Sources | https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-11-13-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-revenue-to-grow-17-percent-in-2020
https://hostingtribunal.com/blog/cloud-computing-trends/#gref
https://solutionsreview.com/identity-management/by-the-numbers-enterprise-identity-security-2020/#:~:text=From%20the%20Simeio%20Solutions%202020,22%20percent%20disrupted%20business%20activities.