Banks must already satisfy many regulatory requirements with regards to the privacy and security of customer data. Such regulatory compliance is only set to become ever more stringent with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation having been put into effect. It is with no doubt for good reasons that these regulations have been in place across various industries and markets. Banks are the trusted keepers of sensitive and confidential information given by the customers. Furthermore, as cybercriminals and hackers look towards getting their hands on such valuable information, banks are the institutions standing in their way against those who wish to steal data to make a huge profit.
Identity and access management (IAM) is a key element of any bank’s strategy in protecting and securing customer data and privacy. Using this IT security software, the IT administrators of banks will be able to centralise authentication and access control points in the digital environment. IAM also helps to mitigate the security risks and effects of breaches as well as assisting them in the swift recovery from any insider attacks.
What is Identity and Access Management?
Banks should essentially run their operations on the principle of least privilege, which is to say, the access rights for users (namely employees and business units) should be the bare minimum of permissions that is required for them to perform their job scope efficiently. IAM enables banks to monitor and regulate these access privileges.
IAM solutions include several critical elements, including multifactor authentication, single sign on (SSO), password management and provisioning, and maintenance of a privileged identity. With a modern and robust IAM solution in place, banks will be empowered in the fight to reduce security breaches and decreasing the attack surface. By letting banks consolidate the identities of customers and employees, deliver least-privilege omnichannel access, and controlling shared accounts, a good IAM solution will be able to achieve secured remote access and have all privileged sessions audited.
What are the benefits of Identity and Access Management?
Having an IAM solution up and running on the grounds essentially allow banks to create security zones that can shut down attacks. Often times, breaches and compromising of security happens as a result of privilege escalation which is when the attacker makes use of bugs to gain elevated access to critical networks and systems, all through using a user account with low level privileges. This step up to a higher level of access privilege is what allowed the attackers to fly under the radar of existing security controls and take over the IT environment.
Through modern IAM, security zones can be instituted by banking companies which will limit how much access a user account can have between various systems and applications. By limiting the privileged access of a user account and with an IAM solution running in the background, the attacker has only a limited set of commands to execute. Furthermore, IAM solutions enhance investigation and recovery against insider attackers by providing session auditing and assisting forensics investigations. With numerous security solutions to consider, banks should make IAM their number one priority.