Protecting users’ identities and securing the value chain – the importance of IAM in decentralized organizations
Over the last decade, organizations have been decentralizing and outsourcing non-core functions to suppliers, factories, warehouses, transporters, and other stakeholders in the value chain, making it more complex and vulnerable. This is most notable in global manufacturing and retail, where decentralization is crucial to introduce efficiency, lower costs, and decrease supply chain disruption risks.
These companies are pursuing multiple strategies to maximize the value of the various functions across multiple external businesses. Each resource access can grant bridges to several security domains, making it a potential entry point for unauthorized users. This can lead to malicious intent or accidental information access by unknowing users.
As digital transformation continues to change how we interact with businesses and other users, the risk of identity data being exposed in breaches has increased, causing damage to people’s social, professional, and financial lives. What are your beliefs about protecting users’ identities?
In our opinion, every individual has the right to own and control their identity securely, with elements of their digital identity stored in a way that preserves privacy.
Organizations must have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy to protect the value chain from security risks. A robust strategy involves a multi-layered approach that includes network segmentation, data encryption, secure access controls, and continuous monitoring to identify potential security breaches.
It’s also crucial to implement policies for data access and management across the value chain to control who has access to sensitive information and how it’s used. As organizations continue to decentralize and outsource non-core functions to suppliers, it’s essential to establish trust between partners and have transparency in data management to ensure data security and privacy.
Therefore, data protection and access control are essential for organizations to maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their digital assets. IAM is a critical component of modern cybersecurity, encompassing a range of technologies and processes that enable organizations to control user access to applications, systems, and data.
IAM is crucial to maintaining the security of an enterprise’s digital assets, including confidential data, applications, and systems. By implementing IAM, organizations can ensure that only authorized individuals can access sensitive information, reducing the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks. IAM also provides an efficient way to manage user accounts, credentials, and permissions, making adding or removing users as necessary easier.
IAM is a crucial technology framework that enables organizations to ensure that their resources are only accessed by authorized individuals. The framework includes two main functions: authentication and authorization. In the next section, we will discuss how IAM solutions can help organizations reduce security risks and protect their sensitive data from unauthorized access and data breaches.