Concepts of IAM
The following are some of the basic concepts involved in an IAM system.
Entity
This is the simplest concept to understand – an entity can be a user, an administrator, or even a system. On its own, it's just a cog in a system with no authority or access (assuming that you are following the Principle of Least Privilege and have given no access by default).
For an entity to be able to access the network/application, it must be given an identity.
Identity
This is where people get confused – an identity is separate from an entity. An identity is a group of entities that all have the same privileges. Recall the concepts of messages and topics from the previous chapter; this is comparable to that. Just as messages are categorized into topics based on similar characteristics, entities are given identities.
Permissions
Permissions (such as read and write) are a part of the identity rather than a standalone concept in IAM. This means...