Identity Governance and Administration (IGA): The linchpin of your cyber security strategy

Managing user identities and access rights is one of the biggest challenges facing organizations. With ever-increasing cyber threats and the need to protect sensitive data and critical systems, this is a top priority across all industries - be it healthcare, manufacturing or critical infrastructure. This is where Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) comes into play. It is a key concept that is of great importance to both experienced IT professionals and those dealing with IT security issues for the first time.

IGA allows you to keep track of who has access to which company resources and why. At its core, it is about ensuring that the right people - or systems - have access to the right information and applications at the right time and with the right permissions. It combines the strategic supervision of access rights, i.e. governance, with the operational tasks of identity and authorization management. With IGA, you create the basis for a secure and compliant IT environment.

A. What is Identity Governance and Administration (IGA)?

At its core, IGA is about answering the critical question: Who has access to what information and systems – and why? It ensures that the right people (or automated systems and applications) have exactly the access rights they need to do their jobs, at the right time and with the appropriate level of authorisation.

IGA includes two key areas:

1. Governance which focuses on oversight and compliance. It includes:

   • Reviewing access rights regularly
   • Enforcing security policies
   • Meeting legal and regulatory requirements
   • Tracking who has access to what

2. Administration which handles day-to-day identity management. It includes:

   • Creating user accounts
   • Assigning permissions
   • Updating access when job roles change
   • Removing accounts when users leave

B. How Identity Governance and Administration works 

IGA is an ongoing process, not a one-time project. Access rights must be reviewed and updated regularly. The process usually includes the following steps:

1. Identity Management: Organizations collect and manage all digital identities in one place. These identities can include:
   • Employees
   • Contractors
   • Partners
   • Applications
   • Devices
   • Services
2. Role and Policy Assignment: Users are assigned roles based on their responsibilities. Each role has predefined access permissions. This helps prevent users from receiving unnecessary access.
3. Provisioning and Deprovisioning: When a new employee joins the company, IGA automatically grants the required access. When someone changes roles or leaves the company, IGA updates or removes access rights. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access.
4. Access Reviews: Managers and system owners regularly review access permissions. This confirms that users still need their assigned access. Regular reviews also help prevent access creep, where users collect extra permissions over time.
5. Auditing and Reporting: IGA records and tracks access-related activities. This helps organizations:
   • Meet compliance requirements
   • Detect suspicious behaviour
   • Investigate security incidents
   • Create audit reports
6. Access Requests and Approvals: Many IGA platforms include self-service portals. Users can request access through these portals. The request then follows an approval process before access is granted.

C. Why organizations need Identity Governance and Administration?

Whether you need to protect sensitive patient data in healthcare, optimize complex manufacturing processes or ensure the integrity of critical infrastructure: IGA is the key to overcoming a wide range of challenges. Its importance can be seen from several perspectives:

1. Increased security: IGA reduces the attack surface by ensuring that users are only granted the minimum necessary access rights (least privilege principle). 

2. Compliance and auditability: Many laws, regulations, and standards require organizations to track and control access rights. IGA provides the records and reports needed for audits and compliance checks.

3. Increased efficiency: The automation of access management processes reduces the workload of the IT department. 

4. Risk minimization: By continuously monitoring and reviewing access rights, IGA helps to minimize the risk of insider threats and unauthorized data access.

5. Improved user experience: Self-service portals and automated workflows speed up access requests and approvals. Users can get the access they need with fewer delays.
   
   

D. Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) features

An effective identity governance and administration system is far more than just a collection of individual tools; it is an integrated platform that provides a variety of functionalities to handle the complexity of identity and access management. 

Let's break down the core features that characterize a robust IGA system:

• Centralized identity management: a single source of truth for all user identities and their attributes.

• Role-based access management (RBAC): Assignment of access rights based on user roles, simplifying management.

• Policy-based orchestration: Automation of provisioning and deprovisioning processes based on predefined policies.

• Access certification and recertification: Regular review and confirmation of access rights by responsible persons.

• Audit and reporting functions: Comprehensive logging of all access activities for compliance and forensic purposes.

• Risk-based analysis: Identification and assessment of access risks to proactively close security gaps.

• Separation of Duties (SoD): Prevent role conflicts where a single user has too many permissions to avoid fraud or errors.

• Self-service access requests: User-friendly portals for requesting and approving access rights.
  
  

E. IGA vs. Identity and Access Management (IAM) - What's the difference?

The terms Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) and Identity and Access Management (IAM) are often used interchangeably, but there is an important difference. 

• IAM includes aspects such as authentication (who are you?), authorization (what are you allowed to access?) and user management.

   

• While IAM provides the infrastructure and basic mechanisms for managing identities and access rights, IGA adds a layer of control, monitoring and compliance.

You could say: IAM enables access, IGA ensures that access is appropriate, compliant and secure. IGA forms the bridge between IT security and business requirements.

E. The benefits of Identity Governance and Administration

The decision to implement Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) in your organization is a strategic investment that goes far beyond mere compliance. It transforms the way you handle digital identities and access rights and adds value in several key areas of your operations.

Let's take a closer look at the most important of these benefits:

• Improved compliance: meeting regulatory requirements and industry standards through comprehensive audit trails and traceable access controls.

• Reduced operational costs: Automation reduces manual tasks and errors, leading to efficiency gains and cost savings.

• Stronger security posture: Minimize risk through least privilege, effective onboarding/offboarding and continuous review of permissions.

• Faster incident response: Detailed logging and reporting enable rapid detection and response to security incidents.

• Greater transparency: A clear overview of who has access to which resources and why.

Digital identities are at the center of modern business operations. Because of this, Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) has become a key part of cybersecurity.

IGA helps organizations control access, reduce risk, improve compliance, and increase operational efficiency. It provides visibility into who has access to critical systems and data while helping ensure that permissions remain appropriate over time.

For deeper insights into related topics that are crucial to comprehensively securing your access management, we recommend our other articles. 

While robust identity and access management (IAM) is the foundation of your digital security, effectively controlling which applications are allowed to run on your systems is a crucial addition. This is where DriveLock comes in, offering powerful application control that can be seamlessly integrated into your IAM strategy.

DriveLock gives you full control over software executions through the use of whitelists, blacklists or an intelligent combination of both, minimizing the maintenance of your lists. DriveLock enables centralized detection of potential executions in "audit only" mode.