Recommendations

Solutions to Common AM Problems

Problem

Solution

Finding the best AM solution for our organization

Leverage a structured approach. Methodically assessing a variety of use cases and their respective requirements enables you to identify what your organization needs from an AM solution. This process should account for data, applications, and assets you need to protect and support with the AM solution and endpoint architectures for external authentication and authorization. Ensure interoperability between the AM solution and other business and IT solutions. Pinpointing your organization’s strengths and weaknesses will also help you find a solution that complements your security team.

Defining required access permissions for each role

Leverage top-down role engineering. This method helps to ensure that you have well-defined roles and do not violate the principle of least privilege. This method starts with creating roles based on employee tasks. IT teams then identify the permissions required to carry out those tasks.

Discovering and managing every SaaS application used in our environment

Consider leveraging an SaaS management tool. SaaS management tools enable discovery and governance across all SaaS applications. These solutions offer a central point for implementing application and data protection across your organization’s respective SaaS portfolio.

Problem

Solution

Spending too much time searching for solutions

Seek advice from an integrator or consultant. Many organizations maintain vendor relationships and partiality toward specific product suites. While this preferential treatment can aid in integration, approaching an AM project with a wide-angle lens can enable a more agile solution for your environment. Seeking the help of an experienced consultant or integrator before selecting an AM solution can prove invaluable for identifying solutions that specifically fit your needs. 

Justifying the ROI

Analyze a variety of use cases. Many conventional, in-house AM systems fall short of expectations, leaving you with a variety of tools and technologies that no one likes. Evaluate the AM needs of your organization by mapping internal drivers and use cases to external trends like convergence of IAM features, SaaS adoption, passwordless authentication, and adaptive access to help identify opportunities for program maturity and cost optimization.

Selling stakeholders on change

Obtain stakeholder buy-in. Identifying stakeholders and obtaining their buy-in is imperative throughout any kind of transformation process, including an AM project. Conduct stakeholder interviews, write and distribute a project charter, and hold a project kick-off meeting to secure essential buy-in.

Problem

Solution

Employees keeping up with or reusing their passwords

End “user password access management.” In a perfect world, we would see more organizations implementing TPM and biometrics to enable passwordless environments. For now, however, many end users must manage dozens of passwords, which is often slow, ineffective, and cumbersome. When assessing a potential AM solution, the use of a password vault can help securely manage passwords and reduce password reusage between systems and work or personal accounts.

Administrators not using proper account hygiene

Implement “privileged account management.” Understanding where and how administrators leverage their credentials and ensuring that they have separate accounts for their “user” accounts versus their “admin” accounts can reduce risk and human error. Additionally, features like session recording and auditing can help enforce the concept of least privilege and provide auditing to reduce the threat of insider attacks. Identifying anomalies in privileged accounts also helps organizations identify fraudulent behaviors. The ability to detect unauthorized privileged account creation can identify or halt attackers attempting to move laterally through systems.