The Crucial Role of Identity and Access Management in Small Business

Is Access Management Relevant for SMBs?

Let’s explain the importance of privileged access management for your business with a simple example.

Suppose a software developer, let’s call him Drake Ramoray, joined a company. While working with the company, Drake performed exceptionally well and was promoted to be the senior software developer. His job role allowed him complete access to the source code, database, cloud servers, and CI/CD pipelines.

Then, Drake upskilled himself further and became the Product Manager. He no longer works in the tech department.

But here’s the issue — he has moved departments and is now in the product team, but he still has access to apps and cloud-based servers with tech data from when he was a senior software developer with the company.

Can you imagine what would happen if, one day, Drake’s system falls victim to a cyberattack?

If phishers are able to barge inside his system, the company will suffer substantial losses! Not only will the attackers get their hands on data about the product, but the tech data Drake had access to will be stolen too!

If only this company had practiced access management, Drake wouldn’t have had access to information no longer relevant to his department and designation. While there’s no 100% guarantee that he wouldn’t have fallen prey to phishers, what’s certain is that the damage would have been a lot less severe.

And this is why identity access management is essential for SMBs. You might not realize, but your company could be loaded with many Drakes’ you do not even know of!

When SMBs implement the different types of access management controls, they’re safeguarding their business from phishers who are always on the lookout to hack systems and extort hefty ransoms!

Access Management Techniques for SMBs

There are different access management techniques, each catering to a different problem in cybersecurity. Such a variety bamboozles businesses, and companies fail to determine which ones are relevant to them. And if they choose wrong, they are most likely to lose to cyber criminals!

If you’ve been meaning to implement access control in your company too and feel confused, look no further. We have you covered!

Here are the five access management techniques that you must implement.

Identity Verification

Before authorization comes authentication, where the identity of the users is verified. It is essential to identify users to ensure they are who they claim to be.

Alongside software and data protection, identity verification is also responsible for protecting the hardware since that’s where all the data is. The hardware includes storage devices, servers, and networks. If this is left unchecked, the chances of ransomware attacks on organizations increase.

One of the biggest benefits of identity verification in privileged access management is that prompt alerts are raised if unauthorized people try to access the data/devices.

Role-based Access Control

The IBM and the Ponemon Institute conducted a joint study on data breaches in 2021. According to their report, every data breach can cost a company a whopping $4 million.

We can’t insist more on why practicing access management in your company is important.

As already discussed, the first step is identifying that the user is who they claim to be.

But the more significant challenge is, after you’ve verified who they are, how do you decide what level of access they get? After all, providing the same level of access to a QA tester that the VP of engineering has does not make sense — it’s risky. And this is where Role-based access control comes into the picture.

Role-based access control focuses on controlling the access level of users. They get access to data not only based on the department they belong to but also their job role.

An organization should practice these 4 types of role-based access controls.

Flat RBAC

Different roles are made within a department. Then, every team member is assigned at least one role. In this way, whenever an employee needs more access or the access of an employee has to be reduced, it can be done quickly.

Hierarchical RBAC

Employees have access to all information below their seniority level and no access to information higher than their seniority — the access rights change based on the promotion or demotion of the employee.

Constrained RBAC

This particular type is recommended for extremely sensitive job profiles within the company. The roles are branched out into duties. As a result, members of the team have even fewer access rights.

When implemented, this role-based access control dramatically reduces the damage extent in case a malware attack occurs.

Symmetrical RBAC

Although the access permissions are assigned based on the employee’s role, those rights are monitored extremely closely. This ensures that authentication permissions do not accumulate.

Here are the most important benefits of implementing role-based access control in access management —

1. It’s a great practice to eliminate insider threats. When access to sensitive information is heavily restricted, phishers and hackers have fewer entry points. Even if hackers find their way inside a system, the information they can access will be minimal. Hence, the damage is very, very less likely to lead to bankruptcy
2. It makes the life of admins very easy. They can track the life cycle of the user and grant or revoke access privileges as the role of the employee changes in the company

Single Sign-on (SSO)

SSO stands for Single Sign-on. This method of managing access at workplaces has emerged as a pivotal innovation, addressing the dual challenge of password fatigue and security concerns in organizational environments.

SSO’s purpose is to simplify users’ lives by simplifying the authentication process. It allows employees to access multiple systems within a network through a single authentication point. As a result, the workflow becomes streamlined.

There’s one single authentication server in SSO. All that users have to do is get their credentials verified on the server once.

Traditionally, each application or system required separate login credentials — a cumbersome process prone to security vulnerabilities. SSO revolutionized this issue by centralizing authentication.

Here’s how it works:

• When an employee first logs into the network, their credentials are verified by a primary authentication server
• Subsequently, access to other systems or applications is granted based on predefined access control policies, eliminating the need for repeated logins

Let’s clarify further with a real-life example!

When you log on to any single Google service, say Gmail, you are automatically able to access all other accounts/apps/services provided by Google — YouTube, Adsense, Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and so on. That’s the beauty of SSO!

Implementing SSO is not just a matter of convenience but a strategic decision for businesses. It facilitates secure and efficient access management, especially vital in environments where remote access, cloud-based deployments, and on-premises data centers are prevalent.

Here are a few benefits of implementing SSO –

• It simplifies password management by reducing the number of credentials employees must remember
• It significantly improves password security

Multi-factor Authentication (MFA)

MFA or multi factor authentication is an access management technique where sensitive data is put behind multiple security layers. It’s one of the most modern and effective data protection methods that makes life easy for SMBs.

Users must clear every authentication layer every single time if they want to access the data. And bypassing these layers is no joke!

To better understand MFA, imagine walking into a high-security building –

• The first checkpoint asks for your ID card — something you have
• Then, you’re asked for a passphrase — something you know
• Finally, you’re verified through a biometric scanner — something you are

This is exactly what MFA is — three (or more) layered defenses that safeguard sensitive information. It’s a strategy that combines multiple credentials to verify a user’s identity for a login or other transaction.

Let’s now explore all three layers of MFA in detail!

Knowledge-based factor authentication — something you have

This includes PINs, OTPs, or answers to personal security questions like the name of your first pet, your best friend from high school, etc.

Possession-based factor authentication — something you know

It’s a possession token to verify that users are who they claim to be.

When trying to access hardware devices with data, possession factor examples include a badge, a smart card, or an embedded chip.

When trying to access software apps, single-use OTP pins and time-sensitive access codes are used for verification.

Inherence-based factor authentication — something you are

It includes biometric identification, which could be a retinal scan, a facial scan, voice recognition, a fingerprint, or even a vein scan. Unless verified, users can’t log in!

Let’s now give you a real-life MFA example: the Google Authenticator App

Google Authenticator App generates an access code. Suppose you have to sign in to the AWS server where all databases are stored. Here’s how MFA in AWS would function:

• Open the Authenticator App on the registered device
• A time-sensitive access code will be generated
• When you try to log in to the AWS server by entering your username and password in the browser, the AWS server will begin authenticating the access code that the Authenticator App generated
• Since the code is time-sensitive, you will be able to bypass this step only within 30 seconds of the code generation
• If, for any reason, time exceeds 30 seconds, even by a mili-second, you will not be able to clear this step
• If the AWS server can auto-verify the access code within 30 seconds, you will have to clear one more identification step, which could be your biometrics. It could be a fingerprint, a retinal scan, or voice recognition, etc

If you lose the registered device, you can still re-enter the server. The first time you register a device, a key is generated. You can use this key at any point in time to re-register.

Also, a stolen registered device is insufficient for a security breach into the AWS server because it’s not just the Authenticator App’s code needed to get access – the username and password have to match, and the biometric has to match too!

Bypassing these many security checkposts in MFA is extremely time-consuming and too challenging for hackers. When you have multi-factor authentication guarding your apps/servers, hackers will most likely – 90 times out of 100 – drop the idea of trying to bypass MFA. Instead, they will look for other easy targets.

Access Reviews and Audits

In a chilling incident at Block — the parent company of the Cash App — a begrudged employee who was sacked in December 2022 leaked the data of about 8.2 million app users.

The employee who still had access to all sensitive user information after his termination — full names, brokerage account numbers, and the stock trading activity log — downloaded all the information and later leaked it!

Block’s failure to identify this breach and the fact that they did not implement Access Reviews and Audits led to a class action filing against Cash App.

The breach could have been prevented if the company had practiced access reviews and audits.

Access reviews and audits are those safety nets where all users’ access and authorization rights are periodically monitored to detect and remove anomalies like those at Block.