All-In-One Identity Management and Cloud Security

ServiceNow is a powerful platform for IT service management (ITSM) and enterprise service management (ESM), helping organizations streamline their business processes, automate workflows, and provide efficient services to employees and customers. But what if you could take your ServiceNow experience to the next level by integrating it with Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities?

For ServiceNow experts seeking to enhance their service management capabilities while addressing the complexities of Identity and Access Management (IAM), the integration of EmpowerID with ServiceNow offers a powerful best-of-breed solution, bridging the gap between IAM and service management. Let's delve into the key aspects of how EmpowerID enhances your ServiceNow experience.

Identity Lifecycle for ServiceNow

The EmpowerID Identity Lifecycle for ServiceNow automates account provisioning and access assignments, making it a game-changer for organizations. By implementing policy-based "Compliant Access," one can effectively eliminate security challenges and human errors commonly associated with manual user creation and access assignment within ServiceNow.

One significant advantage is the ability to detect changes originating from your HR system, which trigger manual lifecycle events. EmpowerID can efficiently handles these changes, automating the provisioning and deprovisioning of user accounts across various environments and tenants. During the deprovisioning process, it ensures a graceful handover of responsibilities and the transfer of data ownership, all in adherence to your pre-defined business policies.

ServiceCatalog and ServiceDesk Enhancements

EmpowerID’s integration with the ServiceNow service desk allows the identity management tasks and self-service actions performed or initiated within EmpowerID to be integrated with the ServiceNow ticket tracking system. This ensures that all requests have a ticket in ServiceNow. Approvals can optionally be performed in ServiceNow, but the actions that happen in EmpowerID keep you updated, ensuring that you never lose visibility of what's happening in your EmpowerID system. Tickets reflect all those changes within ServiceNow.

Integrating with the ServiceCatalog further allows access requests initiated from within the ServiceNow interface to be fulfilled by EmpowerID. EmpowerID has numerous IT connectors, extending the reach of ServiceNow requests to allow them to be fully automated with fulfillment.

Zero Trust Delegated Administration for ServiceNow

The concept of Zero Trust is a cornerstone of modern security strategies. However, out-of-the-box, ServiceNow's security model do not align with the principles of Zero Trust, as it involves granting users permanent unproxied access to systems. Permanent privileged access is challenging to monitor and may expose organizations to security risks.

This is where EmpowerID's unique approach shines. EmpowerID overlays a unified security model on top of native applications or systems, such as ServiceNow. This overlay effectively integrates EmpowerID's granular security model with the native system, allowing for fine-grained delegated administrative privileges. In essence, EmpowerID transforms ServiceNow into a Zero Trust-capable system.

With EmpowerID, granular administrative control can be delegated to users within specific business units or partner organizations. This level of fine-grained delegation supports even the most complex global organizations and multitenancy scenarios, all without the need to grant native administrative privileges.

ServiceNow Compliance and Recertification

EmpowerID brings granularity, control, and functionality to ServiceNow, simplifying the audit process and compliance management. Auditing ServiceNow environments can be challenging, particularly in proving who has access to specific applications and roles.

EmpowerID solves this by maintaining an up-to-date audit and providing complete control over access across all your ServiceNow tenants. This transparency streamlines the certification process and almost automatically produces the necessary proof for audits.

EmpowerID also includes built-in attestation policies that allow for rapid periodic recertification of ServiceNow group and role assignments, eliminating the hassle of auditing this critical infrastructure. The categorization of external users and risk-based Separation of Duties policies further enhance the compliance and governance capabilities within ServiceNow.

Orchestration Pack – Entitlement Sync and Workflows

The Orchestration Pack for ServiceNow empowers process designers to leverage EmpowerID capabilities within their ServiceNow business processes. This pack introduces workflow activities, web services, and example workflows, offering unparalleled flexibility.

For example, it includes a job that synchronizes and maintains an up-to-date list of requestable groups and roles from the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse to custom tables in your ServiceNow tenants. These workflow activities permit users to request access to entitlements in any EmpowerID-connected system directly from the ServiceNow Service Catalog.

 

 

Notably, example workflows are fully customizable, with no restrictions on modifications. This flexibility allows ServiceNow process designers to incorporate these workflows into existing and future workflows, tailoring them to specific organizational needs.

AI-Powered Chat Bot Virtual Assistant

EmpowerID's AI-powered chat bot virtual assistant empowers users to perform self-service automation across various routine tasks, including password resets and unlocks. The chat bot offers users the convenience of self-service automation through their preferred communication channels, such as SMS, Teams, web, mobile, and the ServiceNow portal.

Behind the scenes, the chat bot interacts with EmpowerID's visually designed workflows to securely automate Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) processes that interact with both Cloud and on-premise applications and systems. Users can perform tasks like password resets, application and group access requests, SAP role access requests, privileged credential management, mobile login to SSO applications, and more, streamlining routine tasks and improving user productivity.

 

Key Capabilities of EmpowerID in the ServiceNow Environment

1. Single Sign-On (SSO): EmpowerID enables seamless SSO for ServiceNow, streamlining user access with one set of credentials and enhancing security.
2. User Provisioning and Deprovisioning: EmpowerID automates user onboarding and offboarding, reducing administrative overhead during employee transitions.
3. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): EmpowerID extends granular RBAC policies to ServiceNow, ensuring users have appropriate access based on their job roles.
4. Self-Service Capabilities: EmpowerID empowers users with self-service features for actions like password resets and profile updates, reducing IT support tickets.
5. Governance and Compliance: EmpowerID offers access certification and compliance management, ensuring ServiceNow aligns with regulatory standards and internal policies.
6. Workflow Orchestration: EmpowerID's workflow engine streamlines service requests, approvals, and other processes within ServiceNow.

Enhancing IT Service Management with EmpowerID

• Efficient User Onboarding: EmpowerID's user provisioning allows new employees to access ServiceNow immediately, improving IT issue resolution.
• Service Desk Productivity: Self-service options reduce service desk tickets, enhancing productivity and allowing teams to focus on complex tasks.
• Automated Access Requests: Streamlined access request workflows enable users to request specific ServiceNow functionalities, which are automatically approved and provisioned.

Strengthening Identity and Access Management with ServiceNow

• Unified Identity Management: EmpowerID centralizes user identities within the broader IAM strategy, encompassing the entire enterprise.
• Access Governance: EmpowerID's access certification and audit capabilities apply to ServiceNow, certifying access to functions and data, bolstering security and compliance.
  
  

Conclusion

In conclusion, the EmpowerID and ServiceNow integration delivers a comprehensive solution that seamlessly combines the capabilities of IAM with service management. This integration enhances identity lifecycle management, provides Zero Trust delegated administration, simplifies compliance and recertification, and offers flexible orchestration and automation through AI-powered chat bot virtual assistants. It's a powerful tool for ServiceNow experts looking to maximize the potential of their service management platform while addressing IAM challenges.

 

Azure Active Directory (now EntraID) plays a crucial role in managing user identities and controlling access to resources. Many applications rely on Azure AD to authenticate themselves, and this often involves the use of client secrets and certificates. However, the expiration of these credentials can lead to significant operational disruptions, making it vital for organizations to monitor and manage them effectively.

The Consequences of Ignoring Expiry

Replacing a client secret or certificate is a straightforward task when performed proactively. However, the real dilemma arises when these credentials expire unexpectedly. When an application suddenly stops working, organizations must scramble to identify the root cause, leading to downtime, loss of productivity, and potential financial implications.

One would imagine that a solution to this inevitable problem should exist out of the box within Azure Application Objects, but that is not the case. This seemingly insignificant problem can cause many failed application accesses, leading to unavoidable application downtime as the sync process basically stops working and users won't be able to sign in to their applications.

The Problem of Credential Expiration

When applications use the client credential flow in Azure AD, they must present valid credentials to prove their identity when requesting access tokens. These credentials come in two forms:

1. Client Secrets: These are essentially secret strings that serve as application passwords. They are used to authenticate the application and obtain access tokens.
2. Certificates: Certificates function as cryptographic keys that verify the application's identity. They act as a form of public key authentication when requesting access tokens.

While using client secrets and certificates is essential for secure authentication, it also introduces a challenge – their expiration. When these credentials reach their expiration dates, applications face authentication failures, rendering them unable to access the resources they need. This can disrupt critical business processes and lead to frustration among users.

The Need for Proactive Monitoring

To sidestep the unwelcome consequences of credential expiration, the need for proactive monitoring of client secrets and certificates within Azure AD applications cannot be overstated. Organizations require a reliable system capable of diligently tracking the status of these credentials and notifying the relevant stakeholders well in advance of their impending expiration.

Such proactive notifications grant organizations a crucial window of opportunity. This interval allows them to take pre-emptive corrective actions, thereby safeguarding the continuity of their operations and preserving seamless functionality.

In the quest for such solutions, a journey into the labyrinth of the internet awaits. It's a landscape where countless DIY solutions emerge like chaotic fragments of a puzzle. Among these are the ingenious yet often complicated Macgyvered solutions, including the utilization of Azure Automation runbooks scripted in PowerShell to schedule scans for certificates and client secrets. While some may find these makeshift solutions intriguing, it's our firm belief that users should never find themselves dependent on such methods for managing their Certificate Renewals.

Solution: Monitoring with EmpowerID

With EmpowerID, the solution becomes as simple as a few clicks. Thanks to our library of out-of-the-box workflows, you can effortlessly trigger a No Code Workflow event. This ensures that, in the event of an impending certificate or secret expiration, you receive a timely reminder directly in your inbox.

EmpowerID's monitoring system maintains a vigilant watch over all applications, issuing timely alerts to application owners. These alerts are strategically sent out, typically 30, 14, and 7 days prior to the credentials' expiration. Notifications are conveniently delivered via email and Microsoft Teams, ensuring that application owners are promptly informed.

This proactive approach empowers organizations to stay ahead of credential expiration issues, preventing unexpected disruptions and safeguarding access to critical resources. Furthermore, EmpowerID's flexibility allows for customization, enabling organizations to tailor monitoring to their specific needs.

Taking Monitoring a Step Further

EmpowerID doesn't stop at just expiration reminders. It can also be configured to send alerts whenever a client secret or certificate is created for an app. This is critical because unauthorized application connections to your Azure AD could potentially be the first step in a security breach by an external entity. Achieving all of this with a straightforward Drag-and-Drop Workflow is a testament to the flexibility of EmpowerID's workflow engine.

Entra is the new name for Microsoft's family of identity and access technologies brought together in one place and under one portal.This marks Microsoft's foray into a full-suite Identity Management which began with the rebranding of its Azure Active Directory framework. 

However, like any other technology, it comes with its own set of limitations. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the features of EntraID while simultaneously discussing the boundaries that organizations may encounter when implementing this platform.

Features & Drawbacks of Microsoft EntraID:

1. Access Packages:

One of the core features of EntraID is its "Access Packages." These packages function as an Identity Management (IM) shopping cart, allowing organizations to bundle access rights conveniently. This feature simplifies the process of granting permissions to users, especially in large enterprises with complex access requirements. However, it's essential to recognize that the scope of EntraID's access packages is not without limitations.

Limitation: EntraID's access packages are primarily designed for use within Azure AD. While they simplify access management for Azure resources, these Access Packages are limited to just the roles and objects within your Azure Active Directory. Managing access for users with roles beyond Azure AD, such as Salesforce, SAP, or ServiceNow, is not possible within Entra.

2. Governance Capabilities:

EntraID extends Azure AD's governance capabilities, enabling organizations to define access policies, manage user lifecycles, and enforce security policies. It aims to provide a comprehensive framework for identity governance, which is crucial for compliance and risk management.

 

 

Limitation: EntraID's governance capabilities might fall short when dealing with complex multi-system environments. The platform's primary focus is on governing objects within Azure AD, limiting its effectiveness in managing access across disparate directories and systems.

3. Conditional Access and MFA:

EntraID includes robust support for Conditional Access and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). These security features play a pivotal role in protecting sensitive data and ensuring that only authorized users gain access to resources.

Limitation: While EntraID excels in securing Azure resources, it may not seamlessly integrate with all external applications and services. Organizations utilizing a diverse set of tools may face challenges in implementing uniform Conditional Access policies across their entire ecosystem.

4. Verified ID and Distributed Identity:

EntraID introduces the concept of "Verified ID," which aligns with the emerging trend of distributed identities and self-sovereign identities. This feature holds the promise of a decentralized, trust-based approach to identity management.

Limitation: The adoption of Verified ID and distributed identity models may require a shift in the way organizations approach identity. Achieving full interoperability and trust between different identity providers can be complex and time-consuming, potentially limiting the immediate practicality of this feature.

Addressing the Limitations:

While Microsoft EntraID offers a robust set of features for identity management and access control, it becomes inherently limited by its sole reliance on Azure AD as its only directory as its identity warehouse to manage all its identities (even across external systems). Thus limiting its management capabilities in various avenues.

1. Integration with External Systems: For managing access to external systems, consider using identity management solutions that offer comprehensive connectors and integration capabilities. This allows you to extend governance beyond Azure AD.

2. Recertification and Compliance: Implement a dedicated recertification solution or process to address the limitations of EntraID in recertifying access across various systems. This can help ensure compliance with security policies.

3. Hybrid Identity Management: In complex multi-cloud or multi-system environments, consider a hybrid identity management approach that combines the strengths of EntraID with other IAM solutions to bridge the gap.

4. Verified ID and Distributed Identity: Embrace the concept of verified and distributed identities gradually. Start by exploring use cases where these models align with your organization's goals and where trust relationships can be established.

Conclusion

Microsoft EntraID presents a compelling solution for identity and access management, particularly within the Azure ecosystem. Its features offer valuable tools for simplifying identity governance and enhancing security. However, organizations must be mindful of its limitations, especially when managing access to external systems and diverse environments.

While Azure AD is a single directory, EmpowerID takes a Meta-Directory approach, encompassing all objects, roles, and users from over 100 different external systems. This provides organizations with comprehensive governance, recertification, and risk management capabilities covering all aspects of identity management and extending well beyond Microsoft Entra.

 

 

In our previous article, we covered the benefits and drawbacks of different authorization models, namely:

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)
• Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC)

We summarized that each of them had its unique characteristics. However, for organizations aiming to scale and manage thousands of users, no single method covers all use cases and application technologies. This is because certain types of applications and use cases are better suited for a structured role-based approach, while others require real-time contextual decisions.

While there are overlapping qualities among these models, individually, none of them can address all the necessary aspects of access control. To meet the needs of these organizations, a combination of the benefits from all these authorization models is required to fully ensure the security requirements of enterprises from every possible angle.

This is where the need for a hybrid authorization model arises. With all these considerations, we at EmpowerID embarked on a journey to create a perfect authorization recipe – one that encompassed all aspects of authorization without the drawbacks associated with each model. The result of this endeavor is a unique hybrid approach that combines role and attribute compliance, which we aptly named "Compliant Access Delivery."

The overall goal of Compliant Access Delivery required using the best of each approach implemented following the principles of Zero Trust and Least Privilege. Based on RBAC relational modeling, it provides the backbone or
structure for defining an organization and its overall policies while leveraging the flexibility and real-time contextual nature of ABAC and PBAC to offer the most comprehensive access control solution. 

Compliant Access Delivery

“Compliant Access Delivery” is, first, the capability to map out in advance the position appropriate access for employees, partners, and customers and the risk policies that will measure and ensure continued compliance and to then monitor and enforce this compliant state through automation.

 

The natural follow-up question to this is “What makes access compliant?” Compliant access is appropriate to the person to whom it is assigned in accordance with the organizational standards and business policies to minimize risk. Compliant Access Delivery synthesizes multiple Identity and Access Management (IAM) technologies with a business modeling approach to automate and maintain each user's appropriate access to IT systems while continuously minimizing risk. 

Compliant Access is a well-defined target state against which the current state can be
measured.

The key to Compliant Access are the words “appropriate” and compliant with “business policies.” With Compliant Access, the devil is in the details, and that is where traditional solutions miss the mark. Due to its distinct language, processes, and policies, Compliant Access cannot be delivered by an IAM system that doesn't bridge the divide between the technical system and the business. With its operating procedures, industry norms, and regulatory restrictions, the business defines which jobs are appropriate, what constitutes a risk, and what is considered non-compliant. To achieve this, EmpowerID leverages both the organization’s business model and its language to enforce and provision Compliant Access across Cloud and on-premises systems.

How Does Compliant Access Leverage Your Business Model? 

Defining business-appropriate access is a challenge for IT organizations using their existing IAM systems. These systems were designed to manage only the technical aspects of access control and universally lack a conceptual “bridge” to tie the technical entitlements to the business’s operating model and the activities or “Functions” performed by its participants. 

Everything we cover in this blog can be explored further in our whitepaper “A Guide to Authorization”. You can find that whitepaper here: 

Business Processes and Functions

Businesses are composed of processes for producing and delivering goods or services. These processes involve tasks performed by internal and external participants. Each task can be divided into functions needed for its completion. For instance, creating a purchase order is a function within a purchasing process. While a purchase order is recognizable and its creation straightforward, not all employees should have this ability. During access reviews, managers can easily identify authorized users. This simplicity contrasts with technical entitlements that grant system access, often named confusingly. Functions bridge the gap between technical access and business understanding, ensuring a clear separation between business and IT.

Risk Policies

Compliant Access must be "appropriate" and align with an organization's "business policies." These policies are specific to the organization and cater to its operations, industry, processes, and regulations. Notably, these policies are distinct from the organization's IT systems. For example, the customer acquisition process's risks remain consistent across different Customer Relationship Managers (CRMs) like SalesForce.com or HubSpot. Users' end-to-end functions can be defined before any IT system interaction. Identifying higher-risk functions and potential fraud combinations empowers threat mitigation. Crucially, establishing risk policies at the function level ensures core business activities are monitored effectively. Business users often face confusion when risk policies are tied to technical entitlements instead of familiar business concepts, hindering visibility into actual actions.

Bridging the Gap between Business and Technology

To align business-appropriate access and risk policies, focusing on functions is crucial. This requires bridging them to IT systems, where business specialists play a key role. They map out business processes, activities, and roles involved (Figure 41). Collaborating with IT experts, they convert functions into task-based application roles within specific systems (Figure 42). EmpowerID supports mapping roles to functions and even mapping fine-grained permissions to functions. This clarifies which IT entitlements enable functions, who can perform them, and how access is assigned. Functions enhance business clarity in your IT landscape.

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It is easy to see how the fragmentation of the modern IT landscape caused by the adoption of a Cloud-first model has increased the importance of a having well-managed authorization strategy and the complexity of achieving this goal. 

To help you choose the best access control model for your organization or application, we compare the most popular options, we'll also analyze and discuss the various attribute-based and role-based approaches for application authorization, including their applicability, strengths, and weaknesses: 

A well-designed authorization system is essential for managing the day-to-day activities to control who has access to what and enable organizations to safely undergo a digital transformation moving more of their business online and into the Cloud.

Understanding the differences between different authorization models is critical for choosing an appropriate access control method for your organization or application. 

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) is a security and authorization model for securing access to computer
resources used by almost all enterprises to secure their systems. RBAC access is based on roles defined by the business using them. In the RBAC model, roles are created, and then sets of permissions for resources are assigned to the role. Users are then granted one or more roles to receive access to resources. 

Fig: RBAC PDP Flow Determining Access to Bob’s X-Ray for Alice

RBAC Benefits
In the RBAC model, since access is not directly assigned to users but bundled into assignments made to roles, the correct assumption is that controlling and maintaining access is easier. Moreover, because roles and access management can be centralized, it is evident who has a role and access to the role grants. There are fewer assignments to be managed, which decreases the cost of security management and compliance auditing. Furthermore, according to a 2010 NIST study, correct RBAC implementation and efficient provisioning can also reduce employee downtime resulting in significant ROI.

• RBAC is deterministic. An RBAC approach makes it easy to know who has access to what at any moment in time.
• RBAC is more direct and easier to visualize. Security admins can visualize the actors and resources they will affect when creating or modifying a policy.
• RBAC is inherently auditable. With RBAC assignments, as the consequences of that access are visible, it is simple for business owners to certify or attest to access granted. This visibility contrasts with ABAC where a “before the fact audit" is impossible and the effects of a rule are difficult to ascertain.
• RBAC can be simpler than ABAC. For example, with RBAC, bundles of access can be directly assigned to a user. To do this in ABAC requires the creation of a new rule.

RBAC Weaknesses

Unfortunately, the precise nature of the RBAC model can also be considered the source of many of its weaknesses:

• RBAC requires advanced knowledge of the Subjects and Resources and, typically, does not support making on-the-fly contextual decisions.
• An RBAC-only approach can result in an enormous number of roles to accomplish fine-grained authorization.
• Resource owners must know something about the roles and their intended purpose to grant access to those roles accurately.
• Resources must be organized into collections to facilitate delegation.
• Probably the most well-known problem with RBAC is “role explosion.”  Organizations often end up with large numbers of roles to accommodate people performing the same job function within different geographical or functional areas within the company. Given a substantial number of roles and collections of resources, a correspondingly large number of delegations would need to be created and managed. 

ATTRIBUTE-BASED ACCESS CONTROL (ABAC)

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC): An access control method where the subject requests to perform operations on objects are granted or denied based on assigned attributes of the subject, assigned attributes of the object, environment conditions, and a set of policies that are specified in terms of those attributes and conditions.

The policies that can be implemented in an ABAC model are limited only to the degree imposed by the computational language and the richness of the available attributes.

Essentially, the more decision data at your disposal at runtime, the more sophisticated your ABAC policies can be. 

ABAC relies on user attributes for authorization decisions. ABAC policies are rules that evaluate access based upon the following four sets of attributes:

• Subject – the attributes concerning the person or actor being evaluated.
• Resource – the attributes of the target or object being affected.
• Action – describe the action to be performed on the Resource
• Environment – includes attributes such as the time of the day, IP subnet, and others that do not relate to
  either the Subject or the Resource. 

Fig: NIST SP 800-162 ABAC Definition

ABAC Benefits

The key advantage of ABAC is that it does not allow application developers to hardcode a static list of roles and oversimplify their authorization source code. Rather, ABAC forces them to centralize all authorization decisions and call out at runtime to decide based on the Subject, Resource, Action, and Environment request attributes. Another key benefit is ABAC’s sometimes simpler nature. This simplicity can make it easier to understand how a rule grants access to a resource when dealing with a small number of rules. In contrast, RBAC does seem foreign to many users, and, especially during the early phase of its adoption, the levels of abstraction can be challenging for an IT team.

One other added advantage of ABAC is its flexibility. With ABAC, as long as the necessary data is available, almost anything can be represented as a rule-based query. For example, a rule evaluated at runtime in a login session can use contextual information—even information passed in via SAML claims or JWT tokens. In contrast, when delivering the role membership for a user to the application, a standard RBAC engine would not evaluate this type of information.

Everything we cover in this blog can be explored further in our whitepaper “A Guide to Authorization”. You can find that whitepaper here: 

ABAC Primary Benefits

• ABAC enforces centralized management of authorization policies
• ABAC makes it easy to specify access rules as simple queries.
• ABAC rules can be extraordinarily fine-grained and contextual.
• ABAC rules can evaluate attributes of Subjects and Resources that are not inventoried by the authorization system.
• ABAC rules need less maintenance and overhead because they do not require the creation or maintenance of the structure on which an RBAC model depends, e.g., roles and resource locations.

ABAC Weaknesses
The first challenge we encounter with implementing policies like this is the information needs to be obtained and evaluated at runtime. In our policy example, if we needed to know if the user’s nationality was Swiss, then this information would likely reside in either the corporate Active Directory or HR system. Moreover, if we needed to know if the company was in Emergency Mode or not, this essential information might be difficult to obtain in a live corporate environment. Likewise, if we needed to as certain their out-of-office status, this would reside in a corporate email system such as Microsoft 365. Furthermore, to attain information for network login sessions or the MFA status would require a query to an Identity Provider such as Ping Federate. 

ABAC’s Primary Weaknesses

• ABAC makes it extremely difficult to perform a “before the fact audit” and determine the permissions available to a specific user. To successfully determine access, not only might a considerable number of rules need to be executed, but they must also be done in the same order in which the system applies them. As a result, this could make it impossible to assess risk exposure for any given employee position.
• In a comparable manner to how a “Role Explosion” can occur with RBAC, an explosion can also occur with ABAC where a system with N number of attributes would have 2N possible rule combinations.
• Unless rules are kept extremely simple and do not access data from various source systems, ABAC systems with complex rules from multiple attribute sources can be unacceptably slow to answer authorization queries. 

RBAC Versus ABAC: Tradeoffs and Balance
As shown in Figure 28, the decision between ABAC and RBAC is a trade-off. On the one hand, you can have fast, simple, and other RBAC related benefits and, on the other, you can have extensible, scalable, and other ABAC-related advantages. To date, the challenge has been to find the right balance for your own organization’s needs. This is where Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC) helps. 

 

POLICY-BASED ACCESS CONTROL (PBAC)

Policy-Based Access Control (PBAC) is not a formally defined standard but rather describes an authorization model that combines RBAC and ABAC concepts and eliminates some of their shortcomings. The key concept behind PBAC is that policies are expressed as assignment relationships that can be visualized and manipulated graphically. Access rights to perform operations against resources or objects are acquired through relationships referred to as associations. This includes the ability to define complex hierarchical relationships with inheritance, which is overly cumbersome in ABAC. One might consider PBAC as “relational ABAC.” PBAC is best used for real time enforcement of authorization decisions where a well-developed role model can be leveraged for policy assignment.

PBAC policies are inherently more efficient than ABAC policies because authorization decisions are not based on multiple computed and then combined local decisions. Instead, they are based on the net result of multiple policies based on relationships existing within a single database. This aspect also allows PBAC to enforce dynamic Segregation of Duties (SOD) rules, which are not entirely achievable with ABAC. A last key feature mentioned is PBAC support for “before the fact audit,” which is the ability to see who has access to a resource at any time, and not just during the real-time evaluation of a policy set.



EMPOWERID’S HYBRID ROLE & ATTRIBUTE-COMPLIANT ACCESS APPROACH 

Defining and maintaining compliant access for a large organization can be a daunting task. Some types of applications and use cases are better suited to a more structured role-based approach, whereas others require real-time contextual decisions. RBAC, ABAC, and PBAC are three ways of managing authorization policies. Moreover, while both have overlapping qualities, individually, each one cannot cover all the necessary aspects of access control. However, for optimal, dynamic support of an IT organization’s needs, EmpowerID supports RBAC relational modeling. RBAC relational modeling provides the backbone or structure for defining an organization and its overall policies while leveraging the flexibility and real-time contextual nature of ABAC and PBAC to offer the best comprehensive solution. 

EmpowerID’s sophisticated role and relationship modeling allow security architects to model the organization and its structure and policies, including segregation of duties policies to prevent undesired combinations of access. As illustrated above, flexible attribute-based ABAC or PBAC policies support the centralized real-time decision point for applications that can call the EmpowerID API for authorization decisions. The ABAC/PBAC engine enhances or modifies the powerful RBAC engine's decisions, allowing their use only when greater flexibility or contextual information such as risk, location, and MFA type is required. By including the pre-calculated access results that the engine derives from complex RBAC policies that account for inheritance and even attribute-based queries, ABAC/PBAC policies are made much more potent. The end-goal of leveraging each approach's best is to deliver what EmpowerID calls “Compliant Access Delivery.” 

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Conclusion

In summary, we learned that no single method covers all use cases and application technologies. The overall goal of Compliant Access Delivery requires using the best of each approach implemented following the principles of Zero Trust and Least Privilege. When executed correctly, this automates access assignments and reduces an organization’s attack surface, making it harder for attackers to find privileged credentials and offers them fewer capabilities to perform malicious activities when they compromise a privileged account. 

 

 

 

AI has undoubtedly revolutionized how software programs function today. One of the most notable advancements in this space is the inception of chatbots, like ChatGPT, which rely exclusively on natural language to interact with the end user. However, prior to the widespread recognition of ChatGPT, a unique idea was brewing among the engineers at EmpowerID: the concept of Botflow.

At the European Identity and Cloud Conference this year, I had the privilege of introducing this innovative concept, which seamlessly integrates low-code orchestration and intelligent bots. Botflow is expected to dramatically alter the traditional approach to Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solutions, marking a transformation led by AI and advancing the functionality of IGA solutions beyond our wildest dreams.

The Botflow concept is a brilliant culmination of low-code orchestration and intelligent chatbots aimed at enhancing IGA capabilities. The engineers at EmpowerID envisioned intelligent bots serving as virtual assistants, effectively eliminating the human factor in administrative tasks. From automating password resets to managing access requests, these chatbots operate via customizable, model-driven, and visually-designed workflows.

Figure 1 illustrates a Botflow specifically designed for password resets. This Botflow is capable of interpreting a user's request, triggering the corresponding backend procedures (i.e., reset passwords in multiple directories), and conveying the outcomes back to the user.

Figure 1

Password Reset Botflow with Visual Design

This ingenious idea bore fruit when the engineers at EmpowerID integrated the potential of AI, specifically the capabilities of OpenAI and Azure Cloud Services. This integration gave birth to a platform that facilitates the development of a new breed of chatbot. These innovative chatbots are equipped with self-contained conversational tools that enable users to accomplish tasks through conversations.

The introduction of AI into the Botflow concept was a game-changing move. AI brought to the table the ability to mimic human intelligence, enabling the bots to understand, learn, and adapt to the tasks they were performing. With AI, bots can perceive context, enabling a more personalized and nuanced interaction with users.

As depicted in Figure 2, the AI-driven chatbot has the capacity to identify when a conversational tool may be beneficial to the user. The conversational tool in the following dialogue refers to the password reset Botflow presented in Figure 1.

Figure 2

An Engaging Chatbot Dialogue featuring the Password Reset Botflow

This personalized interaction plays a critical role in transforming the user experience. Instead of navigating complex user interfaces or grappling with difficult-to-understand procedures, users can simply communicate with these AI-powered bots in natural language. AI essentially acts as the bridge, connecting the human user and the digital bot, making interactions smoother, more intuitive, and vastly more efficient.

The adoption of AI technology has also been critical in enhancing the security and compliance aspects of IGA solutions. AI-powered bots can handle routine administrative tasks while maintaining a record of all actions taken, ensuring a high level of accountability. This capability provides a dual advantage – streamlining operations while maintaining robust security and compliance protocols.

The role of OpenAI and Azure Cloud Services in enhancing the functionality of Botflow cannot be overstated. OpenAI, with its advanced machine-learning capabilities, provides the necessary tools to train these bots, enabling them to evolve and learn from each interaction.

On the other hand, Azure acts as a reliable cloud platform for developing and deploying these advanced chatbots. Azure provides the necessary infrastructure for managing and scaling these bots according to the demands of the organization.

The seamless integrations of EmpowerID, OpenAI, and Azure were pivotal in actualizing the original Botflow concept, effectively showcasing the vast capabilities of AI in redefining the landscape of IGA.

With the advent of AI and the successful implementation of the Botflow concept, the IGA landscape is poised for a dramatic change. The future of IGA solutions lies in harnessing the power of AI to streamline administrative tasks and enhance user experience while maintaining high levels of security and compliance.

IGA solutions based on the Botflow concept will ensure that organizations are equipped with robust and intelligent virtual assistants that can handle routine tasks efficiently. These solutions will provide organizations with the ability to customize and model their workflows visually, creating a more user-friendly and intuitive environment.

While the current advancements are indeed promising, the future possibilities of AI and Botflow are truly limitless. The ongoing research and development in AI and machine learning promise further enhancements to the Botflow concept. We can anticipate AI's cognitive capabilities to evolve, allowing bots to understand and handle even more complex tasks.

Conclusion

The revolutionary concept of Botflow, coupled with the advancement in AI technologies, is a testament to the potential of AI in transforming IGA solutions. By providing a seamless and intuitive user experience, ensuring high levels of security and compliance, and streamlining administrative tasks, AI and Botflow are reshaping the future of IGA. As we continue to explore the potential of AI, we can anticipate even more sophisticated and efficient solutions in the future, underscoring the immense potential that AI holds in revolutionizing the IGA landscape.

In the complex world of cybersecurity, managing identities and access rights across diverse systems can be a daunting task. EmpowerID, with its innovative Jellybeans approach and Proxied Model, is revolutionizing identity governance, providing a comprehensive solution for managing identities across a wide range of on-premise and cloud systems.

EmpowerID's Jellybeans Approach

To simplify the challenge of managing thousands of diverse systems and users, let's envision all the users in an organization as JellyBeans. Hopefully making this problem a little easier to digest using this analogy (pun unintended). 

In this analogy, each color of JellyBeans represents a distinct category, such as different types of employees, users, business units, customers, or even various geographic regions. Traditionally, LDAP and Virtual Directory systems allowed you to construct a hierarchy, wherein all your Users, Groups, and computers were organized within this tree-like structure. This hierarchical arrangement made it easy to remove administration roles by simply navigating through the tree.

 

This approach functioned adequately with straightforward on-premise systems in traditional organizations. However, with the emergence of the cloud, organizations have transitioned to various applications for their workflows, such as SAP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Adobe, and more. Each of these applications operates on a distinct security model independent of Active Directory and LDAP. Consequently, managing the diverse collection of JellyBeans has become exceedingly challenging, as a single container can no longer accommodate all of them. So, what occurs now?

They are all mixed together.

The Admin Roles in database-based cloud systems often lack granularity, being too broad and limited in number. Such over-privileged admins significantly escalate your risk exposure. Nearly all modern cybersecurity attacks exploit compromised Privileged Accounts/Admins as a pivotal element in their execution. Apart from cybersecurity concerns, the privacy of your users is also completely compromised within these systems.

The Jellybeans approach in EmpowerID is a unique concept that enables granular control over identities and their access rights. EmpowerID gathers all your JellyBeans, whether they reside in on-premise systems or cloud systems, and arranges them neatly in virtual containers or mini tenants. These virtual containers can represent any desired organizational structure that aligns with your preferred approach to security delegation. This virtual container model resembles the traditional LDAP or Active Directory model, allowing you to create an organizational tree and apply policies to these virtual container locations. This way, you can regulate administrative actions, enforce privacy restrictions, and restrict users and admins to their designated containers. Hence, this technology organizes your jellybeans, granting fine-grained control to admins and users over user and object visibility, precise actions, and privacy restrictions enforcement.

 

This approach is not limited to Azure applications but extends to a wide range of systems including user accounts, service principals, managed identities, application secrets and passwords, Exchange Online mailboxes, SharePoint Online sites, Microsoft Teams, and more. By implementing the Jellybeans approach, organizations can enhance security and efficiency, effectively managing and securing identities across diverse systems.

The Proxied Model in EmpowerID

EmpowerID's Proxied Model allows non-technical users to perform complex tasks across various systems without being given direct access. This approach reduces standing privileges, mitigating potential security risks. The Proxied Model is not limited to Azure but extends to a wide range of on-premise and cloud systems including Active Directory, Azure Active Directory, SAP S4/HANA, Salesforce.com, Amazon AWS, Google GCP, ServiceNow, LDAP, and more.

Importantly, the Proxied Model also reduces the need for costly IT staff with specific knowledge and training in each of the proxied systems. This deskilling helps alleviate some of the challenges of the cybersecurity labor shortage and skills gap, making it a cost-effective solution for organizations.

Read More about how Proxy Models can help enhance Identity Governance here: Link

The Intersection of Jellybeans Approach and Proxied Model

The combination of the Jellybeans approach and the Proxied Model in EmpowerID provides a comprehensive solution for identity governance across diverse systems. The Jellybeans approach ensures granular control over identities, while the Proxied Model reduces standing privileges and the need for specialized IT staff. Together, they enhance security, improve efficiency, and facilitate effective identity governance.

Moreover, every action taken across these diverse systems is logged, providing a detailed audit trail. This not only aids in troubleshooting and incident response but also helps organizations meet compliance requirements.

Conclusion

EmpowerID, with its Jellybeans approach and Proxied Model, is revolutionizing identity governance across diverse systems. By providing granular control over identities, reducing standing privileges, and alleviating the need for specialized IT staff, EmpowerID enhances security and facilitates effective identity governance. Whether you're looking to manage identities across a wide range of on-premise and cloud systems, EmpowerID offers a comprehensive solution that aligns with your needs.

In the realm of cybersecurity, the Zero Trust model has emerged as a robust framework for enhancing security. A key aspect of this model is effective identity governance, which can be significantly streamlined and made more efficient through the use of proxy models and workflows.

Today we'll be exploring how these tools can be leveraged to bolster security and efficiency in identity governance within Zero Trust environments.

What are Proxy Models?

Proxy Models in identity governance can be likened to gatekeepers in a business organization, ensuring that only authorized individuals gain access to sensitive resources. Just as a gatekeeper verifies the identity and permissions of individuals before granting entry, proxy models act as intermediaries between users and the systems they wish to access. They authenticate and validate user identities, ensuring that only authorized personnel are granted appropriate access privileges.

The Power of Proxy Models

Proxy models provide a powerful tool for managing identities in a Zero Trust environment. By acting as an intermediary between users and resources, proxy models can enforce strict access controls, ensuring that users only have access to the resources they need. This approach significantly reduces the attack surface and helps to prevent unauthorized access.

Moreover, proxy models can help to alleviate some of the challenges of the cybersecurity labor shortage and skills gap. By reducing the need for costly IT staff with specific knowledge and training in each of the proxied systems, proxy models can help organizations to manage their resources more efficiently.

By implementing proxy models, businesses can establish a robust and secure system where user actions are monitored and controlled, mitigating the risk of unauthorized access and potential data breaches. Think of proxy models as vigilant guards, protecting your business assets and maintaining the integrity of your identity governance framework.

The Efficiency of Workflows

Workflows, particularly those that are automated, can greatly enhance efficiency in identity governance. By automating routine tasks, workflows can reduce the time and effort required to manage identities, freeing up IT staff to focus on more strategic tasks.

For instance, consider the process of onboarding a new employee. An automated workflow could streamline this process, ensuring that the new employee's identity is properly set up across all necessary systems. This not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors that could lead to security vulnerabilities.

Practical Strategies for Implementation

Implementing proxy models and workflows in identity governance involves several key steps. First, organizations need to identify the resources that need to be managed and the users who will need access to these resources. Next, they need to define the access controls that will be enforced by the proxy models.

Once the proxy models are in place, organizations can then develop workflows to automate routine identity governance tasks. These workflows should be designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing for changes in the organization's needs and circumstances.

Today, most modern Identity Governance Platforms such as EmpowerID, are equipped with the requisite toolsets to implement these robust policy frameworks. Developing and integrating these systems separately might require significant planning, resources, and expertise for most organizations; instead opting for a modern Identity Platform that easily integrates with your enterprise's existing applications might be the way to go forward. The flexibility to easily handle on-prem, cloud, and even hybrid workflows paired with the ability to integrate with Microsoft 365, SAP, ServiceNow, SalesForce, etc creates an extremely compelling offering for any organization looking to manage their identities. 

Conclusion

Proxy models and workflows offer powerful tools for enhancing security and efficiency in identity governance, particularly within Zero Trust environments. By implementing these tools and techniques, organizations can streamline their identity governance processes, improve their security posture, and better manage their resources. As the cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve, such strategies will be crucial for maintaining robust security.