EmpowerID at the Forefront of Identity Management and Cybersecurity Events in 2024!

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Wed, Feb 14, 2024

 

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As we step into another innovative year for Identity, EmpowerID is excited to announce its participation in a series of prestigious events and conferences dedicated to Identity Management (IAM), Cybersecurity, AI, and Cloud technologies. Whether you're an industry veteran or a rising star in the field, these events are a golden opportunity to network, learn, and discover more about the Industry and how you can propel your enterprise forward. Here's your guide to where we'll be in 2024, discussing the latest innovations in IAM to the cutting-edge of cloud security.

Here's where you can find us in 2024: 

EmpowerID 2024 Event Calendar 

Innovate Cybersecurity Summit
Date: February 25-27 
Location: Nashville, TN, USA 
Description: CISOs from Fortune 2000 converge to discuss security innovation at Innovate. 

RSA Conference 2024 
Date: May 6-9, 2024 
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA 
Description: EmpowerID discusses next-gen cybersecurity at RSA, connecting with global security professionals. 

European Cloud Summit 
Date: May 14-16, 2024 
Location: Wiesbaden, Germany 
Description: EmpowerID discusses its solutions for Entra, Identity and Security amongst the biggest cloud technology providers in the world.

Identiverse 
Date: May 28-31, 2024 
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA 
Description: EmpowerID demonstrates robust IAM solutions for businesses ranging from SMBs to Fortune 500. 

KuppingerCole European Identity and Cloud Conference (EIC) 
Date: June 4-7, 2024 
Location: Berlin, Germany 
Description: Experience the synergy of Identity & Cloud with EmpowerID at the KuppingerCole Conference. Catch 3 Live Speakers from EmpowerID discussing the latest in AI and Identity. 

IT SA - The IT Security Expo and Congress
Date: October 22-24, 2024 
Location: Nuremberg, Germany 
Description: Join EmpowerID at IT SA, the pinnacle event for security expertise in the German market. 

Microsoft Ignite
Date: TBA
Location: TBA

Gartner IAM Summit
Date: December 9-11, 2024 
Location: Dallas 
Description: Fortune 500 companies connect to discuss the latest in IAM/IGA/PAM at Gartner IAM. 

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

Exchange Online Management: Delegated Mailbox Management Redefined

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Fri, Jan 12, 2024

Managing the vast array of mailboxes within a growing organization with new Joiners, Leavers, Movers every single month has become an increasingly complex task for IT Teams, especially with the widespread adoption of Microsoft's Exchange Online as part of the Office 365 suite.

Traditionally, IT teams have managed organizational mailboxes through manual setup and maintenance processes. This involves creating mailboxes for new users, setting permissions, and deleting accounts for those who left the company, all this is done using on-premises servers and software. Heavily relying on in-house IT staff to monitor, update, and enforce security policies and access controls, often using scripts or native tools provided by the email platform. As the organizations grow though, these methods start becoming increasingly cumbersome and less efficient, lacking the agility and security demanded by modern digital workplaces.

Traditional mailbox management methods presented several challenges:

  1. Manual Processes: Time-consuming and error-prone manual administration.
  2. Lack of Scalability: Difficulty managing large volumes of mailbox requests.
  3. Inconsistent Policy Enforcement: Security policies were not always uniformly applied.
  4. Auditing Challenges: Complicated and labor-intensive auditing and reporting for compliance.
  5. Basic Access Controls: Inadequate controls led to excessive user permissions.
  6. Slow Incident Response: Delayed action in addressing security incidents.
  7. Inefficient User Lifecycle Management: Cumbersome onboarding and offboarding processes.
  8. Dependence on Legacy Systems: Difficulties in updating integrated legacy infrastructures.

This task, often referred to as delegated mailbox management, has undergone a significant transformation, thanks to innovative approaches and technologies that redefine its execution and oversight.

The New Era of Mailbox Management

The legacy methods of mailbox management often involved tedious, manual processes that not only consumed valuable time but also left room for errors and security vulnerabilities. The shift to cloud-based email services like Exchange Online promised efficiency and scalability, yet it also demanded a new level of expertise in managing permissions, access controls, and governance policies.

Modern mailbox management requires a solution that not only simplifies these tasks but does so with a stringent focus on security. This is where advanced identity governance and administration (IGA) platforms come into play. They offer a transformative approach that aligns with the principle of least privilege and the Zero Trust model — the idea that no one is trusted by default from inside or outside the network, and verification is required from everyone trying to gain access to resources on the network.

EmpowerID: The Vanguard of Delegated Mailbox Administration

EmpowerID's Exchange Online Manager offers a transformative approach to mailbox governance in Microsoft 365. It serves as a comprehensive solution for CISOs and IT Heads who are grappling with the complexities of mailbox governance in the cloud era. Leveraging the Jellybeans Zero Trust model, it delivers precision, security, and ease in delegated mailbox administration tasks.

Enhanced Mailbox Control

  • Comprehensive Mailbox Management: Supports diverse mailbox types, with a policy-driven setup that aligns with compliance and governance from the start.
  • Governance-Focused Onboarding: Initiate governance controls with a wizard-driven process that ensures proper assignment of ownership, access approvals, and licensing from the moment of mailbox creation.
  • Policy-Based Mailbox Provisioning: Automate mailbox provisioning in cloud-only and hybrid modes, ensuring compliance and efficiency.
  • Delegated Mailbox Administration: Apply granular delegated administration to all mailbox tasks without granting elevated native system access, embodying the principles of Zero Trust within your organization.

Security and Compliance at the Forefront

  • Robust Auditing Capabilities: Maintain a robust audit trail with configurable settings that support stringent compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA.
  • Seamless Permission Synchronization: Automate the synchronization of mailbox permissions, reflecting changes in real-time and simplifying access management.

User-Centric Functionality

  • Intuitive Administrative Experience: EmpowerID provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies complex tasks into wizard-based workflows, ensuring a smooth user experience for administrators.
  • Self-Service Empowerment: End-users can safely request access to necessary resources, fostering autonomy within a secure, monitored framework.

Integration and Scalability

  • Seamless System Integration: EmpowerID harmonizes with existing directory services and ITSM processes, enhancing the organization's existing investment in Microsoft 365.
  • Designed for Scale: Manage large volumes of mailboxes with no performance trade-offs, thanks to an architecture optimized for high demand and complex organizational structures.

Complementing Exchange Online's Security Features

Reinforced Security Controls: EmpowerID enhances the existing security features of Exchange Online by adding robust management and access control layers. This integration helps to strengthen the overall security posture without duplicating or replacing Exchange Online's native security functionalities.

Conclusion: The Strategic Edge

EmpowerID's Exchange Online Manager is not just a solution—it is a strategic enhancement to your organization's email management. It merges security, compliance, and efficiency, providing a centralized, streamlined, and secure mailbox management system. Experience the future of mailbox administration with EmpowerID, where advanced governance meets intuitive design.

 

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

Revolutionizing Azure integration with EmpowerID's SCIM Virtual Directory!

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Tue, Dec 19, 2023

In today's "work from anywhere" model, cloud-based identity management solutions are quickly becoming the norm. To enable interoperable cloud provisioning, Microsoft has embraced the System for Cross Domain Identity Management (SCIM) protocol in Azure. SCIM was created as a powerful means of standardizing, simplifying, and automating identity management for users, groups, and devices across cloud-based applications and services, and Microsoft is betting big on it.

The challenge with SCIM is that it has yet to become widely adopted, and many applications simply do not support it. If you have custom applications with repositories of identity information or use an on-premise or cloud application like SAP S/4 HANA or SAP Ariba, or even a major HR system like UltiPro, you will not be able to integrate those systems with Azure unless you or the vendor builds a SCIM interface for each. This is no small task because, while the protocol is simple, building the interface is not.

EmpowerID stepped into the gap and designed a Workflow-Driven SCIM Virtual Directory Server (VDS) that can sit between Azure and your non-SCIM applications. You simply connect those applications to EmpowerID and register the EmpowerID SCIM VDS in Azure. There is no need to wait for vendors or put in the time and effort needed to build a SCIM interface; EmpowerID takes care of everything for you.

 

 

Authentication Challenges: Unraveling the Complexity

  1. Diverse Directory Systems: Organizations often deploy their directory systems, each with its set of permissions and administration controls. However, these systems fail to provide the granular level of access required, turning into additional entities for IT systems to manage.

  2. Privilege Abuse and Security Risks: The adoption of multiple directory systems increases the surface area of attacks through privilege abuse. Without comprehensive controls, organizations face heightened security risks, leaving their systems vulnerable to exploitation.

  3. Slow Adoption of SCIM: Despite the promise of standardization and simplification, the System for Cross Domain Identity Management (SCIM) has experienced slow adoption. Many applications lack support for SCIM, leaving organizations unable to leverage its benefits fully.

Why SCIM?

Enjoy all the Advantages of SCIM without the Effort – Created in 2011 as an open standard, lightweight provisioning protocol for the "Cloud age," SCIM provides a uniform way for applications to communicate identity information with each other. Although the adoption of SCIM has been slow, it is the way forward. With EmpowerID’s SCIM VDS, organizations can convert their applications to SCIM without waiting for vendors to come onboard or doing the heavy lifting of converting their legacy proprietary applications to SCIM.
 
Seamlessly Integrate All Your Applications with Azure Provisioning Services – The EmpowerID SCIM Virtual Directory is a microservice and a SCIM server that can be deployed as an App Service in any Azure tenant. Simply plug the VDS into any Azure environment, secure it with an Azure managed identity, and then register as many of your enterprise applications as needed. If the VDS knows about these applications, it will pass Azure provisioning commands to that system, SCIM compliant or not.
 
Workflow-Driven Virtual Directory Services – More than just a "SCIM gateway," which is more than just an application that simply passes identity lifecycle commands like "provision this user" or "add this user to that group" from one system to another, the EmpowerID VDS treats everything as a workflow. This keeps your business logic in the process. Commands are evaluated by the VDS, which can trigger policies, invoke naming conventions, generate strong passwords, and send policy violations for human approval before any final provisioning action occurs. You determine what needs to happen when Azure makes a provisioning call.
 
 

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

The SCIM Virtual Directory is a microservice and a SCIM server created by EmpowerID that can be deployed as an App Service in Azure tenants. This makes the SCIM VDS the intermediary between Azure and any applications registered in EmpowerID. Provisioning calls are made to the EmpowerID SCIM VDS, and the call is then directed to the appropriate system.
 
For example, if you have connected EmpowerID to Salesforce and an HR system, and a new user is provisioned in Azure AD, EmpowerID intercepts the call to provision the new user and directs it to the appropriate systems in EmpowerID.
 
This allows for any policies and other business logic to be evaluated first. Once your business logic completes, the account is provisioned in the appropriate systems, and everything is kept up to sync. The natural question arises as to how EmpowerID knows what system to update. The answer to the question is the URL you set for your applications in EmpowerID. Without going into detail, you simply specify the path to the application registered in EmpowerID. The image below depicts this.
 
 
The last part of the path points to the application in the image. This is how EmpowerID knows where to direct the call made by Azure.
 
This allows you to SCIM-enable any system connected to EmpowerID without needing to create a specific SCIM connector for that system. EmpowerID does it for you, helping you leverage Azure AD provisioning quickly and easily for many systems with some advanced features.
 

WORKFLOW-DRIVEN VIRTUAL DIRECTORY SERVICES

Traditional SCIM connectors operate on a "fire and forget" principle. They simply pass commands from one system to another without any intermediate layer of logic. In essence, they function more as a SCIM gateway. The EmpowerID SCIM VDS, on the other hand, takes a different approach. It not only passes commands from one system to another but also evaluates your business processes in the process.
 
We refer to this approach as "everything is a workflow," and it is at the core of the EmpowerID paradigm. Organizations need to inject their business logic into the process to maintain complete control.
 
 
The image above illustrates the difference between the two approaches. In the first flow, Azure AD Provisioning Service sends commands to the EmpowerID SCIM VDS. EmpowerID then invokes the appropriate workflow for the command, allowing business processes to be executed before forwarding those commands downstream to a connected system. In the second, lower flow, Azure sends the same commands directly to a connected system, where they simply occur in that system with no control over the transactions. With EmpowerID acting as an intermediary, the entire process can be evaluated and interrupted if necessary.
 

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

EmpowerID and ServiceNow: Elevating Service Management and Identity Governance

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Tue, Oct 31, 2023

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

 

Bridge Your Security Gaps Today!

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

Azure App Secrets Expiration: Avoiding Disruptions with Proactive Alerts

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Wed, Oct 25, 2023

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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.

ClientSecrets1

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.

Workflow

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.

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

Exploring Microsoft EntraID: Features and Limitations

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Mon, Oct 09, 2023

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.

 

Entra Vs EmpowerID: A Guided Demo

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

Exploring Advanced Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Privileged Session Management (PSM)

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Mon, Sep 11, 2023

 

Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Privileged Session Management (PSM) are integral components of modern cybersecurity practices. Traditional Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions have served their purpose for years, providing a good level of control and security. However, as threats become more sophisticated and organizations grow more and more complex with dynamic access management requirements, a transition to more fine-grained PAM solutions has become imperative. In this blog post, we'll explore why organizations should consider making this shift, alluding to the capabilities of cutting-edge solutions like EmpowerID.

The Limitations of Traditional PAM

Traditional PAM solutions, while effective in many aspects, have inherent limitations that hinder their ability to adapt to today's complex security challenges. These limitations include:

  1. Static Privileges: Traditional PAM often relies on static standing privileges that are assigned to users or accounts in advance. This approach poses a considerable security risk, as it means that users may have access to resources they don't need, potentially leading to misuse or unauthorized access.

  2. Limited Visibility: Traditional PAM solutions may provide limited visibility into privileged sessions, making it challenging to monitor user activities comprehensively. This lack of visibility can impede the detection of unusual or malicious behavior.

  3. Complex Approval Processes: The approval processes in traditional PAM solutions are often manual, time-consuming, and prone to human error. These processes can hinder operational efficiency and frustrate users seeking expedited access.

  4. Inefficient Rotation of Credentials: Password rotation in traditional PAM solutions can be cumbersome and may not fully prevent unauthorized access to sensitive systems. Frequent rotation also disrupts operations and can lead to service interruptions.

What is Advanced PAM?

Advanced Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Privileged Session Management (PSM) offer significant advantages over traditional PAM/PSM approaches. Unlike traditional methods that often rely on static, standing privileges, advanced PAM/PSM solutions provide dynamic, just-in-time access. This means users receive access only when needed and for specific tasks, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access.

Additionally, advanced PAM/PSM solutions incorporate robust approval workflows, ensuring that access requests undergo a structured validation process. Furthermore, these modern solutions offer a higher level of visibility and auditability, tracking all activities during privileged sessions. With advanced PAM/PSM, organizations can enhance security, reduce standing privileges, and streamline access management in a more efficient and controlled manner. Here are some of the key benefits that Advanced PAM solutions provide over traditional PAM:

1. Better Credential Management:

When it comes to PSM sessions, credential management is crucial. With Advanced PAM, you have the option to manage credentials efficiently. Users initiating PSM sessions can automatically associate credentials with their target computer, simplifying the login process. Alternatively, they can manually select specific credentials if needed.

2. Just-In-Time Credential Provisioning:

Just-in-Time provisioning for credentials is a dynamic approach that offers real-time account creation during user access. This feature generates user accounts in real-time as users access target computers. These accounts are automatically placed in relevant administrative groups, ensuring that only authorized individuals have access. Importantly, these accounts are automatically deleted upon user logout, mitigating the risks associated with standing privileges.

3. Secure Non-JIT Provisioning:

Even without Just-in-Time (JIT) access provisioning, you can leverage advanced PAM and PSM features. By preassigning accounts and linking them to specific computers, a concept known as "standing credentials," you can ensure controlled access to designated resources.

4. Efficient Approval Workflow:

A robust approval workflow is essential for managing privileged access. Users must undergo an approval process to gain access. While pre-approved access is an option, specific eligibility criteria must be met to request access. Administrators have the authority to grant access ahead of time to specific users or groups, ensuring controlled and secure access management.

5. Elevated Access Levels:

Granting varying levels of elevated access during PSM sessions is essential for security. Users can request access levels based on their eligibility, minimizing over-privileged accounts and enhancing overall security.

6. Multiple Ways to Access:

There are three primary approaches to Privileged Access Management:

  1. JIT Access Provisioning: This approach dynamically creates and deletes accounts as needed, reducing standing privileges.

  2. Standing Credentials: Credentials assigned to specific computers facilitate controlled access to designated resources.

  3. Vaulted Credentials: Personal credentials that can be upgraded when necessary provide an added layer of security.

Conclusion:

All of these features coalesce to provide a more fine-grained privileged account management experience, with PAM growing beyond just traditional credential management that integrates perfectly with your security policies, and is ready to face modern security challenges such as Pass-the-Hash (PtH) Attacks and much more. 

EmpowerID's advanced PAM and PSM capabilities offer a comprehensive solution for managing privileged access and sessions. With flexible credential provisioning methods, robust approval workflows, and varying access levels, organizations can effectively secure their systems and resources while minimizing the risks associated with standing privileges. EmpowerID empowers organizations to achieve controlled, secure, and efficient privileged access management.

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

Moving Beyond RBAC with Compliant Access Delivery

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Tue, Aug 29, 2023

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.

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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. 

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

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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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Conclusion
 
In conclusion, the evolution of access control has led us to recognize the limitations of traditional models like RBAC. The new era demands a dynamic approach that bridges the gap between technical intricacies and real-world business needs. Compliant Access Delivery emerges as the answer, offering a comprehensive solution that combines the strengths of RBAC, ABAC, and PBAC. 
 
This hybrid approach ensures that access remains not just efficient, but also "appropriate" and aligned with an organization's specific "business policies." It leverages the expertise of both business and IT specialists to map out functions and roles, transforming them into practical, task-based application roles within IT systems. 
 
By embracing Compliant Access Delivery, organizations can confidently manage thousands of users, diverse application technologies, and industry-specific regulations. The complexity of modern enterprises is tamed through a holistic framework that leverages the power of functions – the essential building blocks of business processes. With this innovative approach, organizations can strike the balance between stringent security and operational efficiency, ensuring that access is not only controlled but also relevant and compliant.

 

Learn How CAD can evolve your Authorization Model

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

RBAC vs ABAC vs PBAC: A Practical Guide for Enterprises

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Mon, Aug 21, 2023

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: 

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

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. 

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

 

Bridge Your Security Gaps Today!

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security

How Enterprises can Bridge Security Gaps using Low-Code Platforms

Posted by Aditya Taneja on Fri, Aug 11, 2023

 

 

Bridge Your Security Gaps Today!

Tags: Active Directory, IAM, Virtual Directory, Access Governance, cloud security