Information Security and IT Risk Management

CHAPTER 8 Identity and Access Management

Overview

In this chapter, we will look at some of the most popular mechanisms for identifying users and managing their privileges in enterprise systems. The systems we will discuss share many features in common, but each system has been developed to respond to the unique needs of a popular context. By the end of this chapter, you should know:

• The differences between identity management and access management
• The phases in identity and access management models
• The three categories of user credentials
• The relative strengths and weaknesses of the major authentication technologies

Identity management

Identity management is the processes of identifying individuals and collating all necessary data to grant or revoke privileges for these users to resources. The username and password system you use on your laptop is an example of an identity management system. In larger organizations, formal processes become necessary to manage the churn of users through the system. Using the example of a typical state university, on any given day, hundreds of events such as students joining the university, leaving the university, obtaining on-campus employment, changing on-campus employment occur, each of which affects what information these users are allowed to access. The simple processes that work at a home computer need to be replaced by formal systems to ensure that everyone has timely information in this dynamic environment, without compromising information ...