Category: Identity and Access Management

Managing Identity and Access in the Workplace

Identity and access management, sometimes simply known as identity management, refers to the IT function of maintaining security through the management of digital identities. In a workplace, this includes provisioning employees with accounts to all applications and platforms they will be using for their official tasks, assigning them with the right kind of permissions to each of these applications/platforms, and making sure that the right people have the right access to the right resources and data. Continue reading Managing Identity and Access in the Workplace

Customer IAM for GDPR Compliance

In order to protect the digital privacy of European citizens, the European Union created the General Data Protection Regulation to ensure that organizations which collect any personal data from their users make the users aware of how and why their personal data is being used. Essentially, installing an Identity and Access Management solution across your organization for your employees as well as customers can help you stay compliant with this complex regulation. 

The EU’s GDPR took effect more than a year ago, but that doesn’t make it any easier to comply with. So if your organization is still finding compliance a difficulty, we are here to help.  Continue reading Customer IAM for GDPR Compliance

Can an IAM solution prevent Credential Phishing?

The most common misconception regarding credential phishing is that it is people-driven and not organization-driven. Therefore, organizations tend to underestimate the impact it can have on them if even one of their employees is a victim of credential phishing. We suggest reviewing your entire security strategy to ensure that you are protected against phishing. 

Here is everything you need to know about credential phishing attacks.

Continue reading Can an IAM solution prevent Credential Phishing?

Identity and Access Management for Social Engineering Attacks

When in action, a social engineering attack could look like an email received from a government organization or your own organization asking your employees to divulge their credentials. The basis of social engineering attacks is to induce fear or urgency in unsuspecting users and employees into handing over sensitive information. Over the years, these attacks have become more sophisticated –  even if you open a mail or message from a possible attacker, malware is immediately installed on your system.  Continue reading Identity and Access Management for Social Engineering Attacks

Overcoming the Challenges of the Media Industry With Identity

When the digital revolution started, media companies were among the first ones to embrace it. Today, most media companies create content targeted exclusively at online subscribers on digital platforms, pivoting their efforts to become more user-friendly for a digital audience. 

In order to convert free digital users into paid users, it is also important to effectively profile them and target the right ads to the right users. Therefore, it becomes crucial to learn more about the users logging in to view media content – whether on an online magazine or a video streaming platform. At the same time, user information that is collected online needs to be safeguarded and the methods used for data handling must adhere to strict regulations. Continue reading Overcoming the Challenges of the Media Industry With Identity

What is ADFS and why do you need it?

ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services) is an SSO solution created by Microsoft to authenticate users logging into applications which are incompatible with Integrated Windows Authentication (IWA) and Active Directory (AD).

ADFS provides organizations with the flexibility needed to simplify the user experience while improving the control that admins have over user accounts across owned as well as third-party applications. Since ADFS implements SSO, your employees are required to remember only one set of credentials for all the applications. Continue reading What is ADFS and why do you need it?

Customer Identity and Access Management – How is it different from IAM?

For organizations, it is crucial to ensure data security and, therefore, IAM has become a crucial part of every network security effort. Identity and access management at the organization-level – mostly include IAM solutions for enterprise applications used by organizations to authenticate and validate employees and a relatively small number of users. But how different is the situation with B2C businesses and other organizations who have huge numbers of internal and external users using their online services every day? Continue reading Customer Identity and Access Management – How is it different from IAM?

User Lifecycle Management made easy with Akku

The employee lifecycle is an HR model that identifies the different stages an employee goes through during his/her stint at an organization. Employee lifecycle management, therefore, involves the steps taken by HR in optimizing the flow of the cycle. Typically, the employee lifecycle involves the following stages: recruiting, onboarding, training and development, retention, and offboarding. 

In modern organizations, where the employee is also a user (of one or more applications), a similar user lifecycle begins at the onboarding stage and continues until the employee exits the organization.

When it comes to the efforts involved in the user lifecycle management, both the HR and the IT teams have roles to play. The process involves creating user accounts and user roles, assigning permissions, setting up custom restrictions, continually monitoring user activity, modifying user roles, keeping employees compliant, disseminating mandatory and relevant training material, and finally, removing access when they offboard.

Here’s how Akku can make user lifecycle management easy for you:

Onboarding

With Akku’s single sign-on admin dashboard, multiple user accounts to different applications can be created and assigned to a single set of credentials for the user, all in a few clicks. Through this dashboard, user roles and permissions can also be assigned easily, saving time and improving efficiency at the onboarding stage. 

With Akku for user lifecycle management, the organization can ensure user account provisioning on the employee’s very first day at the organization so that new employees can hit the ground running.

User Management & Usage Analytics

Akku provides administrators with granular control over user access to data and apps. When employees are promoted or moved internally within the organization to newer roles, it only takes minutes to reassign permissions to existing apps or add new apps into the employee’s kitty.

By checking a user’s real time access and use of each assigned application, Akku also helps to reassign permissions or remove accounts that may not be necessary for a particular user. Akku also allows IT to more easily conduct audits by keeping an audit trail in reports that specify when users were provided or revoked certain levels of access and who has assigned these permissions.

Compliance & Communication Management

Akku enables you to keep your users updated, well trained and compliant through effective communication with its Internal Communication feature. Through this feature, HR and IT administrators can share information and updates, either addressing them to all users within the organization or with specific departments alone. The same feature can also be used to disseminate training material to upskill and qualify users for a future-ready workforce.

Not only does Akku help in disseminating information and training material, it also allows for tracking user viewing and consumption of these communications.

Deprovisioning

During the course of an employee’s stay at the organization, he/she may have accessed and used different corporate applications. When the employee leaves the organization, it is critical to revoke access to all of those applications promptly. If this activity is missed, even for a single account in a single application, the organization is risking compromise and misuse of organizational data.

With Akku’s single sign-on dashboard offering a complete and comprehensive view of all accounts and applications accessed by a user, deprovisioning of access to all of them is only clicks away. 

Akku offers a comprehensive solution to corporate identity lifecycle management. To know more about the features and applications of Akku, get in touch with us today!