Data breaches and security threats are regular occurrences in many industries today. That's why organizations and businesses have allocated more money and resources to data security and standards compliance in recent years. One of the most effective ways to combat cyberattacks and breaches is by making use of an identity framework.
An identity framework sets a standard within an organization or network for managing access control, user identities, and information security while complying with safety specifications. That's a lot to break down, so let's go over what an identity framework is and how it can make your organization's security measures more robust.
What is an identity framework?
The label "identity framework" is more than a single device, tool, or software structure. It's a term that refers to digital infrastructure, policies, and practices that help an organization secure and maintain user identities. You'll often find an identity framework at the center of an organization's identity and access management process. It usually acts as a standard for controlling access so that the right users are authorized to access sensitive data while minimizing vulnerabilities and protecting the organization from cyberattacks.
Every identity framework boasts different tools and solutions, but here are a few features that are common to most:
- Multi-factor authentication: Passwords aren't enough anymore. When users attempt to log in to a platform or service, they'll be required to verify their identity in multiple ways. This can take the form of a confirmation email, passkey, or one-time code sent to a mobile device.
- Role-based access control: Many identity frameworks let administrators grant access to users based on their ascribed role in an organization or company. Users can only access what is necessary for their job, which reduces the potential avenues through which sensitive data could be leaked.
- Identity federation and single sign-on: Identity frameworks can also help streamline the login process for authorized users. Identity federation makes it so that users with a verified login can access different applications and services with the same set of credentials. This way, users don't have to keep track of multiple usernames and passwords.
- Storage provisions: In many instances, an identity framework also accounts for how data is stored and secured for a given organization or platform. This often entails the use of a database or cloud-based service that's safe and reputable. Some identity frameworks offer a solution that incorporates proprietary data storage into its infrastructure as well.
How are identity frameworks more secure?
Identity frameworks often have a lot of moving parts and serve many different functions, which may sound harder to navigate and easier to exploit on various fronts. Here are a few key clarifications on how an identity framework reinforces all-around data security while making valid user logins and administrative operations much more straightforward.
Stronger authentication process
As we've mentioned, identity frameworks can use two-factor authentication and many other verification measures to reduce an organization's susceptibility to cyber attacks. Access control solutions often incorporate passkeys and biometrics into their security strategy for protecting sensitive information within an organization. Many identity frameworks can configure a platform's login process to be immune to brute-force attacks, and some can even protect against phishing attempts that target an organization's employees too.
Having a robust authentication process across the board is a critical step in reducing an organization's attack surface. Most employees own a computer and a mobile device that can each access important data in cloud-based applications. An identity framework that provides the same degree of access control for all employee devices can help minimize unauthorized logins to a given service. This serves the dual purpose of ensuring that employees can quickly and safely log in from any recognized device as well.
Powerful user management
Identity frameworks ultimately cut down on all risks related to user identities within an organization, whether they're clients or employees. For starters, a framework makes it much easier to manage the identity lifecycle, encompassing all steps from user onboarding to the account deletion process. As part of the process of updating permissions access rights regularly, an identity framework will make sure inactive accounts no longer have access to sensitive data. This would otherwise be an unnoticed weak spot in an organization's security infrastructure if the accounts' credentials ever leaked.
Many access control solutions also make use of dynamic policies and let administrators adjust user permissions in real-time with ease. This plays a big role in the aforementioned role-based access control that's commonly implemented in digital identity frameworks. In many cases, frameworks also rely on the principle of least privilege, where a user only has access to resources they need to perform their tasks, which reduces the potential impact of data breaches.
Audits and login monitoring
Detecting suspicious activity is another way that an identity framework actively improves identity security for any service or organization. This can be easily done with audit trails of user activities, which are often recommended with most frameworks. These often include logs that display information about specific user login times, location, devices used, and identity-related actions like updates to credentials and changes to the authentication process.
Login monitoring also provides a good foundation for increased security measures with any identity framework. Many solutions use artificial intelligence in this context to separate and classify user logins based on their risk factor. Verified users logging in to use the service on a routine basis might be considered low-risk, for instance. Frequent login attempts to the same account from multiple locations in a short time period, on the other hand, could be classified as high-risk activity by AI and flagged for review in the authentication logs.
With a timestamped record, it's easy for development teams to pinpoint specific areas of vulnerability based on when or where suspicious login activity appears in a given authentication log. If a data breach does occur in a system with monitored logins, it's much easier for administrators to gather evidence of the breach, do damage control, and address the weak point in their identity security so it doesn't happen again. This element of an identity framework also makes it possible for devs to actively detect repeated login attempts and address the issue appropriately.
Consistent standards compliance
Another important part of identity frameworks is abiding by industry standards and trusted specifications in the field of cybersecurity. Examples of such include ISO 27001, which is a set of standards that outline how to build, maintain and secure a system to protect digital information. These, along with the specifications outlined by the Internet Engineering Task Force, are commonly adopted as guidelines by almost all organizations that use identity frameworks for data security purposes.
Many of these standards are put in place for the sake of protecting consumer data, and some compliance measures even take it a step further. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a law in the EU designed to protect European citizens' private data from all businesses and organizations. Some identity frameworks also refer to the GDPR for collecting sensitive consumer information to minimize the potential damage that a cyberattack would cause. In doing so, many identity frameworks prepare for the worst so that organizations and digital services all over the world experience the best case scenario when it comes to securing their data.