Why Authorization Is Key to Securing Today’s Enterprises
How can authorization improve enterprise security? Find out.
Enterprises today are struggling to support the growing number of users and address the complexity of authorization requirements. As modern access control becomes more widely adopted, enterprises will find that aligning their requirements for business agility and data security is within reach, says Lani Leuthvilay, senior director of product marketing at PlainID.
Winding through access pages for various applications and networks can certainly slow down one’s workday. Managing a variety of digital identities and assets only compounds the frustration for security teams who are responsible for having full visibility and control of user access. For the modern enterprise, this introduces a steady challenge to balance security and friction without impacting workforce productivity.
The concept of identity and access management (IAM) is much more complex than several years ago. This can be attributed mostly to the cloud and mobility, including the blurred lines between personal and corporate devices. Likewise, the surge in the sheer volume and variety of data has contributed to a more dynamic and multifaceted authorization process for enterprises.
The Perfect Deployment Model
Deployment models should be chosen based on the unique enterprise environment, taking into consideration factors such as regulatory constraints, industry standards, workforce structures, etc. The two most popular deployment models are full SaaS, where centralized management and runtime layers are managed by an authorization company, and a hybrid model, which gives companies the flexibility to host the decision-making and policy information components of the runtime layer in the enterprise’s own cloud instance or on-premises.
A full SaaS model is often the best fit for enterprises that need a heightened level of technical expertise and resources from outside the organization. This allows the IT and security team to free up internal resources by delegating maintenance and updates of the platform to a dedicated authorization company.
The hybrid model is typically more popular among those operating in regulated industries, like financial services, because it enables a more secure environment by reducing the amount of traffic outside of the organization’s data centers. The Policy Decision Point (or PDP) runs closer to where the applications, APIs and microservices are, which lends greater control and reduces the response time for users and systems that depend on policy decisions for access.
See More: Why the Tech Industry Needs to Rethink Product Security
Authorization Needs to be Simple and Intuitive
In the face of increased environmental complexity, IAM and security teams can add value by implementing a simple and intuitive process for both their business and administrative teams. IAM professionals can streamline the entire authorization process from start to finish by rooting their approach in the business’s logic. In other words, if IAM teams can improve the ease of use of its authorization management systems, both technical and non-technical admins can work harmoniously to create secure connections between who has access to what and when in real-time.
To achieve this, IAM professionals should consider focusing on three categories to ensure ease of use. First, decipher the type of centralized management deployment model that works best. Second, create ways for authorization to be easily managed and updated by business-driven managers (IT-specialized or not) who are also stakeholders in the user journey. For example, compliance teams gain ease of auditability through policy workflows and lifecycle management. And finally, determine how authorization management can be extended through the entire technology stack.
Visualization = Better Visibility
In the past, individuals tasked with building and approving internal authorization policies had to work with multiple lists of names, groups, applications and other properties. Not only was this a cumbersome experience to begin with, but amid the current complex and dynamic work environment, that process is now thoroughly ineffective.
To improve authorization processes, IT teams can introduce visualization that maps the relationships between identities and resources as intended. Some authorization solutions offer visual policy mapping features that give graphical representations of access policy connections. This allows teams to better understand how their policies relate to identities and groups as well as the specified permissions, applications, asset types, conditions, etc. Policy visualization enables the controllers to fine-tune policies, which ultimately increases the accuracy and efficacy of policy design before going live.
Apply Authorization to the Entire Tech Stack
Of course, one of the main contributors to the complex environment seen within the enterprise today is the growing tech stack. While there are arguments for and against growing a tech stack, every piece of added software requires its own dynamic and fine-grained authorization capabilities. Whether an organization is dealing with just a few applications or hundreds of microservices and APIs, sensitive data must be managed, and exposure to that data must be limited.
A modern authorization company should work to limit exposure of sensitive data down to the cell level of data in an organization’s data platform, whether it’s managed by a data lake or data virtualization tools. Lastly, authorization technology should be able to accommodate different data platforms (i.e., Snowflake, Denodo or Google BigQuery) and be able to quickly tailor an authorizer for data enforcement specific to those needs. Here are five considerations to get you started:
- Define a clear authorization strategy, one that outlines who and what groups have access to what resources and under what conditions.
- Implement authorization at the application layer. This can be done by using access control mechanisms such as policy-based role-based access control (RBAC) – or assigning roles to users, or attributed-based access control (ABAC), which externalizes access control for business agility.
- Implement authorization at the API and microservices layers. The service mesh layer is highly vulnerable to attacks due to its over-privileged service accounts that act on behalf of users.
- Implement authorization at the data layer. This can be achieved by implementing access controls at the database or data storage levels using mechanisms such as limiting access down to the row and column level based on access conditions and identity-aware risk signals.
- Monitor and audit authorization policies to ensure that it is working as intended and that users or services are not granted over-privileged access.
When authorization controls are streamlined, enterprises have a simple and centralized way to manage who and how assets and resources are accessed. Full control and enforcement are maintained and distributed across the entire tech stack so that they can guarantee security at scale.
How are you streamlining authorization for stronger enterprise security? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. We’d love to know!
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