IAM, or Identity and Access Management, refers to the technologies, policies and processes used to manage digital identities and control access to an organisation’s IT resources.
Its principle can be summed up in two questions: “Who are you?” and “What are you allowed to access?”
When an employee logs in to an application, server or cloud service, an IAM system verifies their identity and then determines which resources they are authorised to access.
For example, a member of the sales team may have access to the company’s CRM, but not necessarily to information reserved for the finance department. Likewise, when an employee leaves the company, their access rights should be removed quickly to prevent them from continuing to access business data.
IAM therefore makes it possible to manage the entire access lifecycle: creating accounts, assigning permissions, updating access rights when someone changes role and removing access when it is no longer required.
It can also be combined with mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) or Single Sign-On (SSO) to strengthen login security while improving the user experience.
IAM therefore plays a key role in cybersecurity. A compromised account with excessive privileges can allow a cybercriminal to access sensitive information or move further through the network.
Effective identity management helps apply a fundamental principle: give each user the access they need to do their job, and nothing more.