IAM Is Critical for an Effective Remote Work Security Strategy

The future of work is remote. As businesses embrace a work-from-anywhere policy, long-term sustainability and security of a remote workforce is now a top priority. How can businesses ensure remote employees are productive and efficient, while safeguarding critical company data and assets? Not only does remote work present unique challenges, today’s rapid changes in work culture provide an opportunity to rethink how employee access is managed. For businesses looking to adopt a work-from-anywhere culture, a thoughtful investment in identity and access management (IAM) is essential to facilitating secure, effective remote work. Why Identity and Access Management? An identity is a collection of unique data points and attributes used to identify an employee in the workplace. When an employee needs to work, their identity connects them to the resources and services they need to use to perform their role. The status of a user’s identity – such as an employee, contractor, vendor – their role and associated permissions determines what they should have access to. When user identities are centrally and securely managed, a business can ensure that the right employee has access to the right resources from the right devices at the right time. Employees can work more efficiently when they can effortlessly access the data and resources they need to use. By combining passwordless employee access and encrypted credential sharing with strong authentication, IAM solutions can help businesses improve the employee experience and safeguard from cyberthreats even as employees connect and work from anywhere in the world. Based on our recent research with IDG on the impact of remote work to IAM, 98% of IT decision makers agree that IAM is critical for securing their remote workforce. Secure Access No matter where employees work, they need to have access to stay productive. Access to data, access to apps, access to services and accounts. Access to all of the resources that help them do their jobs and do them well. With single sign-on (SSO), employees are instantly connected to applications with a single set of login credentials that unlocks access. It’s quick, secure, and can be easily configured to work from anywhere. Secure Sharing For remote teams, virtual collaboration that is easy and secure is a necessity. When it comes to sharing access to accounts and data, teams need a way to share credentials without increasing the risk of cyberattacks and data breach. Enterprise password management (EPM) provides central, safe storage of shared corporate credentials so remote team members can access shared accounts, from anywhere. Secure Authentication To mitigate cyberthreats when working remotely, businesses need to think about adding layers of security that slow down attackers – but not employees. Additional login requirements and behind-the-scenes analysis of many factors helps reduce the risk of a cyberattack. Multifactor authentication (MFA), especially a solution that incorporates biometric and contextual authentication, can significantly increase security in a way that is quick and easy for employees. In short, a new or ongoing investment in IAM is critical to adapting to the new normal of remote work. View our infographic below to see the full results of our remote work research.