Research firm Butler Group offers businesses nine security and responsibility recommendations:
1. Butler Group believes it is essential companies move to an identity-centric approach, where the focus is on authentication to reduce risk, rather than relying on the current mechanisms of perimeter control and detection.
2. The move to Internet-based business processes and a collaboration framework means it is not a question of if, but when, enterprises must implement integrated security solutions that are based on the principles of identity and trust.
3. Identity and access management (IAM) solutions must relate clearly to business requirements and avoid the nightmare scenario where users are hindered rather than empowered by the technology.
4. The goal for IAM is to deliver a balance between the needs of authorised users for open information access and enterprise information privacy.
5. The most significant challenge that all organisations face today is one of maintaining control. There is a need to build trusted environments where the identity of each user can be proved before access rights are granted.
6. Good quality IAM acts as a corporate policeman. It determines rights of passage, directs the information traffic flow by enabling authorised users to have access to business information and, above all, it provides the locks and keys to corporate systems and networks.
7. Identity theft is at an all-time high. Companies must use secure authentication techniques to ensure customers that transact business online are not exposed to additional risk.
8. Business has struggled to gain real value from IAM because it is still seen as a protection commodity, deployed to deal with specific security issues rather than as an enabler of business services.
9. Organisations dealing with sensitive information can no longer get away with insecure, password-based authentication. Compliance obliges organisations to prove that adequate levels of protection are being applied.
Source: Butler Group, IAM Technology Evaluation and Comparison Report, June 2006. Report courtesy of MarketWorks Advisory.
Share