The move to SaaS and other cloud tools has placed more emphasis on identity and access management (IAM). After all, user identities are one of the only barriers between sensitive corporate data and unauthorized access.
The tools used to define IAM make up that identity fabric. The stronger the fabric, the more resistant the identity is to pressure from attackers. But these pressures are only increasing. Distributed IT, evolving threats, and zero trust tools are pushing many of his IAM tools to their limits.
To maintain its effectiveness, IAM is moving from being just a siled IAM tool to operating as an agile, interconnected identity fabric. The demands of today’s IT operations environment force IAM to support distributed IT environments while providing centralized control and governance to users.
Interestingly, many of the principles of the identity fabric they define can be found in major SSPM tools today. It’s important to note that an identity fabric is not made up of a single tool. Rather, various tools such as directories, authentication, and threat detection combine to form an enforceable IAM boundary.
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range
The scope of an identity fabric includes any person, machine, or application that is authorized to access applications and data. Looking at this through the lens of an SSPM, the platform should be able to track all access to SaaS applications and alert whenever a dangerous or suspicious entity or malicious application accesses the SaaS stack.
This goes beyond humans to the devices we use to access data. Looking to the near future, it also includes connected devices that may require access to perform tasks.
topology
Traditional IAM solutions were siled. Over time, organizations realized the need to centralize IAM to enable governance and policy management applied across their networks.
Today’s work environment requires both centralized and distributed enforcement to ensure that SaaS applications adhere to the same identity policies required to access other corporate assets.
SSPM plays a key role in the identity fabric, using data within each SaaS that goes beyond traditional IAM solutions to centralize identity governance into a single user inventory that applies to all SaaS apps.
safety
Identity security must be adaptive, continuous, risk-aware, resilient, and appropriate for your use case. The SSPM platform contributes to an organization’s overall identity fabric by ensuring compliance with industry standards and ensuring that all identity-centric security checks are configured correctly.
Learn more about identity fabric and its interactions with SaaS apps. Schedule a demo now.
Change
SaaS environments are highly dynamic and require identity tools that are flexible and agile to meet demand. SSPMs are very good at keeping up with changes in the SaaS identity base and supporting new users and new applications.
threat detection
SSPM plays an important role in identity-based threat detection. Her individual SaaS apps do not have a sign-in context, but SSPM retrieves user login information from all applications. Provides a very high level of context to better understand user behavior that can compromise SaaS security.
SSPM can also track user behavior and look for behavioral patterns based on user identification. It also triggers alerts to the SOC team when suspicious anomalies in behavior are detected, such as downloading large amounts of data.
privacy
Third-party applications are often granted permissions that can compromise data privacy. SSPM uses identity-based tools to recognize these applications and alert security teams when they are behaving risky.
SSPM: Contributing to the Identity Fabric
Similar to Adaptive Shield, the core strength of SSPM is the visibility it provides to security teams and application owners. The ability to identify misconfigurations, shadow IT applications, and devices makes it an integral part of any SaaS-centric security strategy.
However, its ability to identify and track users makes it an important thread in the identity fabric. The breadth of coverage across multiple applications, the centralized location, and the ability to flag suspicious behavior and associate it with an identity is an understatement. Organizations looking to piece together a robust and resilient identity fabric are well-positioned to consider the identity governance benefits inherent in SSPM.
Learn more about IAM Governance in SSPM. Schedule a demo now.
