Identity Governance & Administration (IGA)

IGA (identity governance and administration) manages user and digital access privileges and digital identities in the organization.

Its goal is to provide employees seamless access to relevant data while keeping that same data safe from cybercriminals or accidental disclosure. Identity governance solutions can also help a company comply with regulatory requirements. At the same time, IGA processes shouldn’t get in the way of an efficient operation.

To achieve this objective, identity access governance solutions encompass various tools, policies, and methodologies that work in tandem. It manages multiple areas, including identity management, data governance, role-based access control policies, and more.

A good IGA solution should cover the following functions.

First (and arguably the most important) is identity lifecycle management. It’s concerned with onboarding new users, creating accounts, granting access privileges, and (if needed) revoking them. It also involves constant review to ensure users’ privileges are still relevant.

IGA also helps with access request management. The goal is to make asking for access privileges seamless and self-service. This helps lessen the burden with the administration team.

IGA solutions should also provide access control policies. Examples include role-based, resource-based, or attribute-based approaches. The aim is to give access based on a person’s role, authority, and security clearance within the organization.

Managing policies is crucial for any IGA platform. It helps the admin team detect high-risk requests, enforce access policies, and prevent unauthorized users from breaching the system. Saviynt Identity Governance and Administration also includes a strong auditing and reporting workflow that helps provide and document continuous compliance so that management can trace the source of a data breach when it happens.

The main benefit you’ll get from an IGA platform is security. An effective platform can help reduce data breaches and accidental leaks by limiting data access based on job specific activities. Furthermore, even when breaches occur, an IGA platform can minimize the damage by limiting the information an attacker can access.

Another benefit is compliance with relevant government and industry regulations. For instance, an IGA solution in Europe is vital for complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Not only can this help make your data safe, but it also saves you from paying hefty fines and enduring public scrutiny.

An automated IGA approach also improves your organization’s efficiency. Many manual tasks, like providing access privileges, can be taken off your staff’s plate, giving employees more time to work on more productive tasks.

Modern, cloud-based IGA solutions also provide cost savings through the use of machine learning. In addition to management savings through the use of automation, you don’t need to hire costly professional services to customize or help maintain your program while also reducing the chance of facing heavy fines for non-compliance.

While beneficial for any organization, IGA security isn’t necessary for all of them. The main limitation is resources.

Implementing a proper IGA solution takes time, money, and effort. This can be more trouble than it’s worth for smaller organizations with only a handful of employees, that operate in a single cloud, and don’t have many external or third-party identities needing management. These companies can often do better with manual identity governance and enforcing simple access policies.

However, IGA is mandatory for a growing enterprise. Aside from the potential threats facing larger operations, management should also be keen on complying with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

Yes. In fact, an IGA platform will become much more effective when paired with other security elements.

For example, an IGA solution can be paired with identity access management (IAM) solutions to ensure that the right person is signing into their account. Or, it can interface with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) software for real-time monitoring.