To better safeguard client data, minimise the frequency of breaches, and enhance identity-related operations throughout the company, businesses should take into account five top identity and access management indicators to monitor the efficacy of their IAM activities and enhance their IAM capabilities. By taking into account and making use of these top IAM indicators, businesses may gauge the efficacy of the IAM measures in several crucial areas and improve the efficiency of their current processes and controls. In this piece, we'll go through 12 of the most important KPIs for IAM evaluation that businesses may use.
The 12 Most Important KPIs for IAM
Customers often contact support staff to request assistance with password reset. The higher the volume of calls into service desk, the more staff will require assistance with password reset. When firms monitor this number, they may determine what about their password management system isn't functioning and where improvements are needed.
Number of Users with Access to Sensitive Data
Some unexpectedly high number of staff members may gain access to confidential information without legitimate business requirements. That might be because their job description has changed and they no longer require access, or because they have left the organisation altogether.
This increasing scope of access may be a security issue. Keeping an eye on this measure may assist evaluate potential dangers and make sure only authorised individuals have access to private data.
Methods of Verification
The term "authentication factors" refers to any of a variety of methods used to verify the identity of a user. Companies may be certain that their users are taking precautions against a single point of failure by increasing the number of authentication factors (e.g., password theft). In addition, authentication factors need to be verified often to make sure they are still effective. This indicator may be monitored to assist identify locations where authentication procedures should be strengthened.
Provisioning a Brand-New Account
Whenever a new worker is hired, they may be assigned a different set of credentials. A company's growth, and the need to expand or upgrade internal systems to accommodate it, may be gauged by looking at the rate at which new accounts are being generated. Companies may use this data to get a sense of the turnover rate of their staff, enabling them to make informed decisions about things like staffing numbers and safety. It's crucial to keep track of the ever-increasing number of newly created accounts.
The Common Provisioning Time for a User
When dealing with mission-critical transactions, the time it takes to supply a user account might be a crucial measure for IAM. With improved speeds, businesses can provide their staff with the tools they need to complete their tasks more efficiently. In situations when a large number of new accounts need to be created quickly, this is essential information. The time it takes to provide a service may be used as a benchmark to see where improvements might be made.
The Rate of Growth
When a company grows, it often requires its workers to have access to new resources, such as a broader range of applications, datasets, physical locations, user accounts, and business units. You may get an idea of the rate of growth at your firm by tracking the number of monthly expansions, which will aid with resource allocation. Keeping an eye on these KPIs is also beneficial for auditing reasons.
Number of Privileged Accounts
Active Directory, servers, and other network components are only accessible to administrators with privileged accounts. Regular audits of these accounts are required to guarantee that only authorised individuals are granted administrative rights. In addition, businesses should monitor the rate at which the number of privileged accounts is increasing to prevent any unnecessary risks. Organizations should reduce the number of administrative accounts in their infrastructures. All accounts that aren't being actively used for commercial purposes should be deleted immediately.
Count of Active Accounts in a Service
New service accounts are being created at a rapid rate, and they are increasingly being integrated into business applications to facilitate the execution of routine, repetitive processes. Although service accounts have many uses, they may also be a security issue if their passwords aren't regularly changed. If service accounts are monitored, security issues may be averted.
Off-boarding and Account Deletion
How frequently do workers quit or switch positions yet continue to have unnecessary system access? It is possible to fix problems with offboarding and the access termination procedure by monitoring the proportion of former workers who still have access to the system.
The Amount of Dormant Accounts
While businesses often set up new accounts, some of them eventually go dormant and need to be deleted.
The Amount of Unclaimed Accounts
An orphaned account is one that has no designated owner. Establishing who is responsible for a certain account facilitates tracking of actions taken. An account's actions can't be linked to a specific individual if the account's owner isn't correctly recognised. When investigating a security breach related to an orphan account, it might be very difficult to determine who is responsible if the account is a shared one.
Time to Respond to Incidents
Companies need to know how fast they can react to user complaints or incidents uncovered in audits or security checks. How fast a company plugs an IAM hole to prevent a halt in operations and security may be gauged by looking at how long it takes to respond to an incident.
Conclusion
An organization's IAM capabilities and the risks connected with its people, apps, data, and network may be summarised with the help of these top identity and access management metrics. By keeping tabs on these metrics on a regular basis, you can monitor the health of your IAM system, identify potential weak spots in terms of security and efficiency, and ultimately lower the total cost of ownership (TCO).
Keywords:
- Sensitive Data
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