Password Managers and IAM Are the Ultimate Duo for Protecting Data

Identity and access management (IAM) is critical for guarding business data; password managers add even more protection so you’ll know your data is truly secure. 

With security breaches on the rise, especially for small and midsized businesses (SMBs), protecting company data is more important than ever. As we shift to more permanent work from home solutions, getting each employee up to speed with security measures can be challenging and time consuming. IAM (identity and access management) automates a lot of these processes, from enabling SSO for multiple accounts to granting permissions automatically. But there’s one other critical element to safeguarding company data, especially as employees use multiple personal devices to access sensitive information: a password manager. 

Here’s how using IAM alongside a password manager can provide the ultimate protection for your company’s information—across the business.

IAM makes it easier to secure devices

There are seemingly endless devices that we interact with every day—from smart-home security systems to wearable health monitors to autonomous farming equipment, not to mention our go-tos: laptops, tablets and smartphones. When we use them for work, each of these devices may require access control and authentication to make sure they are secure, even if we’re away from the office. At the same time, connected devices typically require centralized remote administration because they are often scattered across multiple locations.  

IAM combines all access policies into a one system, providing a centralized and consistent way to manage users and make it easier for users to adopt new technology. It can also automate business processes like user provisioning and account setup. The technology harnesses role-based permissions to give users the access they need, and can also limit that access so anything outside the scope of a user’s role is protected. IT admins can easily monitor and change employees access rights at any time. Because IAM is cloud-based, it’s more cost effective and has built-in, sophisticated security capabilities.  

Password managers can add even more security 

For many businesses, passwords represent one of the weakest links in security. Yet only 25% of respondents to a recent Dashlane survey said they use an automated password management solution to keep track of their work account passwords.  

Password managers help employees create strong, secure passwords that can be synced across multiple devices. When integrated with IAM solutions, a password manager can add additional protection across all accounts and cloud applications:

Password managers can:

• Significantly improve an organization’s cybersecurity by identifying and eliminating weak and reused passwords. IT gains greater visibility into all apps and services in use, including those directly installed by business functions without the knowledge of IT, a practice known as shadow IT.
  
• Enable employees to securely manage their own personal passwords. 

• Make it so employees only remember only one password—their master password, which will enable access into their other accounts. Password managers also ensure that this master password is strong and remains secure. 

• Simplify tasks like generating new passwords and updating old passwords. 

• Allow co-workers to securely share passwords within the password manager app, while lessening the likelihood of a data breach that might happen if a password is stored in a spreadsheet or shared over unsecured social platforms, like Slack. 

• Separate personal and business credentials to help make sure that employees don’t leak or leave with sensitive business information and intellectual property.  

Find out more about the role password managers play in protecting your business. Read our latest white paper, Identity and Access Management 101.