Access management is the gatekeeper, making sure a device or person can gain entry only to the systems or applications to which they have been granted permission.

A sound identity and access management strategy requires the right mix of policies, procedures and technologies. These IAM ingredients are especially important when an organization wants to be successful with zero-trust cybersecurity principles.

A zero-trust architecture takes the opposite approach to legacy perimeter-based security, which essentially trusts every entity once it has been granted access to the network. With zero trust, devices and individuals are continually authenticated, authorized and validated. The goal is to be sure that access to systems and data is limited to only those who need it to perform their specific duties.

Given the distance organizations have moved from walled-off infrastructures to more dynamic and distributed environments, cybersecurity teams face significant risks managing identities.

At the center of effective IAM practices are access control policies.