Identity Management

Identity management (ID management) is a broad administrative area that deals with identifying
individuals in a system (such as a country, a network, or an enterprise) and controlling their
access to resources within that system by associating user rights and restrictions with the
established identity (Rouse & Craig, 2013).
ID management systems also give organizations a way to control the swarm of untethered
endpoints such as laptops, PDAs and cell phones buzzing around the enterprise. Many of these
devices are neither owned nor provisioned by the companies whose networks they need to
access. The ability to enforce a set of policies on the devices that connect with the network
through the management of the identities of the users of those devices is fast becoming a musthave security capability (John, 2004).
Why is it important?
As organizations grow and add services such as e-commerce and global remote access, and
integrate new business functions such as joint ventures and multiple span projects, controlling
who is accessing company information resources is becoming an even more difficult task.
Information and Network Security Specialists need to be able to control who is accessing
sensitive and proprietary information, when they are accessing it, and from where they are
accessing it. Access could include but is not limited to: web-based access, remote dial-in access,
access via VPN, or direct access via the organizations intranet. As the scope of access control
continues to grow and span across multiple systems and multiple applications, each system could
be using a different method of access control and user authentication (SANS, 2003).
References

John, K. W. (2004, January 1). the ABCs of identity management . Retrieved from csoonline:
http://www.csoonline.com/article/2120384/identity-management/the-abcs-of-identitymanagement.html#care
Rouse, M., & Craig, J. M. (2013, October). Identity management. Retrieved from TechTarget:
http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/identity-management-ID-management
SANS. (2003). Retrieved from SANS: http://www.sans.org/readingroom/whitepapers/authentication/identity-management-1076