Some organizations have specific policies that limit employee access to information. However, not all have sophisticated security solutions in place to protect against unauthorized access, especially amid cyber attacks that occur left and right.

To help companies protect their best interests, user access management (UAM) is a must. Security operations should center on automating processes without sacrificing security from the ground up.

Identity management is a crucial component of any cybersecurity platform. Taking it for granted can result in a data breach, loss of customer confidence, and compliance-related issues.

What Is the Business Value of UAM?

Utilizing UAM in a corporate network aims to:

• Ensure that organizations limit access to sensitive and confidential information only to select authorized individuals
• Provide employees with the appropriate levels of access to do their jobs efficiently without sacrificing data privacy
• Reduce data entry-related errors
• Audit employees’ use of services and detect potential cases of misuse and abuse
• Revoke user access rights if necessary
• Comply with regulatory requirements to guidelines and legislation such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and the Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT)

Why Is Identity Governance Necessary?

Implementing secure UAM prevents the so-called “privilege creep,” which can become bloated and attract cybercriminals. While this is a vital component for businesses, many still struggle with proper UAM implementation.

Based on the 2019 Identity Report released by SailPoint, roughly 20% of organizations have overall user visibility. Additionally, only 10% efficiently monitor and govern user access to data stored in files. With effective identity governance, an enterprise can track data flow and traffic to determine who accessed and used each piece of information.

How Can IP Geolocation Data Improve UAM?

IP geolocation is a key enabler for the implementation of identity management strategies: it provides information on the physical location of any networked device used to access data. As such, any individual who accesses a company’s internal database can be found using an IP address check. When combined with on-device Global Positioning System (GPS) information, cybersecurity experts can spot if a particular device has the right to even connect to the corporate network before it obtains permission to access a file.

Given any user’s physical location, an organization’s security team can limit who can access a set of resources. For instance, a company that doesn’t require employees to travel outside its country of operations can disallow anyone from foreign states from connecting to its servers. Any user attempting to do so should be redirected to a page that explains that the service is inaccessible from his current location. This approach lessens the risks associated with data breaches stemming from external threat actors.

For organizations that have offices in multiple locations, UAM can restrict access using employees’ current physical location. In such cases, employees assigned to a particular office within a specific timeframe can only obtain information from within. Isolating employees based on their current locations can narrow down the areas investigators need to look into when determining a compromise’s starting point. Lost or stolen data identification is also faster.

IP geolocation also improves UAM in that it can serve as a means for multifactor authentication (MFA). Organizations’ security experts can, for instance, cross-reference login credentials with corporate-owned devices’ IP addresses to make sure they match before permitting access to confidential information wherever their owners may be.

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Using an IP geolocation API is an easy and efficient way to improve UAM that can result in tons of benefits for any organization that holds information sacred. IP geolocation provides an additional layer of user authentication and, therefore, protection for any network.