Effective cybersecurity means more than ensuring outside threats can't cause a breach in your organisation's systems. Another key component to robust digital security is ensuring that the right people have the correct level of access to resources at the right time and for the right reasons.

When put into practice, this principle becomes Identity and Access Management (IAM) and covers the systems and processes that govern user authentication, authorisation, and access control. It ensures that employees, partners, and third-party users can securely access the tools and data necessary for their roles while preventing unauthorised access to sensitive information.

The Compliance Landscape

Various regulations and industry standards require organisations to limit access to sensitive data and oversee account permissions. While using an IAM system isn't explicitly required, effectively adhering to these rules is virtually impossible without one. Implementing least-privilege access, conducting regular access reviews, reporting incidents, detecting suspicious activity and documenting permission changes become exceedingly difficult without IAMs.

Incorporating an IAM solution into your organisation's security strategy is not just about enhancing security. It's about enabling your business to operate more efficiently, flexibly, and in compliance with ever-changing regulations, all while providing a superior user experience and adapting to modern work environments.

IAM solutions help organisations comply with regulatory standards and laws by enforcing access policies, providing auditing and reporting capabilities, and ensuring that only authorised users can access sensitive information. IAM also facilitates tracking, recording and monitoring user activities in line with company security policies.

Robust Identity and Access Management solutions encompass both technical controls and business policies, helping organisations stay compliant with a wide range of data protection and cybersecurity frameworks. Key standards and regulations include GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA /CPRA, eIDAS, ISO/IEC 27001, EU NIS2 Directive, EU Cyber Security Act (CSA), EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), EU Digital Operation Resilience Act (DORA), TISAX, PCI DSS, SOX, FISMA, BaFin/MaRisk, NIST CSF, NIST 800-53, CIS Controls.

In the European Union's current cybersecurity compliance landscape, NIS2, DORA, and CRA are the most relevant ones. Here are some examples of how IAM features help support and ensure compliance:

The Network and Information Systems Directive 2 (NIS2)

The NIS2 Directive establishes cybersecurity requirements for essential and important entities operating within the European Union. In these products, identity and access management plays a central role, as explicitly stated in paragraphs 89 and 98.

Paragraph 89 complements zero-trust principles, software updates, device configuration, and network segmentation. The directive recognises that effective IAM requires complementary human elements, including staff training and awareness regarding cyber threats and social engineering techniques.

Further elaborating in Paragraph 98, the directive specifically highlights several IAM-related technologies and approaches:

• Access policy implementation;

• Access management systems;

• Automated access decisions;

• Security and privacy by design principles.

Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)

EU financial entities now face stringent identity and access management requirements under DORA Article 21. The core message is that organisations must implement comprehensive policies that uniquely identify and authenticate all users and systems accessing information assets. User accountability stands as one of the most important requirements. Businesses must minimise generic and shared accounts while ensuring all actions within ICT systems remain traceable to specific individuals.

Article 21 further mandates several measures which can be efficiently covered by an IAM system, including:

• Applying need-to-know, need-to-use, and least privilege principles across all access rights;

• Enforcing Segregation of Duties to prevent unauthorised data access and control circumvention;

• Implementing strong authentication, particularly for remote, privileged, and critical system access;

• Using dedicated administrative accounts and automating privilege management;

• Conducting regular access reviews, at a minimum semi-annually for critical systems;

• Removing access rights promptly after termination or when no longer necessary;

• Maintaining physical access controls with appropriate identification and monitoring.

The European Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)

The Cyber Resilience Act focuses on product security with digital elements and explicitly addresses identity and access management through targeted provisions within its annexes:

• Within Annex I, Part I(d), the CRA mandates protection against unauthorised access through appropriate control mechanisms. By enforcing robust authentication (e.g. MFA) and fine-grained authorisation, IAM satisfies this CRA requirement.

• Comprehensive event logging of all authentication and authorisation actions enables automatic detection and reporting of attempted breaches or misuse, as required by Annex I, Part I(d) and the vulnerability‐reporting provisions in Annex I, Part II(6).

• IAM ensures that only authenticated, authorised personnel or services can publish and distribute security patches, fulfilling the mandate to "provide for mechanisms to securely distribute updates for products with digital elements" (Annex I, Part II(7)).

• For products classified as critical, IAM capabilities must be designed into the product architecture, ensuring compliance from the first deployment.

The Zero Trust Model

The Zero Trust security framework has gained traction in recent years as a countermeasure against continuously evolving cyber threats. Adopting Zero Trust not only strengthens overall security posture but also directly addresses the core mandates common to the regulatory frameworks. The "never trust, always verify" principle counteracts a common data breach method—gaining access to the network to bypass most security measures by requiring continuous authentication, authorisation, and validation of security configurations.

The Zero Trust model is built on several principles, such as:

• Continuous Authentication and Authorisation: "Authentication and authorisation are discrete functions performed before a session to an enterprise resource is established" (SP 800-207, p.1). Every access request must be fully authenticated, regardless of source.

• Identity-Based Access Control: "Access to individual enterprise resources is granted on a per-session basis" (SP 800-207, p.6), with identity becoming the primary security perimeter rather than network location.

• Least Privilege Access: "Access is granted with the least privileges needed to complete the task" (SP 800-207, p.6), ensuring users have only the minimum permissions necessary.

• Dynamic Policy Enforcement: Access decisions incorporate multiple factors including "client identity, application/service, and the requesting asset" (SP 800-207, p.6), enabling contextual access controls.

• Continuous Monitoring: "Continual monitoring with possible reauthentication and reauthorisation occurs throughout user transactions" (SP 800-207, p.7), allowing for real-time risk assessment.

As many companies have adopted a remote work or hybrid work model, including Accesa, cyberattacks based on falsified credentials have become more common. Another advancement with potentially dangerous implications is the increase in integrations with third-party vendors.

Lastly, regulated markets such as finance, healthcare, and energy have much stricter regulations concerning data security and access. These concrete scenarios are examples of progress and innovation that have inadvertently made Identity and Access Management indispensable in modern digital workspaces/workplaces. The Zero Trust model is digital security specialists' answer to that challenge.

While the average user may consider these security measures excessive, Zero Trust offers undeniable benefits:

• Stronger Security Posture: Eliminate implicit trust and help prevent lateral attacks within the network.

• Improved Visibility: Enable better monitoring of access and activity across users, devices, applications, and data.

• Support for Remote and Hybrid Work: Ensure secure access from anywhere, on any device, by treating all access attempts with equal scrutiny.

• Better Compliance: Align with regulatory requirements that emphasise access control, monitoring, and data protection.

IAM's Role in Compliance

IAM is a critical component in modern IT infrastructures because of its security and structure, safeguarding organisations from bad actors and potential fines due to legal regulations. The IAM sits at the heart of both Zero Trust and modern regulatory frameworks by ensuring that every user, device or service is authenticated, authorised and continuously validated before granting access.

Identity and Access Management frameworks are tailored to the needs of the organisations they protect. Still, most frameworks are built around several key components and then customised to better fit into the company's way of working and context:

• Identity Lifecycle Management: Handles user creation, role changes, and deactivation securely and audibly.

• Authentication and Authorisation: Ensures users are who they claim to be (authentication) and grants permissions based on policies (authorisation).

• Single Sign-On (SSO): Allows users to authenticate once and access multiple systems without repeated logins, enhancing the overall experience.

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Adds layers of security beyond passwords, such as SMS codes, biometrics, or hardware tokens.

• Access Reviews and Audit Trails: Provides visibility into who accessed what and when, detecting suspicious activity and maintaining compliance.

Adopting a Zero-Trust security model in combination with IAM is now paramount to organisations' business continuity and even a competitive advantage, as clients' and supply chains' trust is essential. As a result, more and more companies are building a layered defence approach that ensures only the right people and devices gain access to critical systems, and only under the right conditions. By doing this, companies can both harden their security posture and demonstrate clear, policy-aligned adherence to the regulations.

Is your business compliant and prepared to measure up to every threat? Our strong cybersecurity teams are ready to help with a wide range of solutions.