We are all familiar with the concept of driving licenses and passports. As a form of identification, these documents serve two purposes:
- They verify that someone is who they claim to be.
- Authorize access to buildings, services, etc.
But that's the real world. On the Internet, people have “digital identities.” In short, it is a collection of information related to a person's online presence. In other words, this creates a virtual representation of your real self.
Need an example? Remember your school email address. This account represents you and provides access to important resources. This applies to students, staff, and teachers as well. There may be thousands of digital identities across the district's IT environment, each a potential entry point into sensitive information systems.
Bottom line: They need protection. Good news? That's where identity and access management (IAM) comes in. Let's take a closer look at what IAM is, how it works, and what your school district can do to support it.
What is IAM?
IAM stands for Identity and Access Management. According to IBM, it is a cybersecurity discipline that deals with how users access digital resources and what they are allowed to do with them. In other words, IAM prevents users from accessing or disclosing information without proper authorization.
For example, an access control policy prevents students from seeing their classmates' grades. Similarly, limiting the actions that students, faculty, and staff are allowed to prevent accidentally sharing sensitive data outside of your domain. This reduces both internal and external threats from personal information compromise.
Why is IAM important for K-12 data security?
Many cybersecurity experts associate IAM with a security framework called “Zero Trust.”
Simply put, a Zero Trust framework is a security model that denies access by default. Specifically, users must verify their identity before being allowed to use the resource.
why? Because you can't always trust someone who says they are. According to Google's 2023 Threat Horizon Report, a whopping 86% of breaches involve credential theft. Without proper identity management, school district accounts could fall into the wrong hands, and if they did, hackers could potentially make off with large amounts of sensitive information.
Related cyber threats
It is often said that the education sector is under constant attack. In fact, they are not wrong. Schools are always at the top of the rankings when it comes to malware encounters. Also, if you lack effective IAM security, you may fall victim to the following threat vectors:
- Phishing scam These attacks trick victims into divulging valuable data such as login credentials. It can also lead users to click on links that contain malware. In either case, this gives the scammer access to your account and its associated resources, such as Google Drive, One Drive, and other applications.
- spoofing attack This occurs when someone impersonates a legitimate user to gain your trust. These are often deployed as part of a phishing campaign, with the goal of tricking people into sharing sensitive information.
- password hijack It occurs when a hacker uses brute force to crack your account. Sometimes all you need to do is try as many common phrases as possible to guess the password.
- man-in-the-middle attack This involves cybercriminals intercepting communications between users and applications. This is almost like eavesdropping. This allows them to plant requests that appear to come from a legitimate source. For example, they may attempt to access your financial database or medical history.
Advantages of IAM
Fortunately, IAM offers the following benefits:
- Data protection: Most importantly, effective identity management protects your information and helps you avoid the consequences listed above.
- Student productivity: Mitigating cyber threats eliminates potential distractions and allows students and faculty to focus on what matters most.
- Efficient compliance: Managing permissions can be difficult. With the right solution, you can automate access control processes and policy enforcement, simplify compliance, and streamline your overall efforts.
How does IAM work?
Identity and access management includes four main components:
- certification
- authorization
- management
- audit and reporting
Let's take a closer look at each.
certification
Simply put, authenticating a user is verifying their identity. Otherwise, you can't know for sure whether someone can safely access a particular resource. Authentication works by requiring the user to provide unique identifiers and credentials such as a username, password, email address, and one-time passcode.
If the user provides the correct credentials, the user can access certain authorized resources. But more on that later. In some cases, you may only be certified for a certain period of time. After the time has elapsed, the user is automatically logged out and must sign in again to repeat the authentication process.
authorization
Authentication verifies a digital identity, whereas authorization grants access based on role. Even authenticated users are not authorized to use all resources in the domain.
For example, staff members may be allowed to use certain applications within Google Workspace that are not available to students, such as Google Chat. Authorization is thus the process of distinguishing one user from another and assigning them appropriate matching privileges.
management
This is where the “M” in IAM comes into play. Administration refers to managing user accounts, groups, permissions, passwords, and other related processes. This spans the entire credential lifecycle from initial creation to final deletion.
audit and reporting
Because of its focus on user behavior, this component is sometimes referred to as “monitoring.” Auditing and reporting helps you control what users do with their access privileges and ensures that policies are properly enforced. Why is this important? Because investigating activity is key to identifying unauthorized users and resolving potential threats.
K-12 Identity and Access Management Best Practices
IAM can seem daunting to those who are not familiar with the concept. To make you feel better, we will discuss some best practices that school districts can use to implement and support their IAM strategy.
- Use single sign-on (SSO). SSO allows you to access multiple applications and resources with a single set of credentials. This not only improves the user experience, but also reduces the number of passwords users need to remember and improves security. Fewer passwords also make it less likely that a hacker will steal your credentials. However, it's best to combine SSO with other protections such as multi-factor authentication.
- Try multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA provides more proof of identity by requiring you to provide multiple identities to verify your identity. This is a good way to increase the certainty of the authentication process and thwart hackers who steal your login credentials.
- Delete old and outdated accounts. Some school districts forget to delete old login information when students graduate or employees leave, increasing the risk. Removing them at the end of their lifecycle is the best way to prevent unauthorized access.
- Regular access reviews: Conducting regular audits of user access rights can ensure that users have the appropriate permissions based on their current roles and responsibilities.
- Monitor cloud activity. Over 90% of schools use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. This means that the majority of K-12 students have cloud accounts. However, only 20% allocate their cybersecurity budget to protecting cloud data. Without proper visibility, it's impossible to enforce access policies and support your IAM strategy. The right platform, such as Cloud Monitor, can help bridge the gap and monitor cloud activity.
How to support IAM with data loss prevention
Data loss prevention (DLP) and IAM go hand in hand. DLP is a process that protects sensitive data and protects it from external leakage due to data breaches or malicious compromises.
How do these two security concepts overlap? It all comes down to visibility. Both IAM and DLP rely on the ability to monitor user activity from a centralized dashboard. And managed methods allow you to do just that.
As a DLP solution, our Cloud Monitor platform provides school districts with unprecedented visibility into Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Automatically discover previously invisible risks and enforce policies at scale.
You'll know right away if a hacker attempts to log into your account or if a staff member shares personally identifiable information outside of your domain. You will also be alerted almost immediately when a phishing email arrives in your inbox. Additionally, you can configure the platform to adapt to your needs and take actions automatically.
The post “The Role of Identity and Access Management in K-12 Cybersecurity” was first published on ManagedMethods.
*** This is a ManagedMethods Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog written by Alexa Sander. Original post here: https://managedmethods.com/blog/the-role-of-identity-and-access-management-in-k-12-cybersecurity/
