4 Key Pillars of Building an Identity Security Program
Identity security is more crucial than ever. In a recent survey of IT and security leaders, Cisco found that 65% of them see Identity & Access Management (IAM) as a top priority for the next 2-3 years. This makes sense — as businesses face an increasing array of threats like phishing, social engineering and even MFA bypass, it becomes critical that organizations build a comprehensive identity security program. By developing a dedicated identity security practice, organizations can arm themselves against hackers looking to login with forged, stolen or spoofed credentials — pretending to be the very workers we’d like to protect.
As we discuss in our Identity Security Blueprint, this is where the four pillars of identity security — Identify, Detect, Protect and Respond — come into play. When implemented as part of a robust strategy, they offer a strong foundation for securing your organization’s digital environment.
In this blog post, we’ll dive deeper into what those four pillars look like, how you can implement them and how Duo can help you get there.
1. Identify: Know your users and assets
The first step in any identity security program is knowing who your users are and what they have access to. This requires accurate user identification and a clear understanding of each user’s role within the organization. Ensuring that only authorized users have access to sensitive information reduces the risk of unauthorized entry and data breaches.
How Duo Helps: Duo’s Identity Intelligence functionality can create an inventory of users and devices. This visibility helps set a baseline for normal access in an environment and enables proactive posture improvement work (i.e., ensuring that everyone is using strong MFA).
2. Detect: Monitor for suspicious behavior
After identifying users, it’s essential to monitor their behavior. Anomalous activity — such as failed login attempts, unusual locations or abnormal behavior patterns — can be a sign of compromised credentials or insider threats. Continuous monitoring helps detect these warning signs before they escalate into major security incidents.
How Duo Helps: Duo has a variety of ways to detect anomalous behavior and provide context to security and IT teams. Moreover, Duo’s adaptive authentication can react to risk signals in real-time. If an action is flagged as high risk, Duo can automatically enforce additional authentication steps or block access entirely.
3. Protect: Safeguard against attacks
Prevention is key when it comes to identity security. By putting proactive protections in place, organizations can minimize their exposure to threats. This includes securing endpoints, enforcing strong authentication measures and ensuring the overall health of devices that access the network.
How Duo Helps: Duo not only provides MFA but also includes industry-leading Device Trust functionality. Duo can invoke these features in granular access policies, ensuring that all users and devices meet security standards before they access corporate resources.
4. Respond: Take action against threats
Even with the best defenses, no system is 100% immune to attacks. This makes a strong response plan critical. Responding quickly and effectively to incidents helps minimize damage and recover more quickly. This involves having automated responses in place to block compromised accounts and tools to investigate and remediate issues.
How Duo Helps: Duo provides real-time insights into login activity, device health and risk levels, allowing IT teams to respond immediately to potential threats. By quickly locking down accounts or enforcing new security measures, organizations can limit the spread of an attack.
Building Your identity security program with Duo
By implementing the four pillars — Identify, Detect, Protect and Respond — into your organization’s identity security strategy, you’re building a comprehensive defense against modern threats. Duo’s portfolio of features supports each of these pillars and forms a unified identity security platform that safeguards your users and keeps your organization secure.
Ready to get started? Read our in-depth look at how to develop a world-class identity security program by downloading our 2024 Identity Security Blueprint.