The COVID-19 pandemic is still going on until 2022. This condition requires companies to adapt and transform their working system into the work-from-home policy as a new habit. Companies’ IT systems that store many data and identities must then be upgraded to become more sophisticated and capable of providing maximum security if WFH is still implemented.

3 Identity Security Challenges During WFH

Data and identity storage has a security system that was previously only made for employees working from the office. In this system, those data can only be accessed from the company’s structured data centre. However, changes in the way employees work have made managing user access even more difficult. It also affects the security and compliance of the company. Here, we will discuss 3 challenges for identity security during the WFH system.

1.      Different types of users

As time goes by, business partners and customers have wider access to the company’s systems. Therefore, companies must implement identity governance standards for diverse users and be more restricted than standard access for employees. Besides, companies should also improve their identity security further. Business partners and employees are sometimes only a few weeks or months away from accessing company systems. Hence, their privileged access must be checked and removed periodically.

2.      Utilization of cloud computing

According to a report in 2020, 92% of computing workloads have been taken over by cloud computing. One of the main reasons is the various conveniences and benefits cloud computing offers companies. Since companies often have limited access to identifying information and data in cloud platforms and SaaS applications, migrating business storage systems to the cloud is difficult. Besides, most companies also need a centralized view of all identity data across on-premises and cloud services during the WFH system.

3.      Unorganized data

90% of digital information comprises a lot of data, including documents, videos, email messages, blog posts, and other forms of files. Most identity governance solutions are built only to handle structured data. Hence, companies need to track those large amounts of disorganized data, identify which files and folders include sensitive data, and limit who has access to that data. That way, identity security can be better maintained. 

Those are 3 identity security challenges that generally threaten companies during WFH. Ensure your company has a strong identity security foundation to work optimally with its IT security system. You can also implement an Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solution as an identity security support. Entrust the implementation of this solution to Aplikas Servis Pesona, a subsidiary of the Phintraco Group that provides many trusted IT security solutions.

Reference:

https://www.sailpoint.com/identity-library/identity-governance-chapter-1-identity-moves-to-the-center-of-security/