The ability to create accounts only when they are needed and provision entitlements in real time can be a significant help, eliminating the problem of unused accounts sitting around waiting to be compromised. Solid integration with a single sign-on (SSO) provider is a part of that solution, and can help with the issue of correlation (making sure there are no duplicate identities in the system). Real-time account creation and provisioning is especially helpful for online learning institutions, as allowing users to get started right away can decrease abandon rates and keep students engaged as well as secure.
Leveraging High-Tech (and Low-Tech) Identity Solutions
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) also play a critical role in today’s identity security systems. Manually keeping track of entitlements and permissions across tens—even hundreds—of thousands of identities simply isn’t possible, but automated tools can identify scenarios where identities have accumulated too many privileges. Maybe a student has changed from a biology major to an accounting major but retained their science lab credentials or stopped working on a research project but accidentally retained access to its data. Students and faculty can change roles any number of times. Adjusting their entitlements as their relationship with the institution changes is a critical way to limit the damage a compromised identity could cause.
AI/ML tools can search for structural outliers that don’t fit the expected pattern, compare data over time, and observe recent trends. If a certain entitlement is rarely used, the system might recommend eliminating it. On the other hand, if one type of user is regularly requesting permission to access certain information, it might recommend granting that entitlement on a more permanent basis. In these instances, granting greater access can sometimes improve security: if administrators have to approve too many access requests, it can cause approval fatigue and lead to rubber stamping.
On the other end of the technology spectrum, basic cyber hygiene is important and should be encouraged at every level. For colleges and universities, that means strong password policies and frequent password changes. The use of a password manager can help—in fact, working with a password management provider to grant students free access to the service isn’t a bad idea. Young people tend to reuse passwords across multiple accounts, which can result in a college’s systems being compromised thanks to a password acquired in a completely unrelated breach. Multifactor authentication, while not unbreakable, is another good way to make life harder on attackers—and sometimes that’s all it takes.
Help Is Out There
Implementing strong identity security can be intimidating for colleges and universities. This is understandable. With thousands and thousands of identities to manage, it can be difficult to even know where to begin. But in today’s threat landscape, there are plenty of security partners who can walk college IT departments through the process of conducting a security assessment, explain the principles behind modern identity security, and help generate buy-in with university administrators. There’s no need to go it alone. The resources and expertise needed to implement strong identity security are out there—today’s schools just need to recognize the challenges they face and seek out the solutions.
Ben Cody is the Senior Vice President of Product Management at SailPoint.
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