What is Identity and Access Management?

IAM is the framework of policies, processes, and technologies used to ensure the right individuals and systems have appropriate, least-privilege access to resources.

What is the principle of least privilege?

It's the practice of granting users and systems only the minimum access necessary to perform their required tasks, reducing the potential impact of a compromised account.

How does IAM relate to Single Sign-On?

SSO is a common IAM capability that lets users authenticate once and gain access to multiple connected applications without re-entering credentials for each one.

Does IAM only apply to human users?

No, modern IAM also manages machine identities — services, applications, and automated workloads — which need scoped, auditable access just like human accounts.

What is the difference between authentication and authorization in IAM?

Authentication verifies who a user is, while authorization determines what that verified user is allowed to do.

What is role-based access control (RBAC)?

RBAC is an access control model where permissions are assigned to roles, and users are granted access by being assigned to the appropriate role, rather than having permissions set individually.

Why is IAM important for compliance?

Nearly every major compliance framework, including SOC 2 and ISO 27001, requires strong evidence of access controls, making IAM a foundational control for passing audits.

Cybersecurity

Identity and Access Management (IAM)

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Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the framework of policies, processes, and technologies organizations use to ensure the right individuals and systems have the appropriate access to resources, and nothing more.

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Definition

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is the framework of policies, processes, and technologies organizations use to ensure the right individuals and systems have the appropriate access to resources, and nothing more.

Overview

IAM covers the full lifecycle of digital identity: provisioning accounts when someone joins an organization, authenticating who they are (verifying identity, often via Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)), authorizing what they can do (defining permissions, often through role-based access control), and deprovisioning access when it's no longer needed, such as when an employee leaves. The guiding principle across all of this is least privilege — granting only the minimum access necessary to perform a given task. Modern IAM systems increasingly rely on Single Sign-On (SSO) so users authenticate once and gain access to multiple applications, and on identity federation standards like SAML and OpenID Connect to extend trust across organizational boundaries. In cloud environments, IAM extends beyond human users to machine identities — services, applications, and workloads that also need scoped, auditable access, often issued via a mechanism like a Security Token Service. For elevated, sensitive accounts specifically, organizations layer Privileged Access Management (PAM) on top of general IAM controls. IAM is a foundational discipline across nearly every security domain, covered extensively in Cloud Security Fundamentals.

Key Concepts

Manages the full identity lifecycle: provisioning, authentication, authorization, deprovisioning
Built around the principle of least privilege
Supports Single Sign-On and federation standards like SAML and OpenID Connect
Extends to machine identities for services and workloads, not just human users
Role-based and attribute-based access control models define permissions
Foundational to compliance frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001

Use Cases

Provisioning and deprovisioning employee accounts as they join or leave

Enforcing least-privilege access to cloud resources and internal systems

Enabling Single Sign-On across an organization's application portfolio

Managing machine identities and service accounts for automated workloads

Auditing access logs to detect unusual or unauthorized activity

Frequently Asked Questions

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