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BalkanID: What makes our approach to Identity Security and Governance different?

BalkanID simplifies identity governance by automating access management, offering deep insights, and reducing security risks with seamless integration and proactive risk management.

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August 27, 2024
May 17, 2024

BalkanID: What makes our approach to Identity Security and Governance different?

BalkanID simplifies identity governance by automating access management, offering deep insights, and reducing security risks with seamless integration and proactive risk management.

Introduction

At BalkanID, we provide a transformative approach to Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) by empowering organizations with proactive measures to address identity security risks. Our solution is built with a focus on reducing complexity, increasing efficiency, and enhancing security posture. Unlike other solutions that rely on fragmented and manual processes, we offer a unified and intelligent platform to manage identity security risks more effectively.

The identity security and governance space has faced new challenges in recent years. One of the challenges I have seen some of our customers face is the fragmented processes necessary to gain greater visibility into their identity governance and administration (IGA) landscape. Many of these processes can create more IGA blind spots, adding more barriers for them to understand and address their identity security gaps successfully.

Customers typically come to BalkanID seeking a better solution for their IAM, security, and GRC teams, given the silos that exist in people, processes and technology. Teams have historically struggled with manual and disjointed processes that limited visibility into overprivileged users, performing risk-based access reviews, and reducing/remedying permission sprawl issues without creating outages or restrict productivity. They needed a more effective solution to increase the visibility and enforcement of their IAM policies and standards while enabling users and reducing the churn related to right-sizing permissions.


Current Challenges in Identity Security and Governance

Companies have faced many complexities surrounding their identity security and governance capabilities. Over time, these challenges have moved identity security and governance to the forefront of countless companies. Let’s explore some of the current and common challenges that are faced with identity security and governance: 

Increased Attack Surface

Identity-related cyber attacks have continued to rise in recent years. We’ve seen this with the proliferation of organized cybercrime profiting from selling stolen credentials and gaining unauthorized user access to internal systems and networks. For instance, ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) models wouldn’t be successful without the help of info stealer malware, phishing, and other social engineering tactics to steal information about your organization. 

Lack of centralized IAM

Most organizations need centralized IAM processes, hindering their ability to manage and control user access across the company. Given the visibility gaps and knowledge of user accounts and their related access permissions, this can create a fragment of policy and procedures being applied. One of our customers came to us for a better solution, given they had completed several acquisitions and restructuring, which reduced their ability to manage IAM centrally.

Complex Access Lifecycle Management

Companies of all sizes have access lifecycles that must be effectively managed for the different identity types and personas. We know from experience that there is no one-size-fits-all access lifecycle model for the various scenarios (third-party, non-human, executive personas etc.). Yet, access lifecycle processes are still done manually and in an ad-hoc manner. Adding to the complexity is the distribution of system components hosted both internally and externally with more granular access permission sets.

Privilege Creep

As users accumulate access permissions over their tenure or based on changing roles in a company, they end up with privilege creep or sprawl. When user access is not set up or audited against job profiles and data classification levels, it impedes the ability of a company to implement a least-privilege model or manage to a well-defined RBAC policy. The result is that too much access is given to users, which can create a greater security risk if that identity or account is compromised. 


BalkanID’s unique value propositions

Intelligent Identity Governance and Access Management

BalkanID leverages advanced role mining and identity mapping to streamline access management. Our solution uses both human resource (HR) data and behavioral attributes from multiple applications (IDP, IAM, IaaS, SaaS) to generate real-time Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) policies..This helps the customer align with least-privilege principles and supports a zero-trust approach to access governance.

Copilot: Natural Language Automation

One of the standout features of BalkanID is our Copilot interface, which allows users to interact with the system using natural language. Whether it’s discovering entitlement risks, running identity lifecycle processes (joiner, mover, leaver), or generating reports, users can simply ask Copilot to perform tasks, eliminating the need for technical expertise.

Proactive Risk Management

BalkanID's intelligent identity analytics provide visibility into excessive permissions, toxic combinations, and segregation of duties (SoD) violations. Our platform automatically identifies risk factors and presents actionable insights, enabling organizations to remediate issues before they lead to security incidents.

Comprehensive Identity Access Reviews and Auditing

BalkanID supports both scheduled and ad-hoc access reviews, ensuring that organizations maintain appropriate user access levels. Our intelligent recommendations based on historical actions and peer group analysis help simplify the decision-making process for reviewers while ensuring audit readiness..

Automated Identity Lifecycle Management

BalkanID automates the entire user lifecycle from onboarding to offboarding, reducing delays and minimizing the risk of privilege creep as employees move across roles. The platform also ensures that access is swiftly revoked when users leave, mitigating the risk of terminated employees retaining access to critical systems.

Robust API and Integration Support

Our solution can be deployed on top of existing identity security, IGA, and service desk tools such as Okta, Microsoft Entra, SailPoint, Jira, and more. With an API-first and headless approach, BalkanID easily integrates into existing workflows, supporting technical and non-technical users in automating and streamlining identity management processes.

Conclusion

BalkanID offers a unique combination of identity security, governance, and automation features that sets it apart from traditional IGA solutions. To summarize, our platform:

  • Transforms complexity into Efficiency: We streamline access management processes with intelligent automation, reducing manual intervention and allowing for swift onboarding, access reviews, and privilege management.
  • Provides Deep Insights with Minimal Effort: With BalkanID’s analytics and Copilot interface, even non-technical users can make informed security decisions based on actionable insights.
  • Delivers Seamless Integration: BalkanID’s flexibility ensures it fits into any organization’s workflow, whether used as a standalone solution or integrated into existing systems.