Today is Identity Management Day. With more than 20 years of experience, Rod Simmons, VP of product strategy at Omada, provides insight on the state of the Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) market and a vision for where it’s going:
Rod Simmons, vice president of product strategy, Omada:
“There’s no doubt that companies face greater cybersecurity risk than ever. Most people think of this risk as coming from malicious outsiders bent on breaching their network and stealing their data. That’s often the case, but risk also comes from within when proper security controls aren’t in place. This can be due to a culture problem.
"To really strengthen defenses for the long term, you need a strong corporate culture around security. The objective is not to turn every employee into an IT expert, but to raise overall awareness of how their actions can help safeguard the organization. By instilling the notion that security is a shared responsibility across the entire company, rather than solely a concern for the IT department, all employees can better appreciate the role they play in protecting the organization's interests.
"Technology can’t fix culture. Only an organization’s leaders can do that, and they have to take a strong and proactive, top-down role in transforming a weak security culture. Change starts with fully understanding the importance of identity management to the organization overall. Enterprises need to make sure they have all the necessary capabilities in place to ensure success, because there are possible traps that need to be avoided, such as not including the appropriate stakeholders, the absence of best practices, being too ambitious out of the gate, and underestimating the significance of data quality.
Identity governance and administration (IGA) is key to this. You need to know who has access to what, and why, to create a sturdy foundation for a stronger culture of security.”
