Employees in the post-lockdown world have bid goodbye to traditional work environments. Remote and hybrid work is the new normal, with employees expecting full access to their work resources even when working remotely. They might also use multiple devices, even personal ones, to access corporate data.
Modern work environments—an IT challenge
With so many factors to consider, it is an IT challenge to ensure that organizational data is protected when giving users access to the resources they need. The vulnerability of remote users to cyberattacks necessitates strict security measures such as MFA. However, while strict MFA policies help protect remote logins, they might be an unnecessary hassle for on-premises users.
The most effective approach to this issue is to apply conditional access rules across the organization.
What is conditional access?
Conditional access is the application of context-based network access rules that increase or decrease stringent security checks depending on whether the incoming connection meets certain conditions, such as:
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IP address: MFA checks are enforced for unknown devices every time they try to access various organizational resources, while corporate-issued (known) devices on the organizational network can be configured to have MFA checks only during device logon.
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Device: Access to corporate resources is restricted based on the client’s device type and platform, ensuring visibility of compatible and authorized resources only. For instance, critical resources can be made accessible only from certain corporate devices.
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Business hours: Security is enhanced by restricting network access to a user’s work hours. Access to the network is provided based on business hours and non-business hours.
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Geolocation: Users’ geolocations are used to determine the corporate resources to which they have access. This improves security by limiting the users’ accessibility to parts of the network that are geographically irrelevant to them.
Automated conditional access decisions reduce the need for security measures in risk-free situations, ensuring an enhanced user experience. However, if security settings to protect resources are not configured properly, the following issues can arise:
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Repeated MFA checks within a no-risk environment cause a diminished employee experience.
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IT help desks experience a flood of support tickets due to inaccessible resources.
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Security warnings when unknown devices access the network trigger an avalanche of emails.
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Misconfigured security settings leave the network vulnerable to attackers. In fact, this is a major reason for the costs of data breaches rising worldwide, and has ranked highly in the last two OWASP Top 10 reports.
This is where an identity security solution such as ManageEngine ADSelfService Plus comes in.
Improving employee experience with ADSelfService Plus
ADSelfService Plus simplifies the IT admin’s tasks by ensuring that organizational resources are protected with MFA. Context-based rules can be used to authenticate employees at the point of access with a user-friendly and intuitive interface.
Using ADSelfService Plus’ conditional access feature, admins can:
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Control access to corporate resources without real-time IT intervention.
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Boost the organization’s security posture without diminishing the employee experience.
For end users, ADSelfService Plus empowers them with the ability to reset their passwords or unlock their accounts by themselves, without assistance from the IT help desk.
Simplifying your IT infrastructure to maintain a more consistent and smooth employee experience doesn’t take much. Try out a demo to see for yourself what life could be like with empowered employees and a happier IT team.
If you want a hands-on experience with ADSelfService Plus, a fully-functional demo is available here. Alternatively, you can start a free, 30-day trial.
Next in series: A Zero Trust approach to network security.
thanks for the information.