Cybersecurity is a human problem. Bad people use good technology for the worst purposes. Good people sometimes simply make mistakes or take inappropriate shortcuts. In the unfolding, complex cyber ecosystem, nowhere does human meet machine more directly than with identity and access management, or IAM.
Yet this direct connection is fraught with risk. Everyone must log in, but no one wants a lengthy process. Consequently, the more that IAM is automated, the more that people—who pose the weakest link in the cyber realm—are removed from the equation. Herein lies the problem: The easier processes become for users, the more complicated processes become for systems themselves.