In the digital world we live in, digital identity has become important noted by Bahaa Abdul Hadi. The digital identity helps in online identification and authentication. While identity management is important, so is compliance with regulatory norms. We examine issues related to the intersection of identity management and regulatory compliance in 2024.

Identity management

Identity management is all about managing digital identities online. It allows users to get access to systems by authenticating them. The key issues in identity management include user authentication, authorization of users, and granting access control. Identity management is crucial keeping in mind cyber risks. With cybersecurity being an issue, robust systems are needed for identity management.

While ensuring effective identity management, it is also required to comply with regulatory requirements. Depending on the area of operation, all applicable regulatory norms must be followed. It is required that the applicable regulatory norms be identified and then complied with.

Ensuring regulatory compliance in identity management 

An interesting fact is that identity management actually helps in effective regulatory compliance. When there is a robust system for identity management, it ensures monitoring of user activities, audit trail, and incident management. All these are helpful in ensuring effective regulatory compliance.

In regulatory compliance, a key issue is access to confidential data especially user data. An employee working for a company should get access to user data required for their work. This is a regulatory requirement in HIPAA, which is a regulatory system in healthcare. What this means is employee should have access to patient data as long as they working in that area.

An employee who is shifted to another work area or who quits should have their access control removed. Not doing so allows them to have unauthorised access to patient data, which is a compliance issue. When an employee leaves or their responsibilities changed, the access control must be reviewed and modified.

If this has to ensured, then it is important to have a proper system in place. There are many other compliance requirements that call for caution while providing access to sensitive data. The following must be kept in mind to ensure regulatory compliance in identity management:

  • Define clear policies for access control and automate the policies to ensure effective compliance.
  • Authentication to be made based on user risk.
  • Ensuring access evaluation and review periodically.

This kind of a system will ensure the perfect intersection between identity management and regulatory compliance. The article has been written by Bahaa Abdul Hadi and has been published by the editorial board of Identity Herald. For more information, please visit www.identityherald.com.