Organizations are twice as likely to get breached through compromised credentials than any other threat vector. Compromised credentials are when credentials, such as usernames and passwords, are exposed to unauthorized entities. 

When lost, stolen or exposed, compromised credentials can give the intruder insider’s access. Although monitoring and analysis within the enterprise can identify suspicious activity, these credentials effectively bypass perimeter security and complicate detection. 

Problem

Having perpetual or standing privileged access to a critical application, sensitive database, or production environment is all that is needed to execute commands to expose data and inflict damage, such as create fake accounts, exfiltrate sensitive data, cause damage to infrastructure, and delete or hold data for ransom—all of which can impact a company’s reputation and bottom line. 

“Oftentimes, risk is amplified due to users having more privileges than required or due to general negligence caused by the burden of managing permissions.” – Rom Carmel, CEO and co-founder, Apono.

Solution: Okta + Apono 

For organizations using Okta as their centralized identity and SSO provider, Apono provides a platform to enforce the zero-standing access and principle of least privilege with time-based access controls, just-in-time access provisioning, and easy-to-use access reviews—all from one central platform. 

Apono natively integrates with Okta, which enables employees to request access to Apps, Cloud Environments, Roles, Databases, Cloud Resources, and Groups. In addition, Apono syncs with Okta as a source of truth for identity: importing users, organizational attributes like employees’ managers, and their group mapping. 

With Apono for Okta, teams can strike the right balance between enabling workforce productivity and minimizing their identity-based attack surface area. 

Benefits of Apono for Okta Customers

• Complete IAM visibility: discover all users and groups, or pick just the groups your want to sync with Apono 
• JIT Access based on Okta groups: set dynamic Access Flows around group members and teams; who can request and be granted fine-grained access to cloud resources 
• Just-in-time group membership: managing on-call shifts, access to production environments and CI/CD apps with Okta groups? With Apono users can request temporary group membership based on dynamic Access Flows.
• Simple and secure integration, with the Apono app for Okta 
• Automated, fully logged provisioning and deprovisioning of privileged permissions

Okta + Apono Benefits

• Replacing standing access with just-in-time and time-based access
• Automating identity governance and access control for sensitive apps and infrastructure.
• Running user access reviews more proactively—such as upon a role change or departure.
• Empowering employees with the right context to make security-based access decisions.

Okta + Apono Use Cases

1. Protect PII and Meet Compliance Standards

Protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and meeting compliance standards is crucial for organizations to ensure the privacy and security of individuals’ sensitive data. Compliance with data protection regulations is an ongoing process, and it requires a commitment from the entire organization to protect PII effectively. 

Many regulatory frameworks require organizations to implement strict controls over privileged access. Apono provides the necessary tools to establish and demonstrate compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and more. Non-compliance can result in severe penalties and reputational damage, making it essential to prioritize these efforts. 

2. Control and Separate Access to Customer Data

Database access control is key to customer satisfaction – customers want to (and are required to) ensure least privilege to their data and their customers’ data by their vendors.

This may include metadata, like users, resource names (like DBs, repositories, etc.), DaaS (data as a service) titles and paths, and also actual data, especially Personal Identifiable Information of customers and employees (names, IDs, addresses, emails, phone numbers, and any other personal attribute).

Apono handles the access workflow for each user who needs to access a customer environment, account, tenant or database, including approval, provisioning, secure access details, revocation and audit.

3. Create Automated, Granular Dynamic Access Workflows

Automated, granular, dynamic access workflows provide the right level of access to users and systems based on a variety of factors, such as role, context, and changing circumstances. They not only enhance security but also improve operational efficiency by reducing the administrative burden of managing access manually. They adapt to changing user roles, contexts, and resource sensitivities, helping organizations stay secure and compliant in a dynamic digital environment. 

Since some organizations require a manager’s approval to access sensitive data, one of the most popular dynamic flows uses the Okta Manager attribute. Apono syncs with Okta to get the manager info for each developer and then sends the manager his or her access requests for approval. When the manager changes, Apono knows about it.

About Apono

Apono is a leading provider of access management solutions that enhance access control with dynamic mechanisms. With Apono’s platform, organizations can leverage Just-In-Time (JIT) access and Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) functionalities to achieve a more flexible and adaptable access management approach.

Learn more: Apono Docs

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Apono authored by Rom Carmel. Read the original post at: https://www.apono.io/blog/achieving-zero-standing-privileges-with-okta-and-apono/