IBM Attacks the Complexity of Security with Identity Intelligence

IBM recently announced a new identity intelligence breakthrough designed in IBM labs to provide corporations with a far more sophisticated approach to managing the information employees can access.

An employee's unauthorized access to client information can leave a firm vulnerable to security breaches and audits. Many companies juggle the administration of identifying, managing and approving employee access, some of whom have roles that require different levels of access to financial, personnel or sales and customer data, and can change during the course of a year.

To meet that challenge, IBM is unveiling advanced analytics software called Security Role and Policy Modeler.  Based on IBM Research innovation, the software analyzes employee data and recommends a finite set of roles to better secure an organization and manage compliance. The analytics can flag abnormal behavior, inconsistencies in role access and expired user access.

For example, a 10,000-employee hospital may allow administrators only to have certified access to financial and human resource systems. Their access must be revoked as their roles change within the organization. The Security Role and Policy Modeler evaluates all 10,000 user identities across the hospital and narrows those down to 100 roles such as 'administrator.'  This reduces costs and complexity to manage security.

"With the rise of cloud and mobile access, it's no surprise that identity management has become such a hot button to clients," said Marc van Zadelhoff, vice president strategy and product management, IBM Security Systems. "If an organization doesn't know who has access to their data, how can meet compliance regulations, let alone be secure?  Today's news shows how IBM is applying its advanced intelligence to solve the most complex security issues."

Bharti Airtel and Cognizant Tap IBM's New Software

Bharti Airtel, the top telecommunications provider in India, and Cognizant, an IT consulting and business process outsourcing in the U.S., are already seeing the benefits of the new software.

"The new IBM offering will provide greater insight to our role modeling and lifecycle management that is so critical to allowing our employees, partners and third parties to securely access data they are authorized to," said Felix Mohan, Global Chief Information Security Officer, Bharti Airtel. "Using the intelligence and automation of the Role and Policy Modeler, we can manage our identity and roles much more efficiently and effectively."

"One of the first steps of a secure enterprise is knowing what your own employees have access to," said Barry Miracle, director of Digital Security, Cognizant. "With IBM's new identity management software, I will have better insight across the company into roles and identities of who is accessing particular applications or databases, making our compliance reporting more efficient."

Security Role and Policy Modeler is now available as part of IBM's software for policy-based identity and access management governance offering. The new software allows companies to efficiently collect, clean up, correlate, certify, and report on identity and access configurations.  Specific new functions include:

  • Scoring metrics and analytics that give business users the ability to produce a more effective role and access structure. Users can be identified by specific role they play in an organization.  For  example, a marketing team manager can only allow employees to access marketshare data but not human resources information.
  • Clearer view into the role structure - such as organizational hierarchy charts, and access exceptions due to business needs - that can be managed throughout the users' lifecycle. For example, if an employee moves from one department or function to another, that employee can be assigned--or restricted from - accessing particular applications or business assets based on their role structure within the organization.
  • Single web-based interface to create, apply and validate roles that have multiple members.  For example, a "physician" can be the group role and "cardiologist" or "radiologist" is the member role. Each role can be assigned different access and can be mined to identify outlying behavior and validated for violations.

Featured

  • The Key to Wellbeing in the Office

    A few years ago, all we saw in the news was the ‘great resignation.’ Now we have another ‘great’ to deal with. According to CBRE, 2023 was the start of the ‘great return’ as office workers returned to their normal offices after working from home. The data shows that two-thirds of all U.S office buildings were more than 90% leased as of Q2 2023. Read Now

  • Failed Cybersecurity Controls Costing U.S. Businesses $30 Billion Yearly

    Panaseer recently released ControlWatch and the Continuous Controls Battle: Panaseer 2025 Security Leaders Report examining the cost of cybersecurity control failures and the impact of growing personal liability for security failings on security leaders. The report analyzes the findings of a survey of 400 security decision makers (SDMs) across the US and UK. It shows that security leaders feel under increasing pressure to provide assurances around cybersecurity, exposing them to greater personal risk – yet many lack the data and resources to accurately report and close cybersecurity gaps. Read Now

  • The Business Case for Video Analytics: Understanding the Real ROI

    For security professionals who may be hesitant to invest in video analytics, now's the time to reconsider. In a newly released Omdia report commissioned by BriefCam (now Milestone Systems), the research firm uncovered a compelling story: more than 85% of North American and European organizations that use video analytics achieve a return on investment within just one year. The study, which surveyed 140 end users across multiple industries, demonstrates that security technology is no longer just for security — it's a cross-organizational tool that delivers measurable business value far beyond traditional safety applications. Read Now

  • Survey: 54% of Organizations Cite Technical Debt as Top Hurdle to Identity System Modernization

    Modernizing identity systems is proving difficult for organizations due to two key challenges: decades of accumulated Identity and Access Management (IAM) technical debt and the complexity of managing access across multiple identity providers (IDPs). These findings come from the new Strata Identity-commissioned report, State of Multi-Cloud Identity: Insights and Trends for 2025. The report, based on survey data from the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), highlights trends and challenges in securing cloud environments. The CSA is the world’s leading organization dedicated to defining standards, certifications, and best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. Read Now

Featured Cybersecurity

Webinars

New Products

  • HD2055 Modular Barricade

    Delta Scientific’s electric HD2055 modular shallow foundation barricade is tested to ASTM M50/P1 with negative penetration from the vehicle upon impact. With a shallow foundation of only 24 inches, the HD2055 can be installed without worrying about buried power lines and other below grade obstructions. The modular make-up of the barrier also allows you to cover wider roadways by adding additional modules to the system. The HD2055 boasts an Emergency Fast Operation of 1.5 seconds giving the guard ample time to deploy under a high threat situation. 3

  • AC Nio

    AC Nio

    Aiphone, a leading international manufacturer of intercom, access control, and emergency communication products, has introduced the AC Nio, its access control management software, an important addition to its new line of access control solutions. 3

  • ResponderLink

    ResponderLink

    Shooter Detection Systems (SDS), an Alarm.com company and a global leader in gunshot detection solutions, has introduced ResponderLink, a groundbreaking new 911 notification service for gunshot events. ResponderLink completes the circle from detection to 911 notification to first responder awareness, giving law enforcement enhanced situational intelligence they urgently need to save lives. Integrating SDS’s proven gunshot detection system with Noonlight’s SendPolice platform, ResponderLink is the first solution to automatically deliver real-time gunshot detection data to 911 call centers and first responders. When shots are detected, the 911 dispatching center, also known as the Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP, is contacted based on the gunfire location, enabling faster initiation of life-saving emergency protocols. 3