Access Management

Identity and access management combines the administration of identities with controls governing access to systems and resources. It can involve account enrollment, authentication, authorization, role assignment, provisioning, deprovisioning, and access-policy enforcement. In litigation, these records can help reconstruct the relationship between a user's identity and the permissions available to that identity.

Roles can determine which applications, files, functions, or administrative capabilities are available to a user. A disputed role assignment may grant too much access, too little access, or privileges that remain active after a user's responsibilities change. Role definitions, approval records, account histories, and access logs can help establish how those permissions were assigned and used.

Access Management focuses specifically on identities, authentication, authorization, roles, privileges, account provisioning, and control over access to resources. Cybersecurity is broader and can include vulnerabilities, malware, ransomware, phishing, incident response, network security, and system compromise. When the central question is who had permission to access a resource and why, Access Management is the more precise retained Expertise.