CISA and NSA Release Enduring Security Framework Guidance on Identity and Access Management

As part of the Enduring Security Framework (ESF), CISA and the National Security Agency (NSA) have released Identity and Access Management Recommended Best Practices Guide for Administrators. These recommended best practices provide system administrators with actionable recommendations to better secure their systems from threats to Identity and Access Management (IAM).

IAM—a framework of business processes, policies, and technologies that facilitate the management of digital identities—ensures that users only gain access to data when they have the appropriate credentials. This paper provides recommended best practices and mitigations to counter threats to IAM related to:

• Identity governance
• Environmental hardening
• Identity federation/single sign-on
• Multifactor authentication
• IAM auditing and monitoring

ESF is a CISA- and NSA-led working panel that includes a public-private cross-sector partnership, which aims to address risks that threaten critical infrastructure and national security systems.