Identity continuity is crucial for ensuring business operations remain uninterrupted. The increasing reliance on cloud-based identity providers (IDPs) necessitates a robust continuity plan to manage potential outages. This plan aligns with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, which includes the functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover.
1. Identify
Inventory Applications, Policies, and Identities:
- Catalogue all applications, policies, and identities. Include details such as user groups (customers, employees) and their specific access requirements. – read more…
- Classify resources based on criticality and impact of downtime: – read more…
- Critical applications (vital for immediate operations, e.g., revenue-generating platforms) – read more…
- Important applications (support daily operations, can endure short downtime) – read more…
- Supportive applications (necessary but not critical on an hourly basis) – read more…
- Non-essential applications (can tolerate extended downtimes) – read more…
- Detail interdependencies and criticalities. Ensure comprehensive coverage by mapping out the connections and dependencies between various systems and applications. – read more…
Routine Continuity Tests:
- Regularly test the continuity plan to identify gaps and ensure effectiveness. – read more…
- Simulate real-world scenarios to maintain readiness for actual disruptions. – read more…
2. Protect
Ensure Continuous Identity Operations:
- Establish robust failover mechanisms for cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-premises failovers. – read more…
- Adopt zero-trust architectures requiring continuous authentication and authorization checks. – read more…
Develop Disaster Recovery Plans:
- Create disaster recovery plans to complement continuity planning.
- Perform regular backups of policies and resources from both cloud and on-premises identity infrastructures to ensure quick restoration if needed.
– read more…
3. Detect
Monitor Identity Infrastructure:
- Implement centralized analytics and reporting to continuously monitor the availability of identity and access services. – read more…
- Detect outages or slowdowns early for prompt intervention. – read more…
Conduct Regular Testing:
- Regularly simulate continuity tests to identify potential weaknesses in the identity infrastructure.
- Maintain a proactive “test to verify” approach to ensure plan robustness.
4. Respond
Maintain Continuous Identity Operations:
- Develop failover and fail-back strategies for continuous identity operations. – read more…
- Predefine custom actions, alerts, and automations to handle various scenarios. – read more…
Establish Failover Mechanisms:
- Implement multiple layers of failover mechanisms:
- Primary identity provider (IDP)
- Secondary IDP
- Tertiary IDP
- On-premises IDP (as a last-resort backup)
– read more…
Predefine Continuity Actions:
- Define continuity actions such as automatic service ticket opening, initiating incident response workflows, or executing other scriptable actions to minimize downtime.
5. Recover
Manage Incidents and Resolve Outages:
- Create an incident management plan outlining steps for failover, failback, and incident resolution. – read more…
- Focus on quick recovery while documenting and analysing any anomalies. – read more…
Run Disaster Recovery Backups:
- Ensure disaster recovery plans include procedures for running backup and restore operations to minimize downtime from identity service outages. – read more…
6. Governance
Continuous Monitoring and Policy Management:
- Implement continuous monitoring of identity systems to ensure adherence to established policies.
- Regularly update, document, and report policies to reflect changes in the IT environment and emerging threats.
– read more…
Monitor Access Requests and Activities:
- Track access requests and activities to identify unusual patterns that may indicate security threats.
- Maintain a proactive defence against potential disruptions through continuous monitoring.
– read more…
Conclusion
By leveraging the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, organizations can develop a comprehensive identity continuity plan that ensures resilience against disruptions. Given the critical role of identity in modern business operations, implementing such a plan is essential for avoiding financially costly and brand-damaging outages. Regularly updating and testing the plan will help maintain its effectiveness and ensure that the organization is prepared for any eventuality.