Web Access Management

Web access management (WAM) is a form of identity management that controls access to web resources, providing authentication management, policy-based authorizations, audit and reporting services (optional) and single sign-on convenience

Authentication management is the process of determining a user’s (or application’s) identity. This is normally done by prompting for a user name and a password. Additional methods of authentication can also include access tokens (which generate one-time passwords) and digital certificates.

Once a user's (or process') identity is confirmed, policy-based authorization comes into play. A web resource can have one or more policies attached to it that say "only allow internal employees to access this resource" and/or "only allow members of the Admin Group to access this resource." The requested resource is used to look up the policy, and then the policy is evaluated against the user’s identity. If the user passes the policy evaluation, she/he is granted access to the resource. If the user fails the evaluation, access is denied.

After an authentication or authorization policy decision is made, the outcome can be recorded for auditing purposes, such as:

  • determining the last login time of a user
  • identifying attempts to gain access to protected resources
  • logging any administrative actions

As a benefit to the end user, a web access management product can then tie this security together (which is more of a benefit to IT and administrative staff), and offer single sign on, the process by which a user logs in only once to a web resource, and then is automatically logged in to all related resources. Users can be inconvenienced when attempting to get authenticated to multiple websites throughout the course of a day (potentially each with different user names and passwords). A web access management product can record the initial authentication, and provide the user with a cookie that acts as a temporary token for authentication to all other protected resources, thereby requiring the user to log in only once.

Read more about Web Access Management:  History, Architectures, Costs

Famous quotes containing the words web, access and/or management:

    The web of domination has become the web of Reason itself, and this society is fatally entangled in it.
    Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)

    Knowledge in the form of an informational commodity indispensable to productive power is already, and will continue to be, a major—perhaps the major—stake in the worldwide competition for power. It is conceivable that the nation-states will one day fight for control of information, just as they battled in the past for control over territory, and afterwards for control over access to and exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor.
    Jean François Lyotard (b. 1924)

    The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction and government of servants, are as deserving of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.
    Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)