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CompTIA Security+ 4.6
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Which Account Life Cycle Stage?

New account, password reset, role change or leaver? Sort each account event into its life cycle stage. Land five in a row.

⚑ Complete this interactive to capture a CTF flag worth 5 points.

About this interactive

The Identity and Access Management lesson is short, but its frame is the account life cycle, four stages that every account goes through. Provisioning: the account is created and given the access its owner needs. A new employee, a contractor, an intern, or a service account for new software. Maintaining: keeping the account working while its owner's job stays the same. Password resets, unlocking a locked-out account, re-enrolling multifactor on a new phone, renewing a certificate, rotating a service account's password. Change management: the owner's role changes, so the access changes with it: a move to another department, a promotion, a transfer. The new access is added and the old access is removed. The lesson names this as the weakest area it sees, because the adding happens and the removing is forgotten, and access piles up. De-provisioning: the account's reason to exist ends, so it is disabled or deleted. A person leaves, a contract ends, software is retired. The tell between maintaining and change management: in maintenance the account keeps the same access; in change management what the account may reach changes.

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+
4.6 Given a scenario, implement and maintain identity and access management.

Key terms

Identity and Access Management
IAM
A framework of policies and technologies that ensures the right users have appropriate access to resources.
Provisioning
The process of creating and configuring user accounts and granting appropriate access rights when a user joins or changes roles in an organization.
De-provisioning
The process of revoking and removing a user's access rights and accounts when they leave an organization or no longer require access.
Change Management
A structured process for requesting, reviewing, approving, and documenting changes to IT systems or organizational procedures. Change management reduces security risk by ensuring modifications are tested and authorized before deployment.

Topics

Identity And Access Management Interactive Streak Sort

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