What is the difference between authentication and authorization?

Authentication verifies who you are by proving a credential such as a password or passkey. Authorization decides what you are allowed to do once your identity is confirmed. They are separate phases: you can be successfully authenticated yet still denied an action because you lack the necessary permissions.

Why is MFA more secure than a password alone?

Multi-factor authentication requires factors from two or more distinct categories, such as something you know plus something you have. An attacker must compromise multiple independent factors at once, so a stolen or phished password alone is no longer enough to gain access.

What is the difference between RBAC and ABAC?

RBAC (role-based access control) groups permissions into roles and assigns users to those roles, which is simple to audit but can lead to role explosion. ABAC (attribute-based access control) computes decisions from attributes of the user, resource, action, and environment, giving fine-grained, context-aware control at the cost of greater complexity. Many organizations combine both.

What does the principle of least privilege mean?

Least privilege means every identity should have only the minimum permissions required to do its job, and nothing more. It limits the damage a compromised account can cause and is reinforced by just-in-time access, which grants privileges only when needed and revokes them automatically.

Why is IAM harder in OT environments?

Operational Technology systems were built for availability and physical isolation rather than modern identity. Many legacy devices cannot support MFA or individual accounts, and shared operator logins are common, which destroys accountability. Jump hosts are used to funnel administrative access through a controlled, logged gateway where stronger identity controls can be enforced.

Engineering·10 min read·June 17, 2026

🔑 Identity & Access Management (IAM): MFA, RBAC, and Least Privilege

A vendor-neutral engineering guide to Identity & Access Management: AAA, MFA and passkeys, RBAC vs ABAC, least privilege, SSO/federation, PAM, and IAM in OT environments.

📖Industrial Cybersecurity Reference (Full Access)

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What IAM Is, and Why Identity Is the New Perimeter

Identity & Access Management (IAM) is the discipline of ensuring that the right people and machines have the right access to the right resources, at the right time, for the right reasons. It spans the policies, processes, and technologies that govern who a user is and what they are allowed to do.

For decades, security relied on a network perimeter: a hardened firewall separated a trusted internal network from the hostile internet. Cloud services, remote work, mobile devices, and third-party integrations have dissolved that boundary. There is no longer a single edge to defend.<

Topics covered

identity and access managementIAMmulti-factor authenticationrole-based access controlprinciple of least privilegeprivileged access managementsingle sign-onFIDO2 passkeys