Identity and Access Management: A Critical Issue for IT Outsourcing Companies

As companies have strengthened their security posture in recent years, driven by increasing regulatory requirements, malicious actors are now targeting subcontractors — sometimes less well protected — in order to reach their intended victims. According to the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, third parties are now involved in 30% of security breaches.

When managed services providers (MSPs) and managed security services providers (MSSPs) access their clients’ information systems, particularly through remote access, they face a high risk of supply chain attacks. In September 2024, for example, the retailer Cultura fell victim to a data breach affecting 1.5 million of its customers, following an attack on one of its external service providers — and Cultura was not the only company affected by that incident.

To protect themselves from third-party compromises, organisations now impose very high security standards on their external service providers. Specific contractual clauses relating to Identity and Access Management and data security are increasingly common. The NIS 2 directive requires affected entities to secure their entire ecosystem, including their digital supply chain, and demands strict guarantees from subcontractors — least-privilege access management, strong authentication and more — especially when connecting to client information systems remotely with privileged access to critical systems.

In addition to their information security certifications, such as ISO 27001, IT outsourcing companies working with NIS 2-regulated entities must comply with stringent requirements. To meet these access security challenges, particularly around remote access (ZTNA) and privileged access (PAM), several IT service providers have implemented the CyberElements platform to rigorously manage digital identities and access rights.

This article explores how a Zero Trust IAM platform helps managed services providers address the complex challenges of secure identity and access management.

Managing privileged access for multiple clients

Multi-client operations requiring enhanced isolation

As service providers, companies in the IT outsourcing sector work with a wide range of clients across various industries. In the course of their operations they often need to connect — frequently remotely — to their clients’ networks. To do so they must rely on a secure solution with strong management capabilities, given the large number of clients they serve.

These companies face high expectations in terms of service quality, despite operating in complex and sometimes heterogeneous environments involving diverse infrastructures, access points, devices and applications, often with multiple stakeholders involved. Each client’s resources must remain strictly segregated.

Third-party privileged access management

By definition, outsourcing companies need privileged access to carry out work on their customers’ information systems. They need to be able to carry out some of those operations remotely, but cannot afford to use a VPN, at the risk of introducing an additional vulnerability.

Risks of supply chain compromise

Poor password management practices by an IT outsourcing company can lead to cascading consequences, potentially affecting a wide range of clients. A typical example of digital supply chain compromise is a service provider using the same password across multiple client environments.

NIS 2 compliance with the CyberElements platform

As a multi-gateway Zero Trust platform, CyberElements provides secure, centralised access for outsourcers, MSPs and MSSPs who need to reach their customers’ information systems. Administrators can connect securely to those systems with no risk of contamination.

Guaranteed multi-client isolation

CyberElements enables IT outsourcing companies to isolate each client’s resources in a secure and centralised way. All client environments are strictly separated and managed through a single unified solution.

• Advanced architecture. Dual-layer protection with a protocol break means the client’s information system and resources are never exposed to the internet, and multi-tenant, multi-site, multi-VLAN and multi-VPN support is designed for complex environments with multiple clients and infrastructures.
• Built-in Zero Trust access. There is no need for traditional VPNs to reach client environments; where a VPN is required, the platform supports native multi-VPN management.
• A minimal IT footprint on the client side. Deployment is lightweight, via a simple gateway installed on the client’s infrastructure with outbound traffic only and automatic pairing, and deployment options are flexible — vault, video recording and so on.

An access policy based on the principle of least privilege

Thanks to a least-privilege approach, operators in outsourcing companies have access only to the specific resources they need for their tasks, and only for the time they need them, through just-in-time access. Privileges are withdrawn once the user has completed their session.

CyberElements enables policies to be configured to grant access dynamically, according to the context and needs of the user. Alerts are sent in the event of suspicious actions.

An outsourcer working on one of its customers’ information systems can also request the assistance of an internal administrator and invite them to intervene four-handed in the session, while the session is recorded.

Secure password management to avoid compromise

CyberElements offers a password vault, combined with the possibility of implementing a rigorous password policy. The vault eliminates the need to communicate passwords to the outsourcer, and enables automatic password rotation at defined intervals. It enhances the outsourcer’s user experience, letting them carry out administration tasks with complete autonomy.

Find out more about access solutions for MSPs

In summary: IAM and PAM for managed service providers

Outsourcing companies and the customers they serve face ever-increasing compliance and security requirements. Remote and privileged access management are becoming critical issues.

Outsourcers, MSPs and MSSPs have every interest in choosing a Privileged Access Management solution that natively integrates remote access management and is based on a Zero Trust foundation.

In particular, CyberElements enables them to introduce a segmentation between:

• Their own privileged access needs — internal access for business purposes.
• Their customers’ needs — external privileged access, via a separate bastion.

This enables outsourcing companies to manage their own and their customers’ information systems in complete security, covering all privileged access use cases and improving the productivity of their operators.

Source: Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) 2025.