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, who are sometimes less well protected, in order to reach their intended victims. According to the “Verizon 2025 Data Breach Report” (1)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. Cultura was not the only company impacted by this incident.
To protect themselves from third-party compromises, organizations now impose very high security standards on their external service providers. Specific contractual clauses related to Identity and Access Management (IAM) and data security are increasingly common. The NIS 2 directive requires affected entities to secure their entire ecosystem—including their digital supply chain. It demands strict guarantees from subcontractors, such as 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: The key challenge for IT outsourcing companies
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 their 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 when a service provider uses the same password across multiple client environments.
NIS 2 compliance with Systancia's cyberelements platform
As a multi-gateway Zero Trust platform, cyberelements provides secure, centralized access for outsourcers, MSPs and MSSPs who need to access their customers’ information systems. Administrators can connect securely to their customers’ 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 centralized way. All client environments are strictly separated and managed through a single unified solution.
- Advanced Architecture
- Dual-layer protection with protocol break: The client’s information system and resources are never exposed to the internet.
- Multi-tenant, multi-site, multi-VLAN, multi-VPN support: Designed for complex environments with multiple clients and infrastructures.
- Built-in Zero Trust Access (ZTNA)
- No need for traditional VPNs to access client environments.
- When VPN is required, the platform supports native multi-VPN management.
- Minimal IT footprint on the client side
- Lightweight deployment via a simple gateway installed on the client’s infrastructure (outbound traffic only), with automatic pairing.
- Flexible deployment options depending on needs (vault, video recording, etc.).
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 for the time they need them, thanks to Just-in-Time access. Privileges are withdrawn once the user has completed his or her 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.
Finally, an outsourcer working on one of its customers’ information systems can request the assistance of an internal administrator, and invite him to intervene “4-handed” in the session, while recording the session.
Secure password management to avoid compromise
cyberelements offers a password vault, combined with the possibility of implementing a rigorous password policy. The password vault eliminates the need to communicate passwords to the outsourcer, and enables automatic password rotation at defined intervals. cyberelements enhances the outsourcer’s user experience, enabling him or her to carry out administration tasks with complete autonomy.
In summary: IAM and PAM for Managed Service Providers.
Outsourcing companies and the customers they serve are faced with 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.