The Origins of IAM

Owned by David Doret
Last updated: 29-40-2020
1 min read

Title

The Origins of IAM

Contributors

Version

1.0 Incomplete

Summary

In this note, I try to describe the origin of IAM in computer science.

TODO

Prepare a time line check for the first known occurrences of key IAM terms
Complement this note with key historical moments in computer science history
Establish a timeline of key IAM historical events

See Also

 

Timeline

Just an idea but we could progressively build a timeline of key historical IAM events.
Jan1965FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan1966FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan1967FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan1968FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan1969FebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Key Articles

Bar 1

Bar 2

System implications of information privacy by Petersen and Turn

Key IAM Historical Events

In 1967, Petersen and Turn observed that, with the advance of computer time-sharing technology, simultaneous access by remote users was becoming possible and this naturally posed the question of protecting the programs and data of one user from the unauthorized access of the other users. Until then, the question of protecting systems from information disclosure caused by accidental reasons such as bugs had been studied, but sparse attention had been given until then to protecting systems from deliberate actions from users, including active infiltration using legitimate access to “browse” unauthorized files or “masquerading” the identity of others. The authors used the expression Access Management to designate the set of authorization, identification and authentication procedures and the Access Control to designate the mechanism that limits access to files based on a maintained list of authorized users. They advised that access should only be permitted on the basis of an authenticated "need to know”. This seminal article may be viewed as one possible origin of a complex field of study that some call today Identity and Access Management, or IAM.

Bibliography

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