From Dec. 7 to Dec. 9, Gartner will be holding its annual Identity and Access Management Summit in Las Vegas, and IBM will be there in a big way. With corporations moving toward cloud, mobile and social, environments have become increasingly complex — and this complexity can lead to security vulnerabilities. Locking down user identities can help prevent these vulnerabilities from being exploited, whether by insiders or outsiders.

IBM will be discussing key trends in the IAM space, as well as how to protect the enterprise, at three exciting sessions.

1. Securing Identities

In a session titled “Why Identity Must Be Your First Security Control,” Jason Keenaghan, program director for IAM Offering Management, will discuss why people are the weakest link in security. Most data breaches begin with bad actors stealing legitimate user credentials, which is a fundamental flaw in the system.

By locking down user identities, you can protect against stolen credentials and insider threat. Attendees of this session will learn how IBM’s approach to IAM can make your organization more secure.

2. Securing Identity in the Enterprise

Andy Land, the program director for IBM Security Product Marketing, will lead “How IAM Can Help Secure Your Enterprise,” an interactive roundtable. In this session, participants will share real-world examples of how to secure the enterprise using identity and access management solutions.

Discussions will include how to prevent intruders from using stolen credentials to gain access to data and hot topics like how identity governance can prevent against entitlement creep. Don’t miss a chance to share your experiences and learn from your peers!

3. Securing the Cloud

Finally, Land will also host a lunch talk titled “Cloudy Security? Accelerate Cloud Adoption and Safeguard the Business.” With an ever-increasing number of companies moving to the cloud, it has become significantly more important to have the proper security controls in place. The cloud not only changes the way you do business, but it also changes the way you need to secure your business.

If you cannot provide the tools your teams need, then they will seek easy-to-use and possibly vulnerable cloud applications to get their jobs done. In this lunch session, you will learn how to help your company take advantage of the cloud to improve your business without adding risk.

The Gartner IAM Summit is always an excellent event with a wide variety of customers, vendors and business partners. If you are interested in learning about the key trends in identity and access management, hearing from your peers or telling your IAM story, I highly recommend attending the event. Don’t forget to stop by the IBM sessions and booth. We look forward to seeing you there!