The arms race for sophisticated digital identities can offer businesses the chance to improve user experience, accessibility, operational efficiencies, and even security. However, for many businesses and customers, achieving effective identity-based security still seems like a very distant reality.
According to research, major companies spend up to $1 million annually on equipment and personnel just to handle password resets. Organizations, regulatory agencies, and governments must collaborate closely to build approachable strategies and frameworks to protect operations in our digital world as the threat landscape changes and attacks on businesses and customers increase.
Best practices adoption for digital age safety
Identity security refers to the tools and processes intended for securing identities within an organization. It provides real-time, intelligence-based access to data and applications by integrating IAM infrastructure with enterprise cybersecurity solutions. It also improves security posture through identity-centric security, which helps reduce the risk of an attack, breach, or audit failure. Having a mature IAM program may not be an absolute requirement for implementing an identity-centric approach to security, but it can improve its effectiveness.
A solid IAM platform, such as Ping Identity, can help organizations protect their data as well as their customer’s privacy, and also adapt to future risks. Since new types of identity will continue to change how people operate, it’s important to provide an enhanced customer experience, so you can build a better customer journey. However, these upgrades will alter how businesses protect the identities of both employees and outside parties. Every day there are new types of cyber threats, and companies must prioritize identity-centric security models if they want to protect their business as well as their customers.
Decentralized identity
The information that users have shared with whatever entity they deal with in their personal and professional life must be remembered according to the user identity verification models that are now in use. When people lose their login information, a laborious procedure is required to retrieve or reset them in order to regain access.
This is not only annoying for the user, but also unsustainable for the affiliated third-party organizations. These expenses are anticipated to rise as more user data is stored for each private entity and demands on the businesses that store user data increase.
With a decentralized strategy, people would regain control over their legal identities, making it possible for them, and only them, to grant one-touch access. Users wouldn’t have to exchange their data each time they sign up for a new app, service, or website thanks to this technique, as it will eliminate the need for individual account credentials.
Physical and behavioral biometrics
Biometrics and the digital experience have virtually become interchangeable terms. What could be simpler than putting your fingerprint on a screen to pass through airport security or using your mobile device to log into an app? Biometrics is the industry standard when it comes to security; they are safer than passwords since they are far more difficult to forge and are more difficult to defeat, but not impossible.
Because they are impossible to forget, biometrics is also simpler for the user. Behavioral biometrics also fit into this category. These approaches, which include identifying someone based on their location, the way their phone moves in their hand, or even the way they type on their keyboard, will gain popularity as people grow accustomed to cutting-edge identification techniques.
Fraud enabled by AI
Another encouraging trend that will continue to gain ground in the upcoming years is the use of AI to enhance identity and fraud management. Businesses can onboard customers faster and screen for fraud more efficiently through intelligent automation. The use of AI to search for deepfakes—video or voice recordings that have been falsely changed to impersonate someone else—is even more fascinating.
These complex threats, which once appeared far-fetched, are now a sobering reality. For instance, in one of the biggest and most intricate heists in history in 2020, fraudsters in the United Arab Emirates mimicked the voice of a company director at a sizable bank to steal money. Without the use of AI, threats like this would just spread further and become more difficult to identify.
Fraud isn’t just something that should concern enterprises. Customers are also in danger. In reality, fraud cost American consumers more than $5.8 billion last year, a 70% rise from 2020. Intelligent fraud detection tools can drastically reduce remediation costs while protecting both customers and enterprises.
Conclusion
Businesses must stay current with the most recent developments to guarantee they deliver the best possible customer experience while maintaining the security of their operations. The future of digital identity is fast evolving. In terms of security and user experience, biometrics and passwordless user authentication techniques are quickly becoming industry standards. However, as cyber threats increase, there is a growing need for organizations to work together to develop workable strategies and frameworks to protect operations in the digital world.