The future of Identity Management: Passwords and the cloud

Compromised credentials are still the cause of almost a quarter of all data breaches, according to the Cloud Security Alliance. With a surge in cybercrime, it’s no wonder that the global identity and access management (IAM) market is expected to reach USD 24.55 billion by 2022, according to Research and Markets.

“Identity Management will serve as the central hub that other services leverage for threat detection, policy enforcement, and overall governance. Examples are CASB and SIEM integration,” Alvaro Hoyos, CISO at OneLogin, told Help Net Security.

“More governance related features like more full featured security workflows, more access and authentication monitoring, ability to make better decisions about what applications to bring into the ecosystem that has the identity management solution as it’s base. In addition, identity management is key for our professional and personal lives, so serving both B2B and B2C needs simultaneously might have higher demand. Features such as social sign-in are a clear indicator of this trend,” he added.

Passwords in the enterprise

Passwords in the enterprise were never really that secure in the first place. But in the absence of anything else, they were long the de facto standard.

“Perhaps the most significant change will be the abandonment of the username and password convention that was created nearly 40 years ago for more simple needs and networks. In its place will be multi-factor authentication,” says Brian Spector, CEO of MIRACL.

“Regardless of the device or factors that initiate or complete the authentication, what will be required for the success of security on the Internet is both the simplicity with which authentication can take place from a user’s perspective and the easing of administrative investment required from the service side,” he added.

Identity and the cloud

The cloud already has a strong impact in the daily lives of many people and businesses. Improved trust and security are critical to encouraging continued wide-scale cloud adoption. The question of trust within the cloud enables organizations of all sizes to realize the benefits of cloud computing.

“The liability faced by cloud service providers will continue to increase as identity management becomes ubiquitous in both our business and personal lives. The increased frequency of successful breaches will also have an impact on how companies deal with that liability, and cybersecurity insurance will be more closely tied to the work companies are doing to reduce risks,” says Hoyos.