Thriving safely in the age of digital identity management

DXC Labs | Security

Read more insights from DXC Labs.

Many factors have led to the demise of the traditional security perimeter, from inherent weaknesses in passwords to emerging digital ID technologies. But by deploying the right IAM technologies, organizations can protect the perimeter, improve customer service and increase revenue.

As companies escalate their digital transformations, much of the focus is on customer interactions. Companies want to give customers a more personalized, streamlined experience — all of which is driven by identity — making IAM even more critical.

The porous perimeter

Digital transformation and business transformation to the cloud are bringing decentralization and the use of multiple on-premises and cloud-based services. According to RightScale’s 2017 State of the Cloud Report, 85 percent of enterprises are using multiple clouds, and 75 percent of enterprise workloads are running in either a public or a private cloud.

Companies must change their focus to protect data and business processes running in the cloud. What’s needed is an information-centric approach to security and risk management, and safeguarding digital identities.

Mobility has also driven gaping holes in the perimeter. To compete in the market, attract the best skills and retain the best people, companies are enabling more agile ways of working. Employees expect to be able to work wherever they are, on the device of their choosing.

This has serious implications, because security must now extend to every corner of the boundary-less enterprise. Security must protect data and business processes whether they are running in the cloud or in a coffee shop.

Traditional approaches to authentication are no longer good enough. The trusty password can no longer be trusted, when the majority of breaches can be traced back to weak or stolen passwords

The typical user has multiple logins. And the horror stories of users writing out passwords on sticky notes attached to their monitors or using “12345” as a password for all their logins are legion. There is a better way with approaches such as two factor and multifactor authentication.

To further complicate the issue, the internet of things (IoT) is introducing new device types, such as sensors, that might be located outside of the network boundary and need to have a digital identity. Also, items such as wearables and machine-to-machine interactions need to be accounted for. And, let’s not forget regulatory requirements focused on data protection, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Digital identity is at the heart of every digital transaction. As companies escalate their digital transformations, much of the focus is on customer interactions. Companies want to give customers a more personalized, streamlined experience — all of which is driven by identity. IAM becomes even more critical as we move into an era where digital assistants can execute transactions — such as booking a flight or finding a hotel room — on behalf of the customer.

While the basic concepts of authentication (who you are) and authorization (what you’re allowed to do) are relatively simple to understand, putting IAM into practice is not easy.

DXC Technology has strong views on the need for companies to transition their organizations from a traditional perimeter defense posture to an identity-driven model that protects data wherever it is located. And DXC has a clear vision for how companies can successfully implement user identity, device identity, identity management and identity federation as foundations for digital transformation and the hybrid enterprise.

Bedrock for digital transformation

As the new perimeter, digital identity allows companies to adopt more agile and cost-effective ways of working. IAM is a foundational element of digital transformation and a key enabler for information-centric security and risk management. IAM can help companies cut costs as they shift the focus of their budgets from CAPEX to OPEX and increase revenue by extending their reach to their customers.

Effective identity management and identity federation enable an enterprise to establish a web of trust across all of the services it uses to support its business and effectively protect its data. Built on open standards such as Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties, OAuth for delegating access, and object identifiers (OIDs) — which work as identifying mechanisms — this web of trust allows one entity to safely and securely accept authentication that has been approved by another entity. And it allows companies to eliminate the need for multiple identities.

Companies should move quickly to select an enterprise identity provider (IDP) as a single point of control and management for enterprise user and device identities. They should support federation efforts — business-to-business and consumer-to-business.
DXC has developed an IAM blueprint within its Cyber Reference Architecture (CRA) that it uses with customers to help them define their IAM solution architectures. DXC also has a range of consulting and managed services to deliver the blueprint to customers.

Implications of an identity-based perimeter

One of the first steps an organization needs to take on the journey to identity-based security is to address the password issue. Clearly, passwords aren’t sufficient, but they probably aren’t totally going away, either.

Companies need to move to some form of two-factor or multi-factor authentication that can blend a variety of methods, depending on the user, the device, the context and the action the user is trying to accomplish.

An identity management system needs to be built with levels of trust. Maybe a trusted employee can log into the corporate network with just a password, which would enable the employee to access specific applications or datasets. If the employee wanted to access more-protected data or business processes, a second form of authentication would be required. Perhaps a customer on a mobile phone would be asked to provide authentication through some form of biometrics, such as facial recognition, voice recognition or a fingerprint, rather than being asked to type in a long, complex set of letters and numbers.

Organizations that can achieve a high level of personalization, recognize and understand their customers, and provide a streamlined experience will be able to leverage IAM to increase customer satisfaction and drive revenue.

A federation broker can help manage trust relationships that are fundamental to digital transformation. Digital relationships between a company and its suppliers and partners, between a company and its customers, and between a company and its employees, demand a level of trust that can only be achieved through federation.

Access control is another key component in any IAM deployment. To help achieve effective access control, companies should look into cloud access security brokers (CASBs), which mediates between cloud service consumers and cloud service providers to enforce security, compliance and governance policies. CASBs help organizations extend the security controls of their on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.

Companies should also consider context-based authentication, which analyzes a variety of factors in combination to verify the digital identity of an employee or customer and to throw up a red flag when something doesn’t look right. These factors can include everything from the signature of the device to geolocation data to biometrics that can identify someone by the way they are holding the device. With context-based or conditional access control, the system makes a determination as to what risk level to apply.

Other technologies that factor into access control include data loss prevention (DLP), digital rights management (DRM) and encryption.

Recommendations for the CISO

Fortunately, chief information security officers (CISOs) have many options for managing digital identities, but to be successful every organization needs a sound identity management strategy. Here are some key recommendations for CISOs:

• Invest in identity and access management (IAM). The traditional network security perimeter is no longer providing effective protection for company data in today’s world of cloud, mobile and social.
• Implement an enterprise identity provider (IDP) and single sign-on access management to address the issue of employees needing to log into multiple systems with different passwords. This can be either in-house or cloud-based.
• Deploy an identity federation broker, either in-house or in the cloud, to streamline and simplify the federation process.
• Enable end-to-end visibility across the entire enterprise. IAM is that enabler because it delivers consistent identity across all of a company’s services.

The cloud, mobility and IoT have rendered obsolete a security strategy based on defending the perimeter. Companies must recognize that to thrive safely in this environment, they must build a new set of defenses based on digital identity and access management.

Contact us to learn more about Identity and Access Management.