Technology is one of the greatest blessings of mankind. However, it is not without its share of drawbacks. Identity threats and issues related to breach of privacy keep on taking newer forms making the access management situation challenging for professionals in the fields of IT and cybersecurity. Understanding the latest trends in access management will help your business or organization deal with these security issues more effectively.
The growing need for identity and access management
It is expected that the identity and access management market will cross the $18.9 billion mark by 2014. One of the chief reasons behind this increase is the growing need for a more efficient access management infrastructure in banks and other financial establishments. Also, the fact that more and more companies are embracing the BYOD policies to back their remote employees, contributes to this growing need. North America is likely to be at the top of the IAM solutions providers.
Hackers devise more subtle and refined ways of attacks
As the breach detection technology advances, the hackers are also finding innovative ways to penetrate through these security walls for unauthorized access to critical information. The open source model has greatly contributed to the increasing instances of distribution of malware and harmful practices like crypto jacking. A great number of people and institutions opt for open source software since they are easy to use and give the power to customize the interface by modifying the code. This becomes a fertile land for hackers who can easily add small pieces of code that is difficult to detect.
Hackers are using AI technology
Many businesses and organizations are effectively using AI technology to their advantage. It helps them detect any abnormality or inconsistency in a user’s behavior to alert them of a possible breach. However, hackers have become smarter too and are using the technology to obtain information about what is acceptable and what is not, and then mimicking the acceptable behavior to gain access to the data. Another issue related to misuse of AI is the contextualized phishing emails sent in existing threads.
Trust attacks are becoming a growing concern for businesses
Trust attack is another growing trend in hacking. Under this new strategy, the hackers try to damage public trust in an institution such as a bank or a hospital by altering small chunks of information instead of breaking through networks to access bigger stores of data. With the digitization of sensitive information like financial details or hospital records, this is a major concern for these organizations.
More severe penalties for rule-breakers
The GDPR was implemented in 2018 and businesses are doing their best to comply with the standards. The fine for non-compliance is 4 percent of annual global revenue. However, none of the businesses have been charged the full fine for breaking the set standards. This may not be the case in the future. It is the responsibility of these companies to take the right measures to protect user information and data privacy and failure in doing so might attract stricter consequences.
Companies will have to become more proactive regarding data security
Since breaches are becoming a more costly affair, detecting them and dealing with them appropriately is the priority for most organizations. Consumers understand the potential threat of getting their data stolen. They expect the lawmakers to come up with better rules and guidelines for the concerned organizations. This has made it imperative for businesses to actively implement protective measures to keep their consumers’ data safe from any breaches.
2FA is likely to be replaced by more advanced authentication methods
Two-factor authentication (2FA) itself is quite a novel phenomenon for many companies. However, most are aware that it’s not the best solution for the current ever-growing security threats. This is a strong enough reason for technologies like biometrics are likely to take over in the near future. It is already being used in consumer electronics by big companies like Apple. The facial recognition feature to unlock the iPhone is one prominent example.
Adaptive authentication is fast gaining ground
Adaptive authentication is popularly known as the next-gen technology emerging out of its predecessor called multifactor authentication (MFA). This technology uses machine learning to determine the security risk factors and based on that a suitable security response is dynamically decided. These sophisticated security methods are more likely to become popular among businesses as they promise more innovative and robust solutions to their ever-present concerns regarding the safety of their own as well as their customers’ data.
Use of security robotics is emerging as a promising trend
As in many other important fields, the developments in the AI and robotics technology have given rise to the trend that promises a distinctive growth in the usage of security robotics in the field of identity and access management. Advanced robotics is being used by many companies to automate security procedures and accomplish tasks with more speed and accuracy. Robotics process automation (RPA) is being used to improve productivity and accuracy giving the businesses a decisive advantage over those who are still using outdated methods of access management and data security.
Enhanced security with identity assurance
Until recently, a simple password management solution was used across the board for security purposes. Although still widely used, this approach does not offer foolproof protection against security breaches. A more decision-based authentication and identity assurance approach are being widely used by most organizations that alert organizations of any possible security threats by generating appropriate notifications. This helps the companies take prompt action against the threat such as blocking access to the data or adding more layers of security to it.
Conclusion
The above discussion clearly points out that it is important to keep a vigilant eye on the changing trends in access control and breach prevention technologies. As hackers become smarter, IT and cybersecurity professionals must take a more proactive approach to security measures and use advanced identity and access management trends to keep user information safe from malicious intrusions in the modern interconnected and digitized world.
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