CIO OPINION

1. Context, location and behaviour – the holy grail of identity assurance: Organisations have more multi-factor authentication choices than ever before and as we move into the future, this range of options is set to widen. In particular, watch the growing trend towards dynamic, frictionless solutions that can automatically recognise someone based on contextual clues and behavioural access patterns, while still providing a high-level of identity assurance. Certified interoperability with on-premise and cloud apps will also become increasingly important as the number of applications grows.

2. Single sign-on( SSO) will need to move with the times: Our reliance on technology is seeping through every facet of our working lives, meaning we are constantly having to log on to multiple systems and applications to get our jobs done. Single sign-on( SSO) provides tremendous benefits in this context, as users no longer have to remember reams of passwords. However, SSO is only effective if organisations have the assurance that users who request access are who they say they are. Don’ t be surprised to see more SSO providers partnering with security and authentication specialists to deliver solutions that use advanced analytics to increase security and transparency.

3. Practical standards to meet modern authentication needs: Across an enterprise, there are many different roles and requirements for security and authentication. For example, you may have a different type of authentication method for an employee who routinely accesses lower-risk applications than for a privileged user. Yet this does not mean you need to abandon standardisation. Several emerging open standards and protocols for multifactor authentication are making it possible to meet diverse user needs and still have consistent integration processes and user experiences across systems, devices and apps. This means that you can employ the same standards and protocols to incorporate and administer both.

4. Biometrics that live up to the hype: Biometrics have been talked about for years and you can be forgiven for having an‘ I’ ll believe it when I see it’ attitude to these promises. However, biometrics are finally coming into their own and we are starting to see them become a common method for enterprise authentication. Providing a fingerprint or retina scan may be easy

52 INTELLIGENTCIO www. intelligentcio. com