What is Identity Security?

In the past couple of years, the internet has become one of the indispensable parts of our lives, and we can’t imagine a day without it.

As of October 2023, the global internet user count reached 5.3 billion, encompassing 65.7 percent of the world's population.

However, this doesn’t mean that everyone who’s surfing the internet is secure and can’t be on the radar of cybercriminals.

Thousands of individuals compromise their identities every day because of a weak line of defense and poor authentication mechanism at the service providers’ end.

Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has also increased as the internet became the second home for every individual while everyone was locked inside their homes.

As per global stats, the total number of identity thefts has increased substantially amid the global pandemic and is expected to inflate further.

So what does it portray?

Do we need a stringent mechanism to secure user identities as the conventional systems cannot handle massive amounts of user signups and logins?

Yes, identity security undeniably needs the hour to secure all identities within a network (whether employees or consumers).

Let’s understand what identity security is and why it’s crucial for businesses, especially in 2024 and beyond.

What is Identity Security

Identity security can be defined as a comprehensive way to secure digital identities within a network in the most basic sense.

Any identity- whether an employee, third-party vendor, consumer, or IT admin can be privileged in specific ways that can lead to a security breach causing losses worth millions of dollars for an organization.

Adding multiple layers of security through robust authentication and authorization can help mitigate the risk of identity theft.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 encouraged remote working ecosystems that aren’t as secure as traditional working environments, there’s an immediate need for an identity security solution for businesses adopting these remote working scenarios.

Why Do You Need Identity Security

In the past couple of years, businesses are compromising consumer identities that lead to financial losses and tarnished reputations.

Even the most robust security system can’t ensure identity security without stringent authentication and authorization mechanisms in place.

Apart from this, the sudden paradigm shift towards online platforms has also increased the number of signups and registrations on diverse platforms leading to an increased risk of data breaches since most users aren’t aware of online security best practices.

Also, specific privacy and data security compliances like the GDPR and CCPA requires organizations storing consumer information to adhere to their regulations to ensure maximum safety to consumers while their data is being collected, stored, and managed.

Hence there’s an immediate need to deploy a reliable consumer identity and access management solution (CIAM) that can offer identity security without hampering user experience.

Since we’ve learned the importance of identity security, now just glance at what benefits an enterprise gets with a CIAM solution in place.

1. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Risk-Based Authentication (RBA)

Multi-factor authentication is one of the essential aspects when it comes to consumer identity security best practices.

Adding multiple layers of authentication through a reliable CIAM helps prevent a network breach and eventually decreases any chance of identity misuse.

Moreover, LoginRadius CIAM offers adaptive authentication through its RBA that helps protect consumer identity and sensitive business information, especially in high-risk situations.

The LoginRadius RBA kicks in whenever a suspicious login attempt is detected and automatically adds another authentication layer to protect consumer identity and network.

The best thing about RBA is that it gets automatically activated if it detects something fishy based on the number of unsuccessful attempts, geographical location, or other similar situations. Else, the user can normally sign in, which preserves a great user experience.

2. Protecting Consumer Accounts

With a cutting-edge CIAM like LoginRadius, businesses can ensure the highest level of security when it comes to protecting their consumers’ accounts against different types of security threats.

Enterprises can ensure that passwords are harder to crack with rigorous password policies and LoginRadius Multi-Factor Authentication and can leverage hashing and encryption to protect account credentials and data in transit and at rest.

Also, our modern cloud infrastructure is protected to the highest industry standards. LoginRadius maintains all major security compliances for our application and data storage, including the GDPR and CCPA.

3. Streamlined Customer Experience

A streamlined customer experience delivered by an organization reflects that it’s up-to-date and concerned about providing the most accessible login possible.

By providing a smooth login experience for your applications and services, you encourage customers to try out more of your digital offerings. The result is a customer who is more embedded in your digital ecosystem without extra effort.

For instance, implementing a single sign-on through a customer identity and access management system like LoginRadius means a customer only needs one account for all of your digital touchpoints. Whether your customers are signing in from a browser or a mobile device, they’ll benefit from not having to sign in repeatedly.

Final Thoughts

Protecting consumers’ identity should be the top priority of enterprises collecting user information.

However, creating a perfect harmony between identity security and delivering a flawless user experience requires a reliable CIAM in place.

A robust cloud-based CIAM solution like LoginRadius can be a game-changer, especially in a world where data breaches are pretty frequent, leading to losses worth millions of dollars.