Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Predictions for Identity Management in 2021
By Neil Riva, Principal Product Manager, JumpCloud
As we move into 2021 there’s little certainty that our lives are forever changed due to the COVID pandemic. Remote work is becoming the norm. The IT infrastructure has become decentralized as admins aim not to just enable remote work, but to ensure that it remains as secure as ever.
Verizon’s most recent version of its well-known Data Breach Investigations Report underscores the need for robust cloud security while highlighting the challenges for IT teams tasked with securing a perimeter, one that now spans the globe. In North America alone, nearly 80% of breaches are due to phishing-based credential attacks, poor security habits, or simple human error. A remote workforce introduces ever deeper complexity, especially when considering the mix of devices, networks, systems, and applications users may be co-mingling when perched at their kitchen table.
As IT teams look to the future, both in the context of pandemic-forced remote work and the post-pandemic workplace, security strategies will put even heavier emphasis on cloud-based products – and to best secure them, IT infrastructure will increasingly rely on Zero Trust principles.
Three key predictions for the enterprise next year:
Zero Trust will be mandatory as the enterprise becomes domainless
We are in a world where users and devices are no longer tied to a domain. To adjust to the new domainless enterprise and to meet and overcome modern threats, organizations will have to implement Zero Trust principles into their security strategy. While invoked frequently but sometimes nebulously defined, the phrase ‘Zero Trust’ is best understood to be: trust no person, trust no device, trust no application. Enterprises with no domain boundaries can secure users – and protect against users’ poor security practices – through robust identity management governed by policy-based, adaptive authentication built around device trust.
Adaptive authentication and passwordless will protect a remote workforce
With a goal of following a least privileged user approach, more organizations will provision users and applications based on devices. Risk-based adaptive authentication policies, including MFA and passwordless authentication, will see a sharp increase in adoption.
As more businesses integrate authentication processes paired with passwordless authentication flows – which may include device trust with certificates, FIDO security keys and mobile push authentication – users will experience both lower friction and more robust security.
Decentralized IT infrastructure will need a device-first focus
In an environment of nearly universal remote work, organizations will increasingly require an IT infrastructure that is rooted in the device. The speed and efficiency of remote onboarding users will become essential, and solutions that can get users set up, confirm their identity, and swiftly and frictionlessly connect them to IT resources will see strong growth.
IT admins can do this through policy-driven access control for conditional authentication. By creating a single identity for enterprise users, IT admins will take advantage of policy-driven access control to effectively gate and direct users based on their roles. IT teams will also need to ensure that they can manage devices remotely, ensuring the capability to wipe data, lock a device, or deprovision users in the case of lost, stolen, or compromised devices.
There is little doubt that in 2020, IT managers were tasked with the herculean chore of making a sudden and complete shift to fully distributed workforces. The future of work will be forever shaped by this shift as increasing numbers of organizations realize productivity gains and look to make remote work not just a necessary solution, but part a purposeful workforce strategy. Indeed, recent estimates project that the permanent remote workforce will double in 2021. And as businesses adjust to a transformed IT infrastructure in a post-pandemic world, IT admins will become evermore central to securing users – and their devices – as the new normal sets in.
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About the Author
Neil Riva is a Principal Product Manager at JumpCloud focusing on identity & authentication. Neil is the former Director of Product Management at HID Global IAM, Crossmatch Inc and DigitalPersona. With 20+ years of experience, Neil has led & developed products in the authentication, biometric, network management, security & artificial intelligence areas. He was the CTO of noHold Inc. designing and developing a patented Artificial Intelligence cloud-based technology to improve enterprise services.
