Trusted identities to secure & enhance UX for enterprises embracing IoT: HID Global

HID Global, an American manufacturer of products and services for secure identity solutions ranging from credential management to RFID and logistics applications, has announced the top four technology trends in the Identity Technology Industry for 2017. According to its CEO and President, Stefan Widing, these trends will influence how organizations create, manage and use trusted identities in a broad range of existing and new use cases. The four broad trends entail:

• Stronger adoption of mobile devices and advanced smart cards underscoring the need for trusted identities.
• Greater emphasis on the cloud through “hybrid” solutions that combine on-premises and the cloud to create common management platforms for digital IDs
• Emerging IoT uses cases to connect, more people, places and things, increasing the need to ensure the Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT)
• Embedding trusted identities more deeply in everyday activities for businesses and consumers

Mobile adoption and advanced smart cards

According to the company, like the adoption of consumer trends to IT in past years, 2017 will also see further commercialization of security, with heightened demand from users seeking to open doors, and login to cloud-based resources, as well as have personalized on-demand printing of documents, and to deploy printed credentials remotely or conduct other transactions and daily activities using trusted IDs on their phone, wearable or smart card. Industries will see that trusted IDs that integrate security, privacy and convenience will provide a new level of assurance to these applications and transactions, while being uniquely positioned to make secure access more personalized to the individual. The industry will also look towards complete identity relationship management that considers the need to grant access based on the context or circumstances for risk-appropriate authentication across trusted identities assigned to people, devices, data and things in smart offices, buildings and other environments that are becoming more connected every day.

Hybrid solutions for digital IDs

HID Global states that enterprises are recognizing the interdependencies of technologies and platforms needed for business agility, cost management and providing a better user experience within a mobile workforce, or for digital commerce and relationship management that continues to require more reach, flexibility, security. In sectors like banking, government, healthcare and other regulated markets, multi-factor authentication for physical and IT access control will have more opportunities to merge into integrated systems that will also provide a more convenient experience for users and increase security. This model will make it easier for administrators to deploy and maintain an integrated system throughout the complete identity lifecycle, from on boarding to off boarding. Through this model enterprises will be able to monitor and manage employees’ access rights as their role changes within an organization, ensuring employees only have access to what they need in a current role. Credential issuance for physical ID cards will also experience a digital transformation, as the use of cloud technologies will enable managed service models for badge printing and encoding.

Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT)

According to HID Global, trusted identities will also be employed increasingly to help secure, customize and enhance the user experience across a growing range of industry segments that are embracing the power of the IoT. Companies will look towards streamlining processes and operations using real-time location systems, presence- and proximity-based location functionality, condition monitoring solutions, beacons and cloud-based models for emerging IoT applications using Bluetooth Low Energy. These applications will include a growing number of energy efficient, productivity and safety-oriented use cases that will need to know the identity of occupants in a physical space to manage environmental conditions, book meeting rooms and auto-configure audio visual equipment and alarms. Bluetooth Low Energy-based solutions will also advance existing secure proof of presence capabilities to include the predictive analytics and functionality based on location-based technologies.

Trusted identities in everyday life

New capabilities for managing and using trusted IDs will be driven by the increase of temporary offices, mobile knowledge workers and the evolution of the workplace, where adapting to the preferences of today’s talent pool is driving the need for more open, flexible workspaces. Consumers also will begin seeing trusted identities used in many everyday scenarios, such as guaranteeing authorized use of corporate and heavy machinery fleets, as well as creating new ways to safeguard students and validate drivers. HID claims that trusted identities shall become an embedded feature of more use cases rather than simply an add-on capability. This trend of “security by design” will lead to many more convenient approaches to using digital identities across a growing variety of activities, services and industries. Along with popular secure access use cases, new applications will emerge, such as employee mustering capabilities to address emergencies as well as the need to more accurately determine who is in a building in real-time. Ultimately, HID Global predicts the 2017 trends will transform the way trusted identities are used with smart cards, mobile devices, wearables, embedded chips and other “smart” objects, particularly in industries focused on regulatory compliance, such as government, finance and healthcare markets. This shift will precipitate the move from legacy systems to NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy and advanced smart card technology to meet the evolving needs of enterprises and governments worldwide. “HID Global has forecasted top trends based on our broad view of the market in close collaboration with customers and partners who are assessing and deploying innovative solutions across markets worldwide,” said Stefan Widing, President and CEO of HID Global.

“We have been at the forefront of major technology shifts over the years and HID Global believes 2017 will mark an important phase in the industry, as organizations seek to use the broadest range of smart devices ever. This will directly impact how customers view and use trusted identities on both mobile devices and smart cards for more activities in more connected environments in the years ahead.”

The company has also highlighted examples taking three industry sectors into consideration that will drive new user experiences tailored to vertical market requirements. Banking: A digital identity transformation will drive consistency across multiple service channels to improve the user experience, from faster instant issuance that is revolutionizing the way customers receive new or replacement debit and credit cards, to “out-of-band” mobile push capabilities that increase trust and reduce fraud for consumers, and deliver a much easier path to compliance for financial institutions. Digital IDs will also push the industry to increase trust levels by better associating a user’s true identity (biometrics) with their digital identities. Government: Trusted identities will change the way citizens interact with government agencies and systems. Passports, national IDs, driver licenses and other credentials will co-exist with new disruptive technologies to change the way IDs are issued by government agencies and used by citizens. Citizen IDs are poised to move to mobile phones this year, where state and national governments will begin offering mobile driver’s licenses and other mobile identity IDs as an option alongside the physical document. Meanwhile, the combination of mobile with innovative physical and logical features will provide more options for government agencies to stay ahead of the counterfeiters by advancing the security, personalization, management and issuance of physical documents. Healthcare: In the increasingly connected healthcare environment, institutions will seek to implement better systems to improve the patient experience and enhance efficiencies, while safeguarding and managing access to equipment, facilities, patient data and electronic prescriptions of controlled substances (EPCS) across the healthcare continuum. From hospital to home, healthcare organizations will seek to employ a combination of strong authentication, and new IoT applications to address these challenges.