What is digital identity?
Digital identity is an electronic representation of a person, entity, or device and consists of unique attributes such as name, email address, biometrics, or other personally identifiable information (PII) and behavioural patterns like browsing history or downloads.
Whether you’re accessing your phone with facial recognition or using your username and password to check email, chances are you’re invoking digital identity dozens of times every day.
The evolution of digital identity
In the everyday world, you conduct business transactions with other people relatively easily, for the most part, when they have confidence that you are who you say you are. As more aspects of daily life have become digitalised, these transactions have moved online. This implied trust is effectively erased in the digital realm and must be constructed for each session of digital transactions.
Perimeter security is no longer enough
Commonly called “endpoint security,” perimeter security consists of tools such as VPNs and firewalls that were designed to protect traditional infrastructures with on-premises systems. But, the proliferation of cloud apps and mobile devices, as well as an increasingly remote workforce, have eroded the once well-defined network perimeter.
Digital identity is the core of modern security
Today, the nature of business has transcended four walls. Countless users and roles are located everywhere and need access to legacy, modern, and cloud applications from a growing number of diverse devices. Digital identity is the only way to control these complex ecosystems and secure access to resources deployed onsite and in the cloud.
Digital identity and Zero Trust
A Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) limits the damage a bad actor can do by focusing on securing the identity rather than the perimeter. The purpose of this modern approach is to enable a user to access information only in accordance with policy and permissions.
At the core of Zero Trust lies identity and access management (IAM), which are the policies and technologies to ensure that the right users have access to the right data and applications, for the right reasons.
Build a digital identity strategy without user barriers
The methods of securing identities must be transparent, or they’ll be ignored. People prefer convenience to security and will find ways to work around technology that gets in their way.
Your identity-centric Zero Trust strategy starts here
Implementing Zero Trust requires an identity-centric strategy that can be daunting for organisations with decentralized, mixed ecosystems. Understand the capabilities you need with the Imprivata digital identity framework.
