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Digital Identity Management is a powerful tool to build trust with your customers. By managing digital identities effectively, you can enhance user experiences, streamline team operations, and drive sales growth.
It also serves as a critical safeguard, protecting your organization, users, and customers from the growing risk of cyber threats, one of today’s toughest challenges. Here’s how to leverage digital identity management to earn and maintain customer trust.
Create the Plan
Organizations can create and communicate a comprehensive plan that brings together a clear vision, strategy, and roadmap for efficiently managing the digital identities of their people, devices, and internet-connected “things.” This plan can address shared needs across all users and devices while catering to their specific requirements, ensuring security and authentication integrate smoothly with access management and the overall customer experience.
Authentication
After a customer has a digital identity, they must authenticate themselves using the credentials linked to that identity to access specific content or their personal space. Combining various access credentials enhances system security.
For instance, authentication may involve biometrics (an inherent factor based on a user’s unique attributes) alongside multi-factor authentication using a password and a security token.
For example, implementing a driver’s license OCR scanner can add an extra layer of security by verifying the authenticity of an ID. This ensures that only authorized individuals can access sensitive information or make changes to their digital identity.
Determine and Provide Access
System administrators need to offer their customers an Identity and Access Management (IAM) solution that enables them to establish their digital identity within the system, essentially their unique identifier. Users will have varying privileges and access rights based on their roles. Elements of a digital identity used to identify a person can include an email address, a customer number, and more.
Engage Stakeholders
Modern identity and access management involves a wide range of stakeholders. It’s not limited to technology and cybersecurity teams anymore, business areas like legal, HR, compliance, marketing, and various operational departments also play a key role. Engaging this diverse group early in the process can foster discussions and decisions that enable agile adjustments.
Lifecycle Management
While it might sound repetitive, it’s crucial to highlight that the primary aim of digital identity management is security, which helps earn your customers’ trust. Achieving this requires regular upkeep. This involves routinely assessing system permissions and roles to ensure compliance with privacy laws. It’s vital to deactivate outdated profiles to prevent security risks.
Continuous Auditing
To ensure continuous compliance with cybersecurity standards, a crucial element of digital business transformation, you should implement audit protocols throughout the entire lifecycle of your access control system. This applies to both on-premises environments and cloud systems. Doing so helps identify suspicious session attempts or security breaches that could increase your system’s vulnerability.
Embrace Technology
Machine learning and AI have the potential to significantly boost digital identity capabilities. They not only enhance and secure the environment but also accelerate responses to threat indicators. With their ability to learn, these technologies can adapt and react to potential threats faster than humans, fostering a human-machine collaboration that enhances both speed and precision in processes.
Endnote
With digital barriers diminishing and customer expectations increasing, numerous organizations are concentrating on implementing modern and efficient digital identity management solutions that offer security while ensuring a smooth user experience. Adopting a comprehensive strategy is essential to develop a digital identity solution that fulfills the diverse needs of businesses and stakeholders.