Resellers See IDM as Security Woes Solution
Last week, the FBI had to make an embarrassing confession: The hacking group Anonymous penetrated its phone system and was listening in on confidential calls between headquarters, field offices and overseas partners, including the vaunted Scotland Yard.
The FBI incident is just the latest in a long string of embarrassing hacks that led to the compromise of millions of user accounts and copious amounts of confidential and potentially damaging data. At the root of many of these hacks is the compromise of weak authentication and access control systems, which are powered by identity management solutions – or the lack thereof.
Identity management remains one of those heady security solutions only accessible by large enterprises because of its complexity and cost. However, the need for better security and value in managing identity to control risks is finding its way deeper into the market, particularly through the channel, according to SafeNet.
SafeNet, a specialist in multifactor authentication technology, recently unveiled the results of a study in which more than 100 security solution providers and resellers noted their increasing interest in authentication and identity management solutions as a means for solving customers’ security risks and minimizing exposure.
According to SafeNet, 67 percent of solution providers surveyed are looking at authentication solutions to control evolving security risks. More than 50 percent of solution providers are actively looking at identity management and authentication vendors for partnership opportunities.
Security threats and hacker trends show that the ongoing arms race between black hats and security professionals is not only increasing, but accelerating. It’s getting harder for businesses – regardless of size or capability – to keep up with every threat with conventional security solutions such as firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and data loss prevention and antivirus technologies.
Identity management – control based on the unique characteristics of a person, device or application – has long been seen as a better means for controlling security risks. If you know a person’s identity, you can apply a policy that allows or restricts access to resources, data and processes. Multifactor authentication – the combination of who you are (username), something you have (tokens, certificates, biometrics) and something you know (password) – makes it much harder for hackers to impersonate legitimate users.
Despite advances in technology, cost and complexity have conspired to keep advanced identity management solutions out of businesses besides the government and large enterprises. That’s changing, though, as need and reduced complexity are bringing identity management in reach of small enterprises and SMBs. And that’s getting the attention of the channel.
“Recent highly-targeted security attacks have dramatically impacted enterprise and government organizations. The breadth and sophistication of these attacks is prompting organizations to review their authentication strategies and solutions – some for the first time in years,” said John Marler, chief technology officer at SOS Security. “Now, more than ever, our customers are searching for highly flexible authentication solutions that provide security and control, and the ability to scale and adapt as an organization’s requirements evolve.”
And SOS Security isn’t alone. In December 2010, large integrator FishNet Security bought reseller specialist Logic Trends to extend its capabilities in identity management and create a new revenue stream.
“Combining Logic Trends with FishNet Security enhances our own identity and access capabilities as well as gives us a presence in the fast-growing health care solutions space,” CEO Gary Fish said at the time. “The combination will expand our service offerings, strengthen our position in growing markets and enable us to further bolster our strong management team.”
Security and identity management vendors see the opportunity to engage the channel with new, evolving options. CA Technologies and Ping Identity are developing cloud-based identity management solutions to make it more accessible to resellers and end users. Oracle continues to develop identity management solutions acquired through Sun Microsystems. And IBM sees renewed opportunity in its identity management products delivered through systems integrators.
The next great field for identity management is bringing order to mobile devices and public cloud systems. Already cloud channel specialists such as Google partner Cloud Sherpas are offering solutions that help users manage cloud identities. And Symantec has visions for leveraging digital certificate technologies acquired through VeriSign to help partners deliver ubiquitous identities.
The trends in the market and technologies show identity management won’t be reserved for rich enterprises. The technology is coming to the channel and becoming increasingly accessible to end users. Soon, identity management solutions will be as common as antivirus.
2 Responses to “Resellers See IDM as Security Woes Solution”
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The “something you have” aspect of multi-factor authentication, especially as it relates to IAM, is seeing a growing trend in using the telephone as a token device, allowing users (employees) to easily telesign into accounts/applications. Interested to see how business will take advantage of this moving forward.
Well said Larry. I think another component that may actually be higher priority than mobile (for many) is unstructured data. My firm has been speaking to a number of resellers who, as you say, are seeing IDM make its way into the mid-market. But, IDM solutions have traditionally lacked the ability to include access management around unstructured data (file systems) and that seems to be another business driver for those firms who have the ability to navigate the technology (which can be difficult to master).