CIAM: redefining user access for digital transactions

As a business owner, I am sure you will be aware of the ongoing impacts of digitisation and the pressure to adapt your practices to keep up with evolving technology.?

However, with digital transformation comes new risks — mostly surrounding account takeover and identity fraud, exaggerated by inefficient development practices.

Many organisations overlook these risks in the race to implement the latest technology solutions but doing so can be very costly (or even spell disaster) for all involved. From creating bespoke and inefficient code vulnerable to attack to deterring customers with inefficient sign-in and access experiences, even modern IT systems can cause issues without implementing the proper authentication and authorisation controls.

So, to keep your business secure and improve digital transaction processes, you should consider investing in an identity management system that can keep up with the demands of your online customer base.

That is where effective implementation of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) comes in.?

As a comprehensive solution to the fallout from the pandemic and the ever-changing information security landscape, a well-thought-out CIAM system can provide the answer to the headache-inducing data and access management issues all too many companies face — with the added benefit of saving time and money by externalising access control to an API.

Incorporating CIAM in digital transaction journeys

The pandemic marked the start of many digital transformations — primarily due to the sudden need for businesses to offer efficient online shopping services.?

But as it becomes increasingly clear that consumers see online commercial/retail as not just an alternative but often a replacement for brick-and-mortar businesses, organisations must reassess their user access policies.?

Access management solutions can quickly become clunky and inefficient as new technologies emerge and digital identities become increasingly complex. So, businesses should reconfigure identity from multiple, siloed identity providers to open, industry-based standards to improve user experiences and remain competitive.

However, access solutions must also move from a position where trust is implicit to one where context and user consent are vital to ensuring safe and secure digital transactions.

So, we turn to CIAM.

CIAM policies focus on improving cyber security without compromising user experience, allowing businesses to offer their customers frictionless online commercial and retail services by optimising data security and ensuring easy access to applications and services.

A good CIAM strategy will consider a range of factors from across the risk spectrum, such as user consent to data sharing and authentication measures, whilst aiming to replicate the in-person commercial experience — with easy interaction between channels, fast checkout and personalised recommendations.

Some modern identity solutions engage separate policies to control how users access apps and services, which is, as you can imagine, not particularly efficient. Instead, organising data management centrally through a CIAM framework will allow your business to maximise efficiency and streamline the distribution of policy changes.

By delivering dynamic, scalable access control policies and solutions, a CIAM system will ensure businesses can provide seamless access to online systems whilst reinforcing security for both them and their customers. So, how can your company achieve this?

Managing user data with context-based access control

One key element of CIAM is context-based access control, used in a way that is zero-trust-like — a security model based on the premise that no user is granted access without valid context and authentication.

In this model, the intention is to deploy CIAM to ensure that authentication is not the only thing we rely on to make sure someone is who they claim to be. So, for specific transactions post-authentication, we effectively apply zero-trust principles for high-risk transactions.

High-risk transactions go through a complete authorisation loop to ensure nothing significant has changed since the original authentication, capturing persistent user profile data and comparing it to return visits. This process can be improved by taking a data feed from identity fraud monitoring or account takeover (ATO) systems to enhance the verification of the session.

Businesses can harness several other risk-based measures as part of the CIAM architecture. For example, multi-factor authentication (MFA) requires users to provide two or more verification factors to gain access. Alternatively, single sign-on (SSO) grants entry to multiple related applications and services using one set of credentials.?

By persisting an authorisation token linked to user identity features, content-rich experiences can be delivered across channels — on the web, in-store, via contact centres or in a mobile app.

Implementing a risk-based approach to authentication

Fine-tuning the access process results in a smoother customer experience and significantly reduced risk of a breach. However, we can no longer rely on a single point of verification. Instead, the key is to double down on authorisation for higher-risk transactions.

A context-based approach to information security and CIAM requires access to a range of user data whenever a digital transaction occurs. For example:?

1. Authentication — what do we know about the user?

2. Context — what entitlements does this user have?

3. Risk and fraud intelligence — do we have previous user behaviour or third-party analysis?

4. Application — what user data has the application requested?

5. Authentication level — is the user authorised to access the application and data?

6. Consent — what data does the user consent to share with the application?

7. Access requirements — what data is required to invoke the backend service API?

As and when these questions are answered, we can understand the user and their access entitlement level, reducing risk with every level of information acquired.?

Is your organisation looking to implement a CIAM strategy? I suggest enlisting the support of an access management specialist like One Identity, Cloudentity, Okta or Entrust Datacard that can recommend data distribution and information security solutions to suit your specific needs.

To learn more about CIAM, context-based access or one of the solutions listed above, please feel free to send me a message or email [email protected].?