How to Learn More About Secure Identity Infrastructure

A recurring theme appears in our writings on identity and access management; above all, you can’t think of identity as just another part of your network. Instead, identity infrastructure should form the core of your digital environment. Everything within cybersecurity begins with identity security and management. Therefore, identity infrastructure integration may hold the key to future business success.    

Two resources provided by identity and access management provider Okta explore modern identity infrastructure in-depth.

How to Learn More About Secure Identity Infrastructure

The Infographic “The Maturity of Zero Trust” demonstrates what distinguishes what separates maturity and immaturity in Zero Trust architecture.

Meanwhile, the webinar “A Rip Van Winkle Discussion of Identity Management” features Darran Rolls of SailPoint and Mark Settle of Okta discussing identity infrastructure.

These two resources are available for download here and here, respectively. We provide a sneak peek into the major teams and compelling from both resources below.

The Maturity of Zero Trust

Okta created a deeply informative infographic about Zero Trust architecture and its maturity. Of course, we discussed the importance of Zero Trust architecture in previous articles; indeed, Zero Trust serves as a distinguishing factor in next-generation identity management.

At its core, Zero Trust refers to policies summarized by the statement “never trust, always verify.” Put another way, anything connecting to the network or to databases requires verification before it receives access. Your enterprise should treat everything connecting to it as untrusted until it can absolutely prove otherwise.   

Interestingly, enterprises as a whole recognize the importance of Zero Trust; according to Okta, 97% of businesses have a map to their Zero Trust strategy. However, only 16% have a defined Zero Trust initiative.  

As a result, Okta found most enterprises end up never fully maturing their Zero Trust initiatives. This may leave them with a fragmented zero trust architecture with no cloud integration. In fact, 65% of surveyed businesses do not possess a unified user directory across all their applications. Even in more positive mature cases, only 44% of enterprises utilize multifactor authentication.

Crucially, Okta identifies multifactor authentication as a top priority for security leaders. Single-factor authentication can no longer offer the level of identity infrastructure security sufficient for modern cybersecurity.

A Rip Van Winkle Discussion of Identity Management

Darran Rolls of SailPoint and Mark Settle of Okta discuss identity infrastructure more directly in their webinar “A Rip Van Winkle Discussion of Identity Management.”

Overall, the two identity management experts discuss identity as it pertains to its increasingly central role in cybersecurity. As such, they begin with analyzing the identity-based threats and how they correspond to the dissolving network perimeter; the tradition perimeter proves no longer sufficient for cybersecurity Ideal identity infrastructure must adapt to this dissolution and engage with new IT assets.

Fittingly, Rolls and Settle also discuss Zero Trust and legacy solutions. In particular, relating to the latter, they discuss the increasing proliferation of hybrid environments—which legacy identity solutions can’t protect. Thus, next-generation identity infrastructure must meet the needs of both cloud and on-premises environments.

If you want to learn more about identity infrastructure, be sure to check out the Okta resources! You can download the “The Maturity of Zero Trust” infographic here. Also, you can download the “A Rip Van Winkle Discussion of Identity Management” here.