In today’s digital landscape, threats lurk everywhere. The technology powering these attacks is becoming more advanced. Among the perpetrators are criminal organizations aiming for substantial financial gains and nation-states engaged in espionage while seeking chances to sow disruption. Identity security will help to protect your organization and the safeguarding of the identities of your workers.
Simultaneously, the world is undergoing rapid transformation. With artificial intelligence (AI), we’re poised to experience the most significant business shift since the Internet became mainstream. Meanwhile, malicious actors are also investigating ways to misuse AI for harmful purposes.
In a world that prioritizes mobile technology, cloud computing, and AI innovations, companies need to be equipped with top-tier technologies and strategies to safeguard their data, people, and operations wherever they are located.
Today, these technologies are converging to create a contemporary vision of one of our oldest security solutions: our unique identity. Let’s explore how this modern take on an ancient concept can safeguard our digital lives.
Your Fortress Walls Have Collapsed. What’s Next?
Fifteen years ago, the global standard for security was a “moat-and-castle” approach. Organizations safeguarded their most critical resources within their office networks and encircled them with a firewall.
As long as their people and resources were within the walls, everyone could access everything because the entire estate was secure and self-contained. The main concerns were insider threats or potential invaders attempting to breach the firewall.
Nowadays, a large number of employees are adopting hybrid and mobile workstyles. Additionally, we’re integrating cloud-scale AI that intentionally operates outside the firewall. Meanwhile, highly mobile workers utilize VPNs to access applications when they are off-network. This shift renders the traditional moat-and-castle security model significantly outdated.
Furthermore, companies are increasingly transforming into cloud services. Their partners, suppliers, and customers engage with them through digital platforms for product discovery, ordering, payment processing, invoicing, customer service support, and loyalty programs.
Since Data and People Are Always in Transit, Security Should Flow Wherever They Go
In a world where every organization operates as a cloud service requiring secure interactions with everyone and everything, it is essential for companies to ensure that all connections are safeguarded, granting access only to authorized individuals, software, devices, and networks.
This approach is referred to as a zero-trust model. In such an environment, any user, device, or workload seeking access to your digital assets and services must demonstrate trustworthiness for themselves, their software, and the network they utilize. Consequently, identity becomes crucial in this modern security framework. By default, all access is denied until there is robust verification of both the individual’s identity and the authenticity of their device.
Creating, implementing, and managing an identity-driven zero-trust enterprise environment can be complex. It necessitates a coordinated strategy across various teams to develop and operate a security solution that integrates user accounts, workload management, device protection strategies, network status monitoring, as well as an inventory of digital resources and permissions. This approach enables the enforcement of adaptive and detailed access policies throughout the entire digital landscape of the enterprise.
Identity: Increasingly Crucial in the Age of AI
If your organization hasn’t implemented an identity-centric zero-trust model yet, transitioning to an AI-driven future will be both risky and challenging. Deploying a large language model (LLM) assistant allows employees to effortlessly access content from all documents and files, including those they might not have been aware they could access.
This also implies that an intruder could exploit the AI assistant to search for assets they should not have access to. In the past, organizations relied on complex file hierarchies to slow down attackers, but modern advanced AI engines enable rapid and effortless locating of information regardless of where it is stored.
The answer lies in a concept known as “workload identities.” These are the identities used by your software systems to perform tasks. When you have your co-pilot or large language model (LLM) use a workload identity with carefully managed permissions, it ensures access only to designated documents and files. This setup allows you to control and secure the LLM’s access similarly to how you would manage any user’s permissions.
Modern Security Benefits for Everyone
In the end, fostering a trusted environment can revolutionize your business operations. Employees gain the flexibility to work from any location, allowing the company to tap into talent that was previously out of reach. Additionally, it enables direct digital engagement with customers and suppliers. All this is made possible in an ecosystem enriched by scalable cloud technologies, AI innovations, and mobile resources.
Employees, partners, and customers enjoy a seamless experience on their chosen devices no matter where they work. Meanwhile, chief information security officers (CISOs) can rest assured that robust security measures are in place at all times.
This is all achievable by concentrating on the most traditional access solution: your own unique identity.
