IANS Finds Online Trust Viewed as a Key Competitive Advantage

BOSTON, MA (October 14, 2008) — IANS, a leading research company focused on information security, regulatory compliance and information technology risk management, concludes that most organizations agree that as the ever-changing threat landscape continues to challenge online commerce, useable customer authentication will become a ‘must-have.’ Findings are based on data and information gathered at the IANS Executive Roundtable held September 24, 2008 in Dallas, Texas.

Moderated by VeriSign and IANS, the interactive roundtable discussions between 15 senior IS professionals from a variety of market sectors broadly revolved around:

• How leading organizations are thinking about consumer, business partner and employee authentication
• The challenges faced and solutions available
• Best practices and lessons learned from those who have implemented or are considering implementing solutions
• Exploring the business value of simple, yet strong, authentication

While business unit managers typically do not think of security first, IT security and risk teams view reliable identity management, access control, authentication, and data protection as core to meeting customer and business demands. “Long-range competitive advantage depends on the ability to safely and conveniently transact with employees, customers and business partners,” said Jack Phillips, managing director and co-founder, IANS. “Organizations that fail to successfully provide useable authentication to these key constituents will not successfully compete and thrive in their markets.”

Single-factor Authentication (username/password) Not Sufficient

Security and risk professional demand more robust product features, including:

• Ability to easily deploy various types and strengths of authentication by application
• Ability to quickly and reliably add/delete credentials
• Ability to meet regulatory requirements through strong reporting while authenticating reliably
• Pricing/functionality that can be understood and funded by the business unit manager

“Before the Internet, businesses won trust through a hand shake and exceptional service,” said Jeff Brown, vice president of sales at VeriSign. “In today’s online world, trust is still the apex of all customer and business relationships, but it’s earned by providing security mechanisms like two-factor authentication, encryption, and validation that the Web site is authentic. When choosing to do business with one organization over another, people will choose the one they trust most.”

Adoption Hurdles
Several hurdles exist for broad adoption of authentication technologies. Business unit managers typically focus on an application’s ‘bells and whistles’ versus the completeness of the security solution, and continue to believe that authentication deployment differs based on the primary constituencies – customers, business partners and employees – and the value of their related ‘information or data transaction.’ This dichotomy creates an unnecessary budgeting burden on the IT departments that understand the inherent risks associated with today’s corporate information environment and may face deploying multiple solutions rather than one comprehensive solution. Senior management has begun better understand the competitive value of higher security associated with their offerings, which in turn places added pressures for broad organizational adoption of authentication.

However, the biggest concern with widespread deployment of any authentication form factor continues to be user adoption, which relies upon user training and a breakdown of lifestyle barriers. Phillips points out, “Power users are technically savvy and aware of the dangers of identity theft, phishing and account breaches. They are quick to adopt authentication technology. It’s the wider organizational population that resists the change.”

The balance between cost, user convenience, and security is driving adoption of authentication technology by most organizations. According to Philips, “That future adoption rates will be driven by inevitable increase in consumer incidents of compromised accounts and identity theft, coupled with technology maturation that results in the emergence of low-cost, highly convenient, highly secure solutions.”

MEDIA: Members of the media interested in talking with Jack Phillips about market predictions and trends can contact press@iansresearch.com to schedule a briefing.