HID Global predicts top trends for 2017 in the identity technology industry

HID Global, a provider of trusted identity solutions, forecasts a shift in the use of identity technology that will lead to increased adoption of mobile devices and the latest smart card technology, a greater emphasis and reliance on the cloud, and a radical new way of thinking of trust in smart environments and Internet of Things (IoT).

Ultimately, HID Global predicts the 2017 trends will transform the way trusted identities are used with smart cards, mobile devices, wearables, embedded chips and other smart objects, particularly in industries focused on regulatory compliance, such as government, finance and healthcare markets. This shift will precipitate the move from legacy systems to NFC, Bluetooth Low Energy, and advanced smart card technology to meet the evolving needs of enterprises and governments worldwide.

Adoption of mobile technology

The forecast for 2017 is also based on a breakthrough in adoption of mobile identity technology in 2016. Exemplifying industry-wide trending, HID Global experienced tremendous uptick in customer deployments of its broad mobility solutions and has a strong pipeline of future customer installations in the works to make verification of identities optimised for mobile applications.

“HID Global has forecasted top trends based on our broad view of the market in close collaboration with customers and partners who are assessing and deploying innovative solutions across markets worldwide,” said Stefan Widing, President and CEO of HID Global. “We have been at the forefront of major technology shifts over the years and HID Global believes 2017 will mark an important phase in the industry, as organisations seek to use the broadest range of smart devices ever. This will directly impact how customers view and use trusted identities on both mobile devices and smart cards for more activities in more connected environments in the years ahead.”

Advanced smart cards usage

HID Global focuses on four significant trends in 2017 that will influence how organisations create, manage, and use trusted identities in a broad range of existing and new use cases.

Stronger adoption of mobile devices and advanced smart cards underscores the need for trusted identities:

• Similar to the adoption of consumer trends to IT in past years, 2017 will also see further consumerisation of security, with heightened demand from users seeking to open doors, and login to cloud-based resources, as well as have personalised on-demand printing of documents, and to deploy printed credentials remotely or conduct other transactions and daily activities using trusted IDs on their phone, wearable or smart card.

• Trusted IDs that integrate security, privacy and convenience will provide a new level of assurance to these applications and transactions, while being uniquely positioned to make secure access more personalised to the individual.

• The industry will look towards complete identity relationship management that considers the need to grant access based on the context or circumstances for risk-appropriate authentication across trusted identities assigned to people, devices, data and things in smart offices, buildings and other environments that are becoming more connected every day.  
  

Hybrid security solutions

Greater emphasis on the cloud through hybrid solutions that combine on-premises and the cloud to create common management platforms for digital IDs: 

• Organisations are recognising the interdependencies of technologies and platforms needed for business agility, cost management and providing a better user experience within a mobile workforce, or for digital commerce and relationship management that continues to require more reach, flexibility, security.

• In banking, government, healthcare and other regulated markets, multi-factor authentication for physical and IT access control will have more opportunities to merge into integrated systems that will also provide a more convenient experience for users and increase security.

• This model will make it easier for administrators to deploy and maintain an integrated system throughout the complete identity lifecycle—from onboarding to offboarding.

• It will make it possible to monitor and manage employees’ access rights as their role changes within an organisation, ensuring employees only have access to what they need in a current role.

• Credential issuance for physical ID cards will also experience a digital transformation, as the use of cloud technologies will enable managed service models for badge printing and encoding.
  

Internet of Trusted Things

Emerging IoT uses cases to connect, more people, places, and things, increasing the need to ensure the Internet of Trusted Things (IoTT):

• Trusted identities will increasingly be employed to help secure, customise, and enhance the user experience across a growing range of industry segments that are embracing the power of the IoT.

• Organisations will look towards streamlining processes and operations using real-time location systems, presence- and proximity-based location functionality, condition monitoring solutions, beacons and cloud-based models for emerging IoT applications using Bluetooth Low Energy. These applications will include a growing number of energy efficient, productivity and safety-oriented use cases that will need to know the identity of occupants in a physical space to manage environmental conditions, book meeting rooms and auto-configure audio visual equipment and alarms.

• Bluetooth Low Energy-based solutions will also advance existing secure proof of presence capabilities to include the predictive analytics and functionality based on location-based technologies.

Embedding trusted identities

Embedding trusted identities more deeply in everyday activities for businesses and consumers:

• Trusted identities will become an embedded feature of more use cases rather than simply an add-on capability. This trend of “security by design” will lead to many more convenient approaches to using digital identities across a growing variety of activities, services and industries.

• Along with popular secure access use cases, new applications will emerge, such as employee mustering capabilities to address emergencies as well as the need to more accurately determine who is in a building in real-time.

• New capabilities for managing and using trusted IDs will be driven by the increase of temporary offices, mobile knowledge workers and the evolution of the workplace, where adapting to the preferences of today’s talent pool is driving the need for more open, flexible workspaces. Consumers also will begin seeing trusted identities used in many everyday scenarios, such as guaranteeing authorised use of corporate and heavy machinery fleets, as well as creating new ways to safeguard students and validate drivers.

Application areas

These trends will drive new user experiences that are tailored to vertical market requirements. Following are three particularly compelling examples:

• Banking: A digital identity transformation will drive consistency across multiple service channels to improve the user experience, from faster instant issuance that is revolutionising the way customers receive new or replacement debit and credit cards, to “out-of-band” mobile push capabilities that increase trust and reduce fraud for consumers, and deliver a much easier path to compliance for financial institutions. Digital IDs will also push the industry to increase trust levels by better associating a user’s true identity (biometrics) with their digital identities.

• A digital identity transformation will drive consistency across multiple service channels to improve the user experience

  Government: Trusted identities will change the way citizens interact with government agencies and systems. Passports, national IDs, driver licenses and other credentials will co-exist with new disruptive technologies to change the way IDs are issued by government agencies and used by citizens. Citizen IDs are poised to move to mobile phones this year, where state and national governments will begin offering mobile driver’s licenses and other mobile identity IDs as an option alongside the physical document. Meanwhile, the combination of mobile with innovative physical and logical features will provide more options for government agencies to stay ahead of the counterfeiters by advancing the security, personalisation, management and issuance of physical documents.

• Healthcare: In the increasingly connected healthcare environment, institutions will seek to implement better systems to improve the patient experience and enhance efficiencies, while safeguarding and managing access to equipment, facilities, patient data, and electronic prescriptions of controlled substances (EPCS) across the healthcare continuum. From hospital to home, healthcare organisations will seek to employ a combination of strong authentication, and new IoT applications to address these challenges.

HID Global anticipates the shift in the use of identity technology will drive industry trends in 2017, along with new solutions and capabilities that enhance the user experience for years to come.