Public sector organisations are being hampered in their efforts to build in-house Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions, according to Auth0.
Four in ten public sector organisations are currently building their own IAM solution in-house (41 percent). However, 83 percent say that speed to implementation and 82 percent say using internal staff to manage IAM internally are two of the biggest pain points in doing so.
Dean Scontras, VP of state and local government and education at Okta notes that “There are never enough developers to go around, never mind the added difficulty of recruiting public sector developers from private sector jobs.
“Rather than become SaaS companies themselves, the government should focus on the value they provide to citizens, equipping their technical teams with the tools to be more productive and innovative.”
The 2022 Public Sector Identity Index by Auth0, a product unit within Okta, highlights the importance of a centralised identity strategy in putting safe and accessible services into the hands of citizens faster. The report captures the perceptions of 850 IT and line of business decision-makers within national and state/local government organisations across the US, UK, and ANZ (Australia and New Zealand) with regard to their IAM strategy.
Expanding digital services
Over the past two years, many public sector organisations were prompted by the immediate need to deploy digital infrastructure to maintain continuity of their services amid the Covid-19 pandemic — such as offering citizens licence renewals online and virtual education. But they are now grappling with the impacts on cybersecurity and user experience.
From the Executive Order on ‘Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity’ in the US, to digital identity and Single Sign-On (SSO) initiatives in the UK and Australia, enabling employees, citizens, and other government entities to access all of these applications easily and securely has become a demand around the world.
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Most governments are looking to expand their digital services in the next two years (75 percent), They rank protecting citizen’s privacy and data as most important when thinking about citizen services (73 percent).
But the report shows that only one in five public sector organisations are extremely confident in either the security (17 percent) or ease of use (19 percent) of their current authentication solution.
Username and password is the most frequently used authentication method by citizens (86 percent), compared to very little usage of biometric or passwordless authentication (16 percent).
Adopting Zero Trust
According to Forrester Research, the public sector has a massive influence on the entire economy making up 30 percent of the global GDP and 33 percent of the global workforce. The global research firm predicts that more governments will adopt Zero Trust frameworks to revive public trust in digital services.
Auth0 says an Identity-First approach puts identity at the center of government digital transformation, while also laying the foundation for a Zero Trust security model. Key to this approach are modern login technologies that replace traditional passwords, and introduce friction only when suspicious behaviour is detected.
Jessica Figueras, cybercrime and digital identity advisor to governments and Okta consultant, said: “In the face of increasing digitisation, skills shortages, and online harms, governments are taking a hard look at the technologies they can bring onboard to help them reach their digital goals. The research suggests that identity is one such technology that can help the public sector do more with less.”
Added Scontras: “Identity is the foundation of digital experiences, and if the public sector is serious about building services that citizens can trust, they will look beyond passwords to authentication methods that maintain the user experience, while ensuring data privacy/security.”
