A third (36 percent) of organisations are planning to incorporate digital identity within their organisation and this change is imminent. Among those, more than two-thirds (71 percent) are planning to do so within one year and almost all (97 percent) are planning to do so within the next two years.
That’s according to a new report by Curity, Plotting the Roadmap for Digital Identity, which surveyed US and UK IT decision makers (ITDMs) to understand current attitudes towards digital identity.
However, there are still some organisations that are not embracing digital identity. UK firms, and particularly smaller businesses, are both less likely than their respective US and larger counterparts to be already using digital identity (42 percent of US ITDMs vs 28 percent of UK ITDMs) and more likely to not have plans to do so.
And almost three in 10 (29 percent) of ITDMs don’t currently have any plans to incorporate digital identity within their organisation with UK organisations displaying much more reluctance: 37 percent don’t have any plans, compared to 21 percent of US organisations.
Larger organisations taking up decentralised identity
One key area of the research was the concept of decentralised identity and its potential to transform the verified identity landscape. According to findings, 62 percent of US and 52 percent of UK firms have plans to incorporate new and emerging decentralised identity solutions.
Decentralised identity allows users to control their online identity and choose which information they provide to authenticate their login when accessing digital services. Through methods of identity management, decentralised identifiers (DIDs) and verifiable credentials (VCs) form a self-controlled identity. Larger organisations are more confidently pursuing decentralised identity: ITDMs in organisations with more than 500 employees are almost four times as likely to be definitely planning to incorporate decentralised identity within their organisation as those in organisations with less than 500 employees (37 percent vs nine percent).
Health industry set to benefit from digital identity
Curity’s consumer research found that consumer behaviors and attitudes encourage the growth and development of digital identity, embracing new solutions. Almost six in 10 (59 percent) consumers currently use a digital wallet and consistency is global, as UK and US usage is similar (58 percent for UK consumers and 60 percent for US). Encouragingly, consumers are also showing strong levels of confidence in new solutions such as digital identity wallets to protect their personal information
Its survey of consumers has interesting implications for IT professionals, as 84 percent of ITDMs believe financial services will reap moderate or large benefits from incorporating digital identities. However, there’s even bigger belief in the potential for the health industry with 87 percent of ITDMs believing the health industry would experience moderate or large benefits from digital identities. Both financial services and the health industry are verticals comfortable with data security and privacy regulation.
Low trust in government
Financial institutions are also current leaders in public trust (38 percent), likely because they already manage a lot of our sensitive data. They are followed by medical providers (35 percent), 34 percent trust technology companies (such as Apple, Samsung, HTC) and 31 percent trust software companies (Microsoft, Google, Android).
However, trust drops to 22 percent for government, as the second least trusted industry for managing data and information in a digital identity wallet, with transport providers bringing up the rear (17 percent). Twenty-nine percent of consumers would not trust any of the industries listed to manage their data and information in a digital identity wallet.
Challenges of providing digital identity
The research also asked ITDMs what their top business motivation was for introducing new methods for authenticating digital identities. Improving the customer experience (36 percent), and the ability to innovate and provide new services (33 percent) came in first and second.
However, technological innovation may, in the mind of consumers, come with an increased security risk. When asking consumers what would deter them from storing personally identifiable information (PII) in a digital identity wallet, the top responses were fraud (65 percent) and data privacy concerns (61 percent). Greater awareness of the digital trail they leave behind only adds to consumer concern, said the report.
For organisations, the disparate pieces of information relied upon to authenticate users is also a significant headache, with legacy systems often siloed, creating significant challenges when storing and protecting user data.
“Organisations with global user bases will have an even bigger challenge. We’re seeing governments across the globe begin to bring in their own regulations and industry standards for digital identity. So, interoperability between systems using recognised security standards will be crucial to delivering on business and consumer expectations,” noted the research.
