Wednesday 12/21/22 - Identity Jedi Newsletter - Subscribe

Hey Jedi Welcome to the Holiday Edition of the Identity Jedi Newsletter. The first ever! This jam-packed edition contains the usual identity goodness, but I've added some extras, because, well it's the Holidays! 

So here's what we've got: 

• Identity Jedi Show ( Holiday Edition)

• StoryTime with Dave ( an orgin story)

• Premium Newsletter Coming

• Contest Winner!

• The Good stuff

Identity Jedi Show

Story Time with Dave

I'm a huge comic book/superhero guy. I grew up going to the comic book store and reading about all these exciting adventures and heroes. One thing that I learned was this: Every hero needs a good origin story.

So grab your hot cocoa, curl up by the fire and let me tell you the origin story of this newsletter. 

It all started with a text. A good friend of mine ( who is also a subscriber and is most likely reading this) sent me this text one Friday morning:  "I feel like if you combined what you're doing with EA and your podcast and created a daily email newsletter for the identity industry, you kill it". 

For context, EA stands for EbonyAscent, and I've been running the C3 podcast for just over 3 years and had just recently launched the Identity Jedi Show as a video podcast on LinkedIn.   So the text was timed perfectly because I was currently brainstorming how to channel this content into one place and provide some value for the world of identity. And yes, make some money while doing it. I love creating content, and I love the world of identity, so if there was a way I could combine those two things, I was all in. We exchanged texts and phone calls as the idea morphed into reality. I knew a daily newsletter would be too much. I still had a full-time job, and ya know, actually wanted a life. But weekly seemed like it was doable. 

The next hurdle was a platform. The current platform I was using for EbonyAscent worked great for blog posts, and videos, and even had a newsletter aspect to it. But it was missing one key feature that I loved about newsletters. Referral Program. 

My favorite newsletter is Morning Brew. I love everything about it. (If you've never heard of it you can check it out here) The format, the writing style, and the excellent referral program. I wanted to be able to engage with the community and reward them for that engagement. They get cool stuff; the newsletter gets more subscribers it's a win/win. However, I couldn't find anyone that duplicated that same platform, and I wasn't going to build it from scratch. Alas, the newsletter died before it couldn't even get off the ground

But just like any great movie, there was a turning point. A couple of weeks went by and I was starting to lose hope that I would find the right platform to help me create my vision. And then....it happened

My buddy sent me another text, and it was a link to BeeHiiv. A company that built a newsletter platform, based on Morning Brew, founded by former Morning Brew employees. It was easy, quick, and had a built-in referral program. Clearly, this newsletter was something that was meant to be. I went all in, and signed up for the platform. ( Even talked my way into a 3-month free trial!) I created the first edition, and away we went. 

Four months and over 100 subscribers later, here we are. I'm still shocked by the feedback and growth of this newsletter; believe me, I've got so much more planned. No, this story has nothing to do with identity, but it does have something to do with belief. Sometimes it takes others seeing something in you that you don't see to be that spark that lights your fire. Maybe you've been wrestling with a decision or thinking about trying a new venture. Go for it. Believe in the vision that's been given to you. It won't be easy, but nothing worth having ever is, but believe me it's worth it. 

Premium Edition Newsletter

Next year, I'll launch a premium version of the newsletter. Don't worry; nothing will be changing as far as content for the regular newsletter. I'll just be adding more content around the world of identity. Blogs, interviews, and extended versions of the newsletter. And anything else you all would want to see. The inbox is always open, and I love hearing feedback from you all. 

Pricing is simple and easy. $5 a month, or  $50 bucks a year. Nothing breaking the bank, and should help cover some of the overhead expenses. 

Contest Winner!

Congrats to our referral winner Mr. Rob Sanders!! $50 bucks ( US) coming your way, sir. Thanks so much for sharing the newsletter. 

Don't worry it's never too late to refer this awesome newsletter

Let's Get to the Good Stuff

Okta in the news...again.

This one's hot off the presses, as I just came across it this morning. Several outlets are reporting that Okta source code was stolen from their Github repository. Ouch.

No further details yet, but not a good look for our friends over at Okta. I'm going to provide several links to track this, and I anticipate updated findings throughout the day.

This should be a wakeup call to the rest of the IAM providers out there. You are no longer hiding in the shadows. The bad guys know who you are, and they are coming for you. 

Who the F are you?

It's time to talk about Synthetic Identity friends. Between internet breaches, deep fakes, and AI-driven chatbots, the ability to pretend to be someone else online is getting to frightening levels. Check out the link to KrebsOnSecurity for a deep dive of this incident. Worth the read.

Speaking of data...

The war against TikTok continues. Senate passes a bill to ban TIkTok from government devices.  I mean shouldn't be using government devices to make TikToks anyway, but the bigger issue is the growing concerns around the data and access that Tik Tok has, and where the data ends up. The interesting thing is that the data collected by TikTok is not all that different from the data collected by Facebook, and Instagram, input your social media platform here. So it's ok if we do it, but if China does it.....

Watch those Third Parties

So Uber was popped again. This time it was through a third party. (It seems to be a recurring theme this year. What up, Okta) It's time we start to clean out the junk drawer in  identity that is Third-Party Identity. We've handled privileged, single sign-on, governance, but we've tucked away one of the most vulnerable identities that we have in our systems. The identities we don't own but grant staff-like access to. Should be interesting to see in this new world of all in one platforms, what vendors offer around managing third party identity. 

Last Word

Synthetic identity. It's not just the collection of all of our data from the hundreds of breaches we've had over the years. Although, that's a big part. It's bigger than that. It's a collection of data, vulnerabilities, and advancements in technology that have created a perfect shitstorm of digital fraud. But it's not just affecting us, tech nerds. As we push digital identity closer to the consumer, we are reaching the point where it's becoming critical to rely on digital identity to receive basic services. ( IRS and ID.ME anyone?) But we are so far away from having this nailed down that it could almost be considered criminal negligence to allow this to continue.

Identity is at a critical junction, friends. It is evolving to help organizations better protect their resources, and it's also being delivered to consumers to help them access resources. And if we can't securely identify who a user is and be confident in that claim, where does that leave us? 

Food for thought over this holiday season. 

Till next year, Jedi

-Identity Jedi

 Be Kind to each other, Be Good to each other, Love each other.