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- The 49th Edition of the Identity Jedi Newsletter
Wednesday 8/23/23 - Identity Jedi Newsletter - Subscribe
Hey Jedi welcome to the 49th edition of the Identity Jedi Newsletter! Some good tidbits this week: Let’s talk CIAM and how security can be a part of increasing revenue. Some exciting stuff from CISA around AI design and a rant or two from me…AAANNNNDD THE BIG NEWS
PINGROCK!!!
Thoma Bravo is reportedly expected to merge ForgeRock and Ping Identity into a single company. According to Politico, Justice Department officials were concerned that the combined company would have too strong a market position. The department reportedly launched an “in-depth antitrust review” of the ForgeRock acquisition to understand its potential market impact.
We all knew this was just a matter of time. Going to be VERY interesting to see the fallout from this from a product level, and people level. Can Uncle Tommy B lead a successful merger? What’s next? Do they have their Sail’s pointing towards a collision with PingRock?
It’s getting good
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Let’s Get to the Good Stuff!
Security = Revenue?
CISA and AI
Identity Security Data Lake
Security = Revenue
Let’s hop into the world of CIAM. Customer Identity Access Management. The first thing we have to realize about this world is that it’s not about security. GASP!! What!? It’s about making money. More specifically, it’s about making the e-commerce experience for a customer fast, painless, and secure while giving them the comfort that 1) They can trust the transaction is secure. 2) They can trust their data is secure.
Why?
So they can spend more money of course!
Security is a big part of that. But it’s hidden. Why? Because end users hate security.
Ok, that’s not true or fair.
But it scares them, and scared users = no customers.
In the world of CIAM, you have to learn marketing speak and words like “user experience”. But at the same time, you have to have the same diligence that you do in the workforce side because the thing you are trying to protect ( the customer) is also the thing that makes you money.
Check out this quote from the article below:
E-commerce customer privacy and security are top issues both for retailers and customers. This becomes top of mind for a customer when they reach the checkout stage — any step that doesn’t move forward in a way that feels secure and convenient can deter them from finishing the sale. However, retailers must walk a fine line because these efforts to prevent fraud can’t impede the flow of checkout or you risk a customer giving up on the sale.
The last sentence is the KEY to everything. It’s the GEM, the GOLDEN NUGGET. Ok, you get it. Here’s my point:
Security has to be user-friendly and frictionless. So users want to use it, and don’t realize they are.
CISA and AI
NEWS FLASH: AI is just software. Which means it’s just code. And that means it’s just 1 and 0’s. We’ve spent the last 30 years creating ways to create software securely. ( Now, whether or not we’ve been successful, I will leave for another debate).
The point is: AI is no different. We can’t get caught up in the SCI-FI mysticism of it. Instead, we have to apply the same secure coding standards we’ve used and look for ways to improve them and possibly create more.
Identity Security Data Lake
Ok, so this I found fascinating.
Stack Identity announces a service ( Public cloud or Private, which I’ll speak about this in another newsletter) that looks at data and exposes risks, and helps drive access reviews and compliance.
At first glance I LOVE this approach. Attack the problem from the data perspective and then tie it back to the identity. We have to complete the picture if we are going to truly manage access at the scale it’s currently at. But from reading through their website, it’s hard to tell if that’s truly their approach. It’s starts to get a little marketing fluffy. But definitely a vendor to watch, they are still early just raised their 4 Million dollar seed round, but man is it exciting to see the innovation happening in this market right now.
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The Last Word
I’m not going to even say I told you so, because we all saw this coming. Uncle Tommy B ( Thoma Bravo) is on a mission to create the next big Identity Security Platform, and they are going to attempt to do it by PE backed M&A.
The merging of Ping and ForgeRock is just the start, and we all know where this ends. The question is can they make this work?
Merging companies is hard.
Merging tech is harder.
Doing both of those and making money…..
Just looking at the products and there is a LOT of overlap.
Things just keep getting good around here !
Be Good to each other, Be Kind to each other, Love each other
-Identity Jedi
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