By Jerome Becquart

Recently you’ve likely heard a lot about frictionless technology, frictionless solutions. So let’s take a look at what frictionless means.

fric·tion·less

/ˈfrikSHənləs/

adjective

• not impeded by or creating friction; smooth.

• achieved with or involving little difficulty; effortless.

The reason frictionless experience is such a hot topic is that cybersecurity experts recognize the importance of making it easy for user populations to follow critical security procedures — especially when it comes to implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) solutions.

This said all too often, an organization’s goal to deliver a frictionless solution stops at the “end user” experience without looking at the big picture — without factoring in all of its different populations, roles and responsibilities. At Axiad, we provide customers with a frictionless experience across the entire organization — one that addresses the unique needs and skill levels of every user group.

As stated previously, security processes that create friction, result in poor adoption and frequently end up in failure. Speaking from firsthand experience, if the security solution brings friction into the organization — users — no matter the department or role within the organization — will revert to passwords, the very security mechanism MFA tries to eliminate. While this may sound like an end-user issue, it actually impacts the company top to bottom. To provide some perspective, I’ve broken it down for you below.

So what should your organization do to ensure a frictionless security experience?

Let’s take a look at the impact on some of these populations…

The IT Team

The IT team is responsible for maintaining, supporting and evolving MFA solutions within an organization. Confronted with increasingly complex security challenges, this team is typically tasked with finding the best frictionless MFA solution without any corresponding increase in budget. In other words, do more—without any additional resources, training or support. And if an organization does have the funds for additional support, the persistent challenge faced by enterprises worldwide is a shortage in skilled labor. According to Gartner Group, the number of unfilled cybersecurity roles is expected to grow from 1 million in 2018 to 1.5 million by end of 2020. The situation is not getting better.

The top concerns we hear from customers related to the IT Team include:

• Finding and retaining skilled IT staff,

• Keeping IT staff current on the newest technologies,

• Managing a disconnected, patchwork of cyber security products and technologies — costly to maintain and prone to security risks, and

• Filling knowledge/experience gaps when IT staff involved in the integration of enterprise technology solutions ‘move on.’

The Chief Information Security Officer

The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the team in charge of auditing information security across the enterprise are critical elements in this discussion. More and more companies are being required — by their customers — to comply with security audits. Any enterprise organization able to demonstrate compliance efficiently and reliably is going to save (a lot) of money. This is where partnering with a cybersecurity expert that provides a frictionless experience for both the internal IT/security team and the organization’s end customer — is of high value. The right cybersecurity partner should be able to deliver:

• advanced reporting capabilities

  a proven track record in Higher Assurance environments

• 3rd party certifications and audits

The Executive Team

Another very important user population within any enterprise is the executive team. The team raising the bar on cybersecurity requirements — often not understanding the resource requirements and/or sheer impact that the changes will have on the organization-at-large. This team directly impacts the IT team just discussed.

Axiad’s MFA solution addresses the needs of both audiences head-on with a truly frictionless experiences for all populations. Our platform is:

• flexible,

• secure, and

• easy to manage and maintain

Additionally, we provide the executive team with peace-of-mind knowing Axiad’s team will remain engaged long after the solution is in place. We build long-term technical partnerships with customers’ IT teams and strategic business relationships with customers’ executive teams — always looking ahead to proactively address the next big potential cybersecurity threat.

A Few Closing Thoughts…

As you have read, a one size solution no longer works in a world where enterprises must be vigilant against cybersecurity threats — at all times. Axiad partners with its customers to align technology and security strategies with an organization’s long-term business strategies. This means having the flexibility, knowledge and experience to help a company stay ahead of the curve and evolve its enterprise infrastructure in anticipation of potential threats and technological advancements.

I’d welcome the opportunity to share more about Axiad’s Frictionless DNA program which is helping organizations worldwide deliver a frictionless experience to user populations — top to bottom.

About the Author

Jerome Becquart, COO, Jerome has over 20 years of experience in identity and access management solutions, including 15 years at ActivIdentity. Jerome’s management experience includes roles in operational management, sales management, professional services, product and solution marketing, engineering, and technical support. After the acquisition of ActivIdentity by HID Global in 2010, Jerome served as general manager of the HID Identity Assurance business unit. He chaired the Global Platform Government Task Force for three years, and served on the board of directors of this Industry organization.