In Part 1 and Part 2 of my series on the value of identity, we looked at the consequences of revealing excessive personal information in public, more specifically the digital realm, can have on the individual and an organization. We saw that hackers can use the information you reveal on social media and the internet not only to impersonate and steal your identity, but to even infiltrate and take control of your company’s network. 

Earlier this month, I attended the 2016 Interop Conference in Las Vegas. While I had many discussions with attendees on a variety of identity and access security topics, I was surprised by the number of questions about biometrics and multi-factor authentication (MFA).  The majority of people asking these questions were interested in better understanding if and how biometrics should be used as part of their authentication process. Since this topic came up so often at Interop, I’m guessing a lot of you have similar questions. So, I thought it would be helpful to provide some additional biometrics and our point our view on them.

Earlier this year, James Litton, our CEO, appeared on Texas Business Radio, the syndicated radio show that features leading businesses, people, and events from the Texas business world.

Last month I read an article reporting that researchers found two-factor authentication to be insecure and vulnerable to hacks. My initial reaction was skepticism, since it wasn’t recommending a more secure alternative like multi-factor authentication, but instead simply stating 2FA isn’t secure.

Photo by Ludovic Bertron

James Bond is known for impeccable taste in clothes, cars and cocktails. Not to mention, cool gadgets and tricks up his sleeve like wristwatch lasers and passenger ejector seats. Along with the style and grace, keeping data safe and intelligence top secret is still top of mind for Bond.

You could say 2015 was a house of horrors when it came to security breaches -- from high profile corporate hacks, stolen identities of 4 million federal employees, to a database breach exposing the names, genders, and birthdays of more than 200,000 kids.

Last week, I wrote a post about how with the proliferation of the Internet of Things, “things” within an organization - those smart connected devices that are able to think on their own - will emerge as insider threats in the future. At the end of that post, I said that things will eventually become another identity we will have to secure and manage.

In the past, we’ve talked a lot about rogue employees and how they pose an internal threat to organizations if their identities aren’t properly managed. Last month, Troy discussed them again, building on our rogue employee archetypes by adding a few others to the list.

Yet as the Internet of Things continues to grow from a concept into something more tangible, I can’t help but think that “things” could eventually pose an internal threat to organizations as well.

With the upcoming holiday shopping season, make sure to beef up your security preferences on your Amazon account. The online retail giant has given users the option to enable two-factor authentication (or 2-step verification) on their accounts. Mobile-friendly ecommerce sites like Amazon’s have made us click-happy, but also easier for hackers to obtain your personal information, credit card numbers and passwords saved in your favorite internet browser.