Latest / Identity at the Center / #234 - Identity Week America 2023: Jeff Reich of the Identity Defined Security Alliance
Transcript
- 0:05This is identity at the center. If it has anything to do with I
- 0:10Am, this is the go to podcast now your hosts Jim McDonald and
- 0:17Jeff Steadman. Welcome to the Identity at the
- 0:23Center podcast. I'm Jeff and I'm by myself this
- 0:26week. Well, not really.
- 0:27I'm at the Identity Week America conference having conversations
- 0:31with different folks we've had in the past on the show.
- 0:33New friends, family, compatriots, whatever you want
- 0:36to talk about it. So I'm going to be joined here
- 0:39in a minute by Mr. Jeff Rich. He's the executive Director of
- 0:42the Identity Defined Security Alliance.
- 0:44Welcome to the show. Thank you very much, Jeff.
- 0:47Jeff It's like a mirror. It's a Jeff and Jeff show.
- 0:49It's. Going to get a little confusing
- 0:51because like which Jeff was said what?
- 0:53First of all going to compliment you.
- 0:54I love the suspenders looking sharp.
- 0:56Thank you, Sir. So we're here at Identity Week,
- 0:59America, having conversations and just kind of picking the
- 1:03brains of people from an identity standpoint at least
- 1:06around things have been going on.
- 1:08Before I get to that, I just want to give a shout out to
- 1:10Molly. She's been super helpful and
- 1:12getting this show and you know. Organized and helping us, you
- 1:17know, get this together. So big shout out to Maui and
- 1:19thank you for that. I guess it's been a few months
- 1:23since the last time you were on the show, Jeff.
- 1:24It was April. It would have been episode #206.
- 1:28I'm not sure what number episode this will be, but it's been a
- 1:31few months. What's been going on with the
- 1:34identity to find Security Alliance or IDSA since we last
- 1:38chatted? So a lot's happened in the past
- 1:41six months or so. We have changed our look and
- 1:46feel. If you go to a website, there's
- 1:48a there's a whole new reskin on it and we're excited about that
- 1:51actually. We think it looks great.
- 1:52It does. I noticed it right away.
- 1:54I was pulling it up today for preparing for this conversation
- 1:56is like, oh, there's a new website.
- 1:57Yeah, Well, thanks. It's yeah we we think it looks
- 1:59good fix it looks great actually and we have added a new category
- 2:05of membership called partner which deals with our consultant
- 2:10agencies or advisors. You know, they aren't
- 2:13necessarily selling security or identity products, but they may
- 2:16advise on it. They can do some consulting.
- 2:18So that's there. We are focusing now on getting
- 2:23more enterprise or companies that aren't identity vendors or
- 2:27partners. Consumers of identity stuff.
- 2:30Yes, exactly. And you're going to see a focus
- 2:34on that probably hearing a bit more about it over the next
- 2:37couple of weeks actually. With a goal to bring you more
- 2:40than in because we know they can benefit from it, they tell us
- 2:43they can benefit from it. So we are tweaking how that
- 2:47membership works just a bit. We're almost done with that so
- 2:50that we can appeal to more and really bring value to them
- 2:54because the more of the enterprises and consumers, as
- 2:57you say, of the identity products we have, the better.
- 3:01Voice we have with the identity vendors and with governments so
- 3:05that we can start getting a consistent view of what identity
- 3:08means, how we should work and what sort of things we should
- 3:11start avoiding maybe. So for people who aren't
- 3:14familiar with IDSA, what's the 32nd?
- 3:17I'm riding to the top of the Marriott Marquis elevator ride
- 3:20to the to get a Coke or something from the MM Club
- 3:23Lounge. What do?
- 3:25You do if first of all, if you want to coke, I can get it for
- 3:27you downstairs, but more importantly.
- 3:30We are a nonprofit that focuses on education and free resource,
- 3:33free education, free resources for raising the awareness of
- 3:37identity, security and to secure identities and we which which we
- 3:41look at as two separate functions, although they're
- 3:43related. That's really in a nutshell what
- 3:45we do, we have members that support our our mission and
- 3:49through membership dues at our fees.
- 3:53We take no money from vendors specifically because of that.
- 3:57They may be a member. And our goal is to spread the
- 4:01word and get it as far as possible.
- 4:03And over the next few minutes, I think we can talk about how
- 4:07we're going to maybe do that even more.
- 4:08Yeah. So we're in October and it's
- 4:11Cyber Security Awareness Month. I know you guys have done stuff
- 4:13in the past with that, but what's what's ideas they got
- 4:16going on this month? So we have a few things to get
- 4:19information out to the world, especially our members.
- 4:22We have a couple webinars scheduled this month, one from
- 4:25sent that Sentinel ones going to be providing.
- 4:27And another one that that we are hosting that is going to take a
- 4:31look at the I Digital Identity Research survey that we've done
- 4:35that we published this a little bit earlier this year and
- 4:38compare that to a similar one that Cyber Ark did this year And
- 4:42not endorsing either one, but taking a look at, we're asking
- 4:45similar questions, different audiences, different cohorts,
- 4:49where do things line up, what's consistent, where are there gaps
- 4:52as one example. This is something that I found
- 4:56amazing, but with a survey we did because I have yet to
- 4:59reconcile it. A overwhelming majority of
- 5:03organizations said that they were doing a good job managing
- 5:06identity and breaches, and over 70% of them said they had a
- 5:11breach in the past year. Yeah, they're pros and they had
- 5:13so many. Exactly, yeah.
- 5:16They're they're good at responding to breaches.
- 5:19But that's something we're working on to the book we do to
- 5:22resolve that because there is a there is a gap there.
- 5:24We want to help everyone close that gap.
- 5:27Yeah. And there's a lot of, I feel
- 5:28like, you know, just every new cycle, there's just who got
- 5:31breached this week, what happened.
- 5:33You know, there's Vegas has had some issues recently, for
- 5:36example. And it's tough because they
- 5:38think how do you, how do you reconcile stuff?
- 5:40It's like, Oh yeah, we're doing a good job.
- 5:42And I think sometimes that shows up in budgets or initiatives and
- 5:44things like that, that I know the clients that I talk with for
- 5:47example, my day job right is. Well, you know, we're already
- 5:50spending X number of dollars on identity.
- 5:52Why do we need to spend more? But it's, you know, how do we
- 5:56reconcile doing good? We think we're doing good versus
- 5:59well. People are still in the news for
- 6:01the wrong reasons. You know, and first of all, I
- 6:03don't have the magic answer to that.
- 6:05If if I did, I wouldn't be here. I'd be out telling the magic
- 6:08answer, right? But more importantly, I think
- 6:11when? When I when I get that question.
- 6:14My answer is always, and it's not very different from answers
- 6:17around security that I've been giving for the past 50 years.
- 6:20And that's if your response to a problem is throw money at it and
- 6:24that should fix it, your successor will come up with a
- 6:27better answer. And I say that not to be funny,
- 6:30but it's true and I've been in it.
- 6:33That's been me at times, right? Anyone that's been a See So or
- 6:36equivalent in the past 30 years has been the recipient of pain.
- 6:42That resulted from a breach or a security problem, whether they
- 6:46caused it or not or whether they let it happen or not.
- 6:48So simply throwing money at the problem won't do it.
- 6:50Simply buying software won't do it.
- 6:52In fact, I will offer, and there are great software vendors here
- 6:55at this show, great products. But if you buy the most
- 6:59expensive product because you have the budget for it and you
- 7:02say Hooray and you install it, that does nothing.
- 7:05It's like buying a steel door for your the front of your house
- 7:09and leaving it unlocked. Well, I I think that sometimes
- 7:13something that does happen, right, is people say they'll
- 7:15look at, you know, not to pick on Gartner, but we've had this
- 7:17conversation with folks from there as well.
- 7:19It's like, oh, well, I only buy upper right Gartner, Magic
- 7:21Quadrant, okay, well, great. What else are you doing though,
- 7:25Because it's a combination of people, process and technology
- 7:29is how we address a lot of these issues.
- 7:31And you know, I've been very fortunate to talk with a lot of
- 7:34identity people. And when I'm talking with
- 7:36organizations, one of the first things that typically stands out
- 7:39to me. When they're struggling,
- 7:41something is just the sheer amount of what I call I am
- 7:45heroics. They're taking place behind the
- 7:47scenes that people probably don't know about and the
- 7:50organization itself probably doesn't know about and that's
- 7:53the only way that they're getting by.
- 7:55It's not scalable. It's very difficult position to
- 7:58be in. It's very precarious.
- 7:59I'm curious, in the conversations that you've had
- 8:01with maybe, you know some of the membership and other folks
- 8:03you've talked to in your role, do you see the same thing with I
- 8:06Am Heroics kind of really being? How things actually get done in
- 8:09the? Real world?
- 8:10Yep. They better hope I don't use
- 8:13that out that word very often. That their problem doesn't occur
- 8:16when that individual's on vacation because the heroics
- 8:19can't happen that week as and and it's it's it's sad but that
- 8:24is how it's working and and the main cause of that I believe is
- 8:29identity and access sprawl. You can ask anyone How many
- 8:34identities do you think you have?
- 8:36And most people say 05/10. And I don't care who you are,
- 8:41that's nowhere near close I have now.
- 8:43I'm I'm a bit extreme. I have 897 all right.
- 8:48Now I'd like to think most people don't have that many, but
- 8:51most people are deep into double digits.
- 8:56I think you and I are both on the extreme side, but just for,
- 9:00I guess, commiserating in public with you.
- 9:04I just opened up my pastor vault and I have 1200 accounts.
- 9:08Okay, that's one person. And that I was I'm a consumer
- 9:10and I I probably not the normal person.
- 9:13In fact, I would guarantee I'm not a normal and a number of
- 9:16trust. Me, Jeff, But yeah.
- 9:18But it is a problem that that sprawl you talk about and even
- 9:22within an organization, I think this concept right of, oh, we'll
- 9:24do single sign on sounds great and a lot of people have taken
- 9:27advantage of those types of technologies, but they haven't.
- 9:31Fully taken advantage of it because they get caught in two
- 9:33worlds, they get caught in well. This is a legacy application and
- 9:37it doesn't play well with our current modern single sign on.
- 9:40Or there's some some shadow it taking place and there's a whole
- 9:43bunch of accounts out there that it may or may not know about and
- 9:46hasn't may or may or may not have done something about you
- 9:50got sprawl all over the place. Yep, and it's sprawl that they
- 9:54just simply not manage. Now I I had at one point I had
- 9:581700, but I I've had over like a four month period of purposeful
- 10:03effort to say I'm dumping this one, I'm going to deactivate it.
- 10:07You can't just delete it from your password mag, right.
- 10:09You have to go deactivate it, which actually, that's even
- 10:11worse. Let me abandon it, right?
- 10:13But yeah, I had to get it down to my goal was to get it under
- 10:161000 for for whatever that's worth it.
- 10:19There's no magic to that number. Most people shouldn't have that
- 10:22many. You and I are outliers,
- 10:24definitely, but most people have more than they need.
- 10:27Most people have closer to 50 than to five.
- 10:31So I would offer that's the number one gaping hole that
- 10:36organizations have in managing identity and access because all
- 10:42it takes is one of those to crack and it's a way in.
- 10:46Yeah, especially if you were using passwords, then that's
- 10:49pretty much the way it goes in, I mean, I guess.
- 10:51The benefit of having so many accounts is theoretically you're
- 10:55using a different password for each one, but everyone's human,
- 10:59and some people follow that advice and some people don't.
- 11:04Yeah, and even when you do, I'm saying, oh, I have a password
- 11:08manager, but I'm not going to, I can't bring it up now.
- 11:12So I'll go, I'll just reuse this password and I'll generate one
- 11:14later. And you never do.
- 11:15Yeah, it ends up somewhere in a table and blah blah blah.
- 11:19What else is ideas they've been working on?
- 11:22So, so we talked about you know our look and feel our our
- 11:25membership is different. Those are two really big things
- 11:27for us. We have some activities going on
- 11:30with cybersecurity Awareness Month, always in support of the
- 11:33National Cybersecurity Alliance. Obviously we work with them as
- 11:36well as with our they work with us in Identity Management Day,
- 11:41which is the second Tuesday of every remiss, not to say second
- 11:44Tuesday of every year of April of every year.
- 11:46April 9th of 2024, we're looking forward to having everyone have
- 11:50that come to a screen near them. It is an online event.
- 11:53We had over 1100 attendees last April and we're looking for even
- 11:57more going to have great speaker lineup.
- 12:00We still have some openings for speakers.
- 12:02That call will go out soon and still some openings for
- 12:06sponsors. So anyone who wants to be
- 12:07involved in that, just let us know.
- 12:10Identity Center Fun fact, the Identity Management Day is the
- 12:14only link. On our own website
- 12:17idacpodcast.com that we have put so far it's from from getting
- 12:22awareness out right with other organizations for that so we
- 12:24have a whole page. Thank you.
- 12:25We just get a fifth bump on that.
- 12:26Thank you. So if you go on our menu at the
- 12:28top, there is, it might be a little bit buried right now
- 12:31because there's a few things in there, but it's the only
- 12:33external page that we've got that links back to Identity
- 12:36Management Day. Thank you.
- 12:37We think there's a lot of value in that and we've heard that
- 12:40from the attendees as well. So I I think that's a lot of
- 12:44what we have going in on now something else we have going on
- 12:46that we're very excited about is we are announcing this week a
- 12:51Memorandum of Understanding that will be in place between us, the
- 12:55IDSA and the SIA, the Secure Identity Alliance which is based
- 13:00in Brussels, Belgium and and their footprint, they focus
- 13:03really more on standards and government work as opposed to
- 13:08mainly commerce and enterprise which we do.
- 13:11So there's a good compliment there, both with an I and an E
- 13:15for each organization and by having this memorandum
- 13:19understanding where we're going to have collaborative efforts,
- 13:22we're going to have some common working groups and a few other
- 13:24projects that we work on together that gives each of our
- 13:28organizations and both of our organizations more of a
- 13:31worldwide footprint. Our goal here isn't world
- 13:34domination. I don't know.
- 13:35Maybe someday. But that's an awesome podcast.
- 13:38Yes. But, but more importantly, we
- 13:41want to be able to say what does identity mean to any individual
- 13:46around the world and it should mean the same.
- 13:48Now we're not saying put everything in this one app and
- 13:51it either works or it doesn't because that first it doesn't.
- 13:54So we'll get that question out of the way, but to have some
- 13:57consistency, maybe even accepted standard so there can be an
- 14:01exchange so that my identity here when I want to use it in
- 14:06France. There is a straightforward way
- 14:09to make that happen, rather than a bureaucratic way that requires
- 14:12a piece of paper. It sounds very complimentary
- 14:14missions. If the third focus more in the
- 14:16government sector versus the sectors and IDSA focuses on
- 14:20today, it seems like that's sort of a, I don't know, a good
- 14:23Tetris fit. It is and and they also do, you
- 14:26know, we do some work on looking at standards.
- 14:29They do a little more work on, although we've had some input to
- 14:32standards as well. They're a little more focused on
- 14:34that. So once again, another another
- 14:37complementary factor. So we think that this is a
- 14:39really good opportunity to have two good organizations working
- 14:43in the same space but doing different things, joined forces.
- 14:46That's good. I think we've got listeners all
- 14:48over the world. So if anybody from Secure
- 14:50Identity Alliance is listening, let's come on the show.
- 14:53Reach out to me or maybe you can make an introduction.
- 14:56We can kind of talk about that, but I'd love to get the
- 14:57awareness out of our around that.
- 14:59I'll be happy to do that. In fact, I'll offer that at
- 15:01Trust Tech in Paris at the end of November.
- 15:04I think it's a 28th and 29th. I will be there and an Sia will
- 15:09be there as well. In fact, I think they're one of
- 15:11the organizers of the of the conference and at the end of
- 15:15that we will have an invitation only identity interoperability
- 15:19summit. I'm.
- 15:20I actually got that out. I've worked on that phrase to
- 15:24really see what we can do to help drive this home.
- 15:26So yeah, anyone that wants to come on your podcast that that
- 15:29either knows me or meets me there, I'll be happy to do the
- 15:31hookup here. Yeah.
- 15:32That'd be great. Look to we love having an
- 15:34international flavor because you know it's tough.
- 15:36What not tough, but it's familiar when we're talking US
- 15:40centric because, well, I live in the US and Jim lives in the USA.
- 15:44Lot of stuff that we work on is you know North America based for
- 15:47example. But it is interesting to see how
- 15:50other countries around the world and other organizations are
- 15:52operating. So we're here at any Week
- 15:56America, what do you get out of a conference like this?
- 16:00And I think there's two hats you're probably wearing.
- 16:02One is as a member or sorry, as the executive director, as
- 16:06representing IDSA, but also from an individual level, like what
- 16:10do you get out of being here at something like this?
- 16:13Yeah, thanks. And I am both the leader of IDSA
- 16:16and a practitioner. So yeah, I look at both things,
- 16:20you know, first of all, but I look forward what's new that's
- 16:23out there and there are some good products, there are some
- 16:26nice products that have worked well that are better now that's
- 16:30good to hear. There are some products out
- 16:31there that I I will allow someone to try to convince me
- 16:35what they're going to do and how that's better.
- 16:37But, but that's like every conference you're going to get
- 16:39that. Hear some good speakers, which
- 16:42you may be hearing in the background.
- 16:43Some of them actually are. Many of them actually are very
- 16:45good. I'm.
- 16:46I'm going to be on a panel on Wednesday with me.
- 16:49Yes, I had to stop and think like, who's monitoring that?
- 16:52Oh yeah, you are. And and I'm looking forward to
- 16:56that. So as a practitioner, I'm
- 16:58looking for what else is out there, what's going to be
- 17:00better? What are we going to be talking
- 17:02about next year? Because I have my thoughts about
- 17:04that, but there are others who are smarter than me that have
- 17:07probably a better idea. What problem were we talking
- 17:10about? Next year?
- 17:11We're not going to be talking about MGM next year.
- 17:13We're going to be talking on something bigger.
- 17:14Whatever. Happens then, or closer than I
- 17:17should say what I haven't heard too much of and and shout out to
- 17:20my friend Teresa who was on the show recently.
- 17:23We did an episode on quantum computing and post quantum
- 17:27computing. I don't see any of that here.
- 17:28And she, I, I I saw she was like one of the first people I saw.
- 17:31I walked in and then started talking about it.
- 17:33You know the episode, and there's nothing about Quantum
- 17:36here yet, but. I imagine it's got to be coming
- 17:39at some point. It will be because the price
- 17:40point has to get there. Now you may not know this, but
- 17:43my background is in physics. So if you want to talk about
- 17:46quantum and post quantum, we can have another whole session about
- 17:49that. I'd love to the and that's
- 17:52going, that's clearly going to happen.
- 17:54And for everyone that says, oh, it's too out there and, you
- 17:57know, no one understands what an entangled pair is and everything
- 18:00else, that's OK. Because 15 years ago when you
- 18:05said cloud computing and most people said, oh really, you're
- 18:07going to have something that doesn't really exist and it's
- 18:09going to compute for you. And well, everyone gets that now
- 18:12and Quantum's going to follow the same path just like client
- 18:17server did. People.
- 18:18I I remember having a discussion with someone I worked with and
- 18:21we were we are a full mainframe shop.
- 18:23This is back in the early 80s and talking about client server
- 18:27which eventually became more localized PC's.
- 18:32And he said no, that none of those, that equipment will never
- 18:36show up in any shop I manage. And I said, I'm picturing you
- 18:39with the reverse imprint of a train on your forehead because
- 18:43you are standing on the track saying no, no, no, and you are
- 18:46not going to stop the train. Same thing happened with cloud
- 18:48computing. The same thing is going to be
- 18:50happening with Quantum. What's going to really be good
- 18:55for us though is that identity is going to be tied into
- 18:58quantum. You can't do it without a
- 19:01confirmed. Validated identity just like
- 19:04zero trust which is something you are here people are talking
- 19:07about and you say or what what's with zero trust whether you get
- 19:10or not, what's pillar one identity, if you skip that there
- 19:14the others the other six don't matter.
- 19:16So identity for zero trust for quantum is going to be
- 19:20foundational of what we do going forward and I think that's good
- 19:22for us and good for the world. That's all we call the show idea
- 19:25in the center, right? It's not, not, not by accident
- 19:28that we did that. I think one of the things I've
- 19:30noticed in just the brief hour or so that I've kind of been
- 19:33here on site is a lot of biometrics devices out on the
- 19:37show floor. What are your thoughts on that?
- 19:40Good. Bad.
- 19:41Yeah. So the good thing about
- 19:43biometrics is it gives you a more frictionless way because
- 19:47that's the word that most of them use for your users to be
- 19:51able to authenticate themselves for more secure applications and
- 19:54environments. It's not foolproof.
- 19:58You get false positive, you get false negatives.
- 20:00You have to be able to fine tune that.
- 20:03And even when the product works white right, the operator needs
- 20:06to fine tune it continuously as well because it can be easy,
- 20:10easily enough compromised. So I'm not.
- 20:13I have no statistics, I've done no research on this.
- 20:16However, if you look at generative AI, yet another term
- 20:19that we have yet to bring up in this conversation.
- 20:21So if you're looking for buzzword, bingo, we're filling
- 20:24the card. But with generative I, I and
- 20:27deep fake, it is really, really tough to say that's not me.
- 20:32And what are you going to do when that happens?
- 20:35So biometrics are great, but they're not a panacea.
- 20:40And boy, they're better than passwords.
- 20:43Hands down, yes, yes, let's get away from passwords.
- 20:46We've been saying that for, well, for 50 years.
- 20:49I've been saying it, I actually think.
- 20:52And they're cheering the background for us.
- 20:53Yeah, the world cheers when we say get rid of passwords.
- 20:56I actually think it's now popped over the horizon and we can see
- 20:59it. Yeah, definitely.
- 21:01I've seen passwords really take off in the last year or so.
- 21:04Pass keys was a big a big thing I think for a lot of
- 21:08organizations. You know, no small effort by,
- 21:11you know, Fido crew with getting Apple, Google and Microsoft to
- 21:15sit down and come to agreements right on how this would work
- 21:18because obviously them being the major platform vendors.
- 21:20Have a lot of say in how that would work and that
- 21:22interoperability is that certainly good.
- 21:26So if I may you just point and you're going to be going to a
- 21:29conference very soon talking about that.
- 21:31You just pointed out one of the large benefits of nonprofit
- 21:34alliances like the Fight Alliance or IDSA or SIA when you
- 21:38get the right members involved, which is why we're working on
- 21:41expanding our membership to different types as well as
- 21:43different companies, You become the voice for that function to
- 21:49government, to the big application providers, to
- 21:52Microsoft and Google and Amazon. And when you say here's a voice
- 21:58of all of these members that all want the same thing, they'll
- 22:01more, they're more likely to listen than even if one large
- 22:05company said we want this. So.
- 22:07And I think Fighter Lines deserves a lot of credit for
- 22:10that in this in this vein, and we're looking to be able to do
- 22:14the same thing in support of it, not in competition with them.
- 22:19It seems like there is a lot of government attendance here and
- 22:23obviously we're in Washington, DC, so I guess that's not to be
- 22:26too shocked around that. What's been your experience with
- 22:30government in general? Getting involved with identity
- 22:33security So governments know that identities are vitally
- 22:37important. They deal with it.
- 22:39If you're a government employee, you have a CAC and and that is,
- 22:43that's at the core of your identity.
- 22:45When you say Common Access card, thank you, sorry, I should not
- 22:48have used, I should have not used the acronym.
- 22:50But if you're a government employee or a contractor, you
- 22:52have one or you can't do anything, which is good.
- 22:55That the foundation of without identity you can't get anywhere
- 22:58else is a good thing. But it's more than that now only
- 23:01because of how the applications work where they're distributed
- 23:05do they want single sign on you know ID dot me is that going to
- 23:09work. Everything combined is now
- 23:11raised the profile to the federal government the US
- 23:14federal government who I'll offer is might be a few steps
- 23:17behind most other western governments on how do we
- 23:22digitize that. It's great that this came out
- 23:25with 800-63 and and associated standards around it.
- 23:29I I think there's only two agencies that are committed or
- 23:33required to follow it right now. So it's a start.
- 23:37We're going to get there. I think the fact that the
- 23:41federal government has visibility to the employees that
- 23:44are here, have visibility to all of this and can go back and say
- 23:49hey, you know other stuff to make this work is a really good
- 23:52thing. So I'm looking forward to that.
- 23:54It's I think, for what it's worth, not that I was hoping for
- 23:58government shutdown, but there were a few government employees
- 24:01I talked to. They said, hey, I'm very likely
- 24:02to be able to go into the conferences, but aren't now
- 24:06because because they're working. That's good.
- 24:08I'm glad the government didn't shut down.
- 24:09I'm going on record saying that. But it it all it raised, the
- 24:14interest is there we we have, we're no longer the shouting in
- 24:20the wilderness at the government anymore.
- 24:22The government now has to focus on now not what to buy, but how
- 24:26to do it. And that's their next challenge.
- 24:29And I think there's a lot of companies here they're going to
- 24:31help them do that. You're you're you're in one of
- 24:34them and and we need to help them get there, yeah?
- 24:37It'll be interesting to see how. So essentially when I when I
- 24:40attend a conference like this and I see what's coming next and
- 24:43sometimes what you see the conference like this is the next
- 24:47year, sometimes it's the next two to three years.
- 24:50I feel like government tends to move a little bit slower than
- 24:51that. So maybe it'll be five years or
- 24:53so before it gets more prevalent.
- 24:54But. Do you share the sort of my
- 24:56thought process that like we're seeing things here that will be
- 25:00in the zeitgeists at least for U.S.
- 25:03Federal government over the next one to five years or do you
- 25:07think it's further or more immediate?
- 25:09Well, I think there's some of each.
- 25:11There's there's biometrics you if you trip in one of the aisles
- 25:14you'll you'll fall into a biometrics.
- 25:16Don't worry, they'll know who you are.
- 25:17You'll be able to get this facial recognition will tell you
- 25:20here's you are, I know your medical history and here's what
- 25:22we can do, right. So biometrics, although you know
- 25:27biometrics has been part of, you know, like getting into a skiff,
- 25:30a Secure compartmentalized Information facility, you know
- 25:33the acronym here. But most other federal agencies
- 25:40and access didn't require necessary biometrics.
- 25:42I think you're going to see more of that now and I think that's
- 25:44current. I think that's things that
- 25:46they're going to be able to start acquiring and using.
- 25:50So let's go forward from that. We we can talk about both
- 25:54encryption and identity and both of them fit into the quantum and
- 25:59what many people call the post quantum world.
- 26:02I've yet to define what post quantum means since we're not
- 26:04even actually even there yet. But both of those will come
- 26:08together and and I think in two to five years you're going to
- 26:14start seeing that will become more commonplace just like
- 26:18biometrics are now. Biometrics will then become more
- 26:22accepted. Some will fall off the table,
- 26:24others will certainly have legs and they may already.
- 26:29And I believe what you're going to see with quantum encryption
- 26:33and identity all being tied together, I predict five years
- 26:37from now, come back and come back and find me then.
- 26:40And I I think in five years that will start becoming available
- 26:45and actually almost commonplace. And I know that's difficult for
- 26:48many people believe because most people don't even know what
- 26:50quantum means, and let's not get into it here.
- 26:53But I do believe that's what you're going to see on the next
- 26:56horizon. All right.
- 26:58Well, let's start to wrap things up.
- 26:59We were talking about how we want to end on a lighter note.
- 27:01And I'm going to give you credit for coming up with the question,
- 27:05not know if the right way to ask it is, but what is the best
- 27:11worst thing happening in identity?
- 27:13Hopefully that makes sense. Yes.
- 27:15Or it could be the worst best, the worst best thing.
- 27:17Yeah. It it either one works and and I
- 27:19think the worst best thing and I I I think the definition really
- 27:22holds is we've had more significant breaches now Now for
- 27:28those of us in the industry we're actually jaded by it like
- 27:31yeah big deal, another big breach, right.
- 27:33You know who's next? Yeah.
- 27:34And and actually we need to stop doing that, all right, because
- 27:38that part of the problem. But for the consumer who by the
- 27:43way who are the ones affected by this identity, it either goes to
- 27:47a silicon chip or it's an artificial identity or it's a
- 27:49carbon based unit, The carbon based units are beginning to pay
- 27:53attention. I have received really since the
- 27:58since the last large casino hack.
- 28:01All right. Which was reason or whenever
- 28:04you're listening to this, go see what the most recent hack was
- 28:07and whatever it was, that was it.
- 28:10People are now asking me, hey, isn't that what you work on?
- 28:14Well, yeah, it is. What can I do to help protect my
- 28:18identity? And I get giddy over that I
- 28:21giggle because they're asking the question I want everyone to
- 28:25ask every single provider they work with, not only say what can
- 28:29I do to help protect it, but why aren't you doing this to help me
- 28:32protect it. Those questions are going to do
- 28:35from the bottom up, drive this industry where it needs to be
- 28:38and I think that's a really good thing.
- 28:41Sad how we got there, but that needs to be the result of it.
- 28:44Yeah, drives awareness for sure. That definitely.
- 28:46And pain. Paint pain is a is a great
- 28:49motivator and. Not wants to go through that.
- 28:52No, not where I want to go first.
- 28:54But here we are, yeah. I would agree with that.
- 28:57I think I've seen a lot. You know, it used to be, well,
- 28:59what do you do? I've been identity for 20 years.
- 29:02How do I describe this? Right.
- 29:03It's like, OK, well, that. But yeah, you're right.
- 29:05With people getting more, I don't know.
- 29:08Awareness around what's happening in that space.
- 29:10Breaches typically are it. I mean I I was just hosted
- 29:13family at my at my place a few weeks ago and kind of talked
- 29:17about Oh well you know, what can I be doing to keep my accounts.
- 29:20That's not a question I would have expected my 50s, sixties
- 29:24and 70 year old members right to be asking, but they were asking
- 29:29it and so it definitely has gotten more top of mind for
- 29:32folks out there, which I think is great.
- 29:35It is the best worst thing or worst best thing.
- 29:37However you want to exactly, Jeff, what you do now is sexy.
- 29:40See. Well, you know, I always knew it
- 29:43was. In fact, I think episode #2, I
- 29:45think of this show was like getting into the sexy world of I
- 29:48am a little bit of a joke, but hey, I'll take it.
- 29:51Here we are. It only took a couple years, but
- 29:52we're there. Yeah, exactly.
- 29:53We're ahead of the game. Exactly.
- 29:55All right. Let's go ahead and wrap things
- 29:56up. Any final thoughts or takeaways
- 29:59being part of this discussion? Yeah, yeah, I would just offer
- 30:03think about what you're doing. You know, participate in
- 30:06Cybersecurity Awareness Month. More importantly, don't only do
- 30:09it in October, do that. You know, don't stop your
- 30:12activities on November 1st. Keep it year round.
- 30:15I I really want to encourage that.
- 30:17Secure the world is a new theme and it's a new Evergreen theme
- 30:20and that's why, because it's not really supposed to stop.
- 30:23In addition to that, I would say ask your family members, do you
- 30:27care about your identities And see who's asking.
- 30:31See who's responding and get the word out.
- 30:33You don't have to be an expert to make people aware and that
- 30:36would be the focus. Good tips.
- 30:39We'll have a bunch of links in our show notes for people to
- 30:41follow, but you can find more about the Identity Define
- 30:44Security alliance@idsalliance.org, so go
- 30:48there. For more information, you can
- 30:49find us on the web. We're at IDAC podcast.com.
- 30:53We're on Twitter or X or whatever.
- 30:54We're calling it this week at IDAC podcasts.
- 30:58We're on Mastodon at IDAC podcasts at infosec dot
- 31:01exchange. Every time I say that it just
- 31:04cringes me saying that it's like I like the idea of it, but it's
- 31:07gotta get more user friendly. The whole massive I.
- 31:09When people ask me about that, by the way, I say it's if you
- 31:12consider merging Twitter. And discord?
- 31:15Yes, like, absolutely. And and LinkedIn the whole.
- 31:21Yeah, it's it's an interesting thing that they're doing there.
- 31:24But we also started a LinkedIn page as well.
- 31:28So we finally on LinkedIn. An actual Identity Center page.
- 31:31So. I've been tagging that out of my
- 31:33account. So we've got a new YouTube, not
- 31:35you new to new YouTube, but starting to put our episodes up
- 31:38on YouTube as well. So we will check that as well.
- 31:41So do all the social media things like subscribe, right.
- 31:45That's how you can help us out here and helps us be at these
- 31:47conferences and meet in person when you can.
- 31:49This has been great. Yeah, this has been great.
- 31:51So always enjoy connecting with you Jeff and looking forward to
- 31:54the next time. We'll go ahead and leave it
- 31:55there for this week. Thanks everybody for listening.
- 31:57Jeff, thanks for being here. Give you the fist bump of
- 31:59gratitude here in a minute and. We'll talk with everyone in the
- 32:03next one. You've been listening to
- 32:07Identity at the Center. We hope you've enjoyed the show.
- 32:11Make sure to like, rate and review and we'll be back soon.
- 32:15But in the meantime, hit the website at
- 32:18identity@thecenter.com and find us on Twitter at IDAC Podcast.
- 32:25See you next time on identity at the center.