Alexandra Borgeaud
Research expert covering cybersecurity and tech in Latin America
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In 2022, the global IAM market was valued at approximately 16 billion U.S. dollars and was expected to increase to more than 43 billion U.S. dollars by 2029, driven by its convenience regarding employee security and customer identification. IAM policies can preventively identify unusual behaviors and policy violation detection, while ensuring automated access rights and role provision. When broken down according to use cases, the concept of IAM reveals several market components that are important to understand: Access Management, Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Privileged Access Management (PAM), Internet of Things IAM, as well as Customer IAM and adjacent technologies.Fast evolving tech ecosystems require the right IAM methods
IAM tools are designed to perform three main tasks: identify, authenticate, and authorize. In 2023, usernames and passwords remained the authentication methods most widely used by companies worldwide. Software tokens such as one-time passwords ranked second and were employed by half of organizations worldwide. Multifactor authentication constituted another method largely favored worldwide, as any additional layer of protection to the sign-in process helps protect organizations against security and data breaches. Among multifactor authenticators, SMS time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs) were the most popular and used by nearly 56 percent of organizations globally. Additionally, there are several tools that companies must integrate in their IAM systems in order to support a Zero Trust security framework, as IAM is a critical component of a Zero Trust strategy.Is the future of IAM passwordless?
While passwords remain widely implemented worldwide, passwordless methods, which allow users to access applications or IT systems without typing in a password or answering security questions, have increased in popularity over recent years. Under this approach, users can provide alternative forms of evidence, such as fingerprints, smart cards, or hardware keys. Passwordless authentication is typically used alongside multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) solutions to improve user experience, increase cybersecurity, and simplify IT operations. While passwordless adoption is expected to continue to grow in the future, some key security risks and vulnerabilities will endure and will require innovative solutions to ensure companies’ data security worldwide.
