The Design of Trustworthy Things

There is a trust crisis permeating every aspect of our lives. We see it in the scams and frauds that permeate the NFT world. We see it in the swift backlash against the IRS’ plans to add face biometrics to its identity proofing flows. We see this crisis of trust all around us—and it has a significant impact on the world that we as identity professionals are responsible for. Trust is something that you earn, something that is given to you. We can’t build trust itself into a digital identity system. But we can, and we must, build systems which are worthy of trust.

In this talk, Nishant Kaushik explains what it means to build trustworthy systems; demonstrates the meaningful ways in which digital identity technologies are woven into the fabric and architecture of such systems; and shows how such trustworthy systems may finally deliver on the promise of financial, social and technological inclusion, dignity and reliability.

So You Think You Can Two Factor

There is a trust crisis permeating every aspect of our lives. We see it in the scams and frauds that permeate the NFT world. We see it in the swift backlash against the IRS’ plans to add face biometrics to its identity proofing flows. We see this crisis of trust all around us—and it has a significant impact on the world that we as identity professionals are responsible for. Trust is something that you earn, something that is given to you. We can’t build trust itself into a digital identity system. But we can, and we must, build systems which are worthy of trust.

In this talk, Nishant Kaushik explains what it means to build trustworthy systems; demonstrates the meaningful ways in which digital identity technologies are woven into the fabric and architecture of such systems; and shows how such trustworthy systems may finally deliver on the promise of financial, social and technological inclusion, dignity and reliability.

Hu: The Missing Element

Stranger in a Strange Land

When asked to tackle the challenge of consumer identity, most folks that have been immersed in enterprise identity land say “sure, I just need to refactor for scale, usability, some omnichannel stuff, social login and registration, and a lot of data collection to support customer analytics”. We may have accepted as conventional wisdom the notion that consumer IAM is not an extension of enterprise IAM. But when the rubber meets the road, do the implementors and program managers of customer identity initiatives really know what that means? There’s a disconnect between vision, concept and action – one that often leads them to fall back on familiar enterprise identity constructs, to the detriment of the program.

Invisible Identity, or How to Delight People & Secure Users

We’re reaching an interesting crossroads in identity management. It’s transitioning from being a niche area of interest to a major pillar in corporate IT. On the one hand, it is becoming the new security perimeter, crucial to protecting people and corporate assets in an ever interconnected world. On the other hand, it is evolving into a platform on which to create new, unique and delightful user experiences. Balancing competing but complementary concerns of security, innovation and privacy requires a rethink of how we’ve traditionally used identity in IT. In this talk I gave at the 2016 Cloud Identity Summit, we’ll explore the changes that are coming and how to best navigate the brave new world of Invisible Identity.

#Fail No More :The Rise of the Self Defending Enterprise

For the modern enterprise, identity-based security is about to become a reality. While it is clear that this is necessary for borderless IT to become practical, what is less known is that it is also going to move security into the background, in a passive yet richer, ubiquitous role. This session will describe how identity, cloud and emerging tech will revolutionize security automation, not only removing the need for manual processes that slow down an agile enterprise, but powering deeper policy-based controls.

Identity Management Is A People Problem (But It Shouldn’t Be!)

“Identity Management is about Business Processes, not Technology”, they say. But why? Why do they say that? Are we relying too much on people to do tasks that our identity management systems should do but seem incapable of doing? And are there smarter ways in which identity management scenarios can be addressed that make these systems easier, even transparent, to use for people? In this talk I gave at the 2014 Cloud Identity Summit, I look at how the business of identity management is changing to push more and more functionality into the background, leaving people with a simpler, more satisfying, experience that still manages to give enterprises the security they are looking for.
For some context on my talk, check out the blog post linked below.

[My talk from the 2014 Cloud Identity Summit // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2014/07/identity-management-is-a-people-problem-but-it-shouldnt-be.html]

Beyond Attributes: How Identity Provides Contextual Intelligence To Our Digital World

This talk I gave at the 2013 Defrag conference builds on themes from my 2012 Defrag talk, and establishes the need for the identity graph and how analytics on top of it allows for a more dynamic and agile digital space that spans personal and work applications.

[My talk from the 2013 Defrag Conference // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2014/02/beyond-attributes.html]

IDaaS. The Now Big Thing

There is a misconception that IDaaS is simply a cloud-based, less featured, less secure version of traditional Identity Management products that get deployed on-prem. In this session, you will find out that far from being little brother, IDaaS is actually bigger, better and stronger than IDaaI (Identity-as-an-Install) across multiple dimensions, whether it be in capabilities, ability to evolve and most significantly, security and performance. IDaaS is Changing the IdM game right in front of us, and customers are winning.

[Adaptation of my talk from the 2013 Cloud Identity Summit // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2013/07/cloud-based-iam-is-bigger-better-stronger-than-on-prem-iam.html]

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Identity – Identity Management

Is Identity the Answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not be in any way exacerbated that I will reveal in advance that the answer is No. But Identity is the New Perimeter and the Great Enabler of Next. Establishing that big bold idea, this session will lay out what we mean by Identity, and how attributes, relationships, identifiers, entitlements and the notion of Context fit into the ever-expanding branches of identity management like lifecycle management, provisioning, verification, compliance and federation.

[Part 1 of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to Identity workshop from Cloud Identity Summit 2013 // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2013/07/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-identity.html]

The IDaaS Powered World

In this talk I gave at the Defrag 2012 Conference, titled “The IDaaS Powered World, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love IAM (Again)”, I lay out the case for why IAM has to evolve into an identity services based model, and go through some examples of how IDaaS will transform the way we interact in the online world.

[Adaptation of talk I gave at Defrag 2012 // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2012/11/the-idaas-powered-world.html]

Ask not what Identity can do for the Cloud, Ask what the Cloud can do for Identity

It is now well established that identity is core to the success and security of cloud computing. But how can the power of the cloud transform the way we consume, manage and even think about identity? Thanks to cloud computing, the world is getting more interconnected, instrumented and intelligent, and this will enable identity to create and deliver value in fundamentally new ways.
In this presentation, I’ll explore some of these new and innovative capabilities that enterprises and individuals will benefit from thanks to cloud-powered identity and identity management.

[Adapted from my Cloud Identity Summit 2012 talk // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2012/07/what-the-cloud-can-do-for-identity.html]

And Now For Something Completely Different (Identity Provisioning and the Cloud)

Identity Provisioning has been a central and much maligned component in most identity and access governance projects within the enterprise. But as the cloud obliterates the boundaries within which enterprise identity must play, the traditionally understood model of user provisioning has become an albatross around the necks of corporate IT, weighing them down and creating much angst for management that felt they had finally worked things out. But is provisioning really done, or does it still have a role to play in the next generation architecture of the cloud-based enterprise? In this talk I gave at the Cloud Identity Summit 2011, I describe how identity provisioning should evolve in the world of federated identity, externalized security and pull-based identity management.

[Adapted from my talk at the 2011 Cloud Identity Summit // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2011/07/and-now-for-something-completely-different.html]

When Trust Is Not Enough

The threat of an attack on the business from insiders is real and substantial, and the impact can be devastating, going beyond just financial damage. Surveys have shown that as many as 30% of the electronic crimes affecting organizations are perpetrated by a trusted user. But enterprises constantly underestimate or ignore the danger. Most insider attacks can be prevented through a layered, defense-in-depth strategy that blends policies, procedures, and technical controls. In this talk I adapted from my session at EIC 2011, I will describe how a comprehensive and holistic approach to identity and access management can help in mitigating these risks.

[Adapted from my talk at the 2011 European Identity Conference // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2011/06/deploy-multi-layered-security-to-combat-insider-threats.html]

An Entitlement-Centric Approach to Security

With the de-perimiterization of the enterprise, the modern enterprise has already become entitlement-based; we in the security industry just haven’t caught up with this yet. And unless our tools catch up with this change, we are going to keep burdening our customers with costly integration and compliance burdens. Entitlements is a common language that can help change the way identity is used as the foundation for defining holistic security policies and managing risk in the enterprise. In this talk I gave at an Oracle CSO event, I describe an entitlements-based approach to security

[Talk from an Oracle CSO event in 2011 // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2011/04/an-entitlement-centric-approach-to-security.html]

Identity Intelligence to Drive Business Objectives

Today’s CISO’s face pressure to demonstrate the link between their identity management programs and business objectives, crucial in measuring how well IT supports the business and manages risk. This means making sense of technical identity data and transforming it into insightful, business-friendly information that is actionable.

Learn how identity management, data mining, business processing and analytics come together as Identity Intelligence to address enterprise needs for greater transparency, compliance, risk management and business decision support.

[Adapted from my talk at the 2011 Gartner IAM Summit – London // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2011/05/identity-intelligence-to-drive-business-objectives.html]

IdM And The Cloud- Stormy Days Ahead

Cloud computing is about to revolutionize enterprise IT and architecture. But leading industry analysts see security as a gating factor preventing enterprise adoption of cloud solutions, as enterprises grapple with the unique characteristics of cloud security and the challenges of compliance and governance. This presentation I gave at OpenWorld 2009 outlines key identity management considerations for evaluating a move to the cloud. It discusses how enterprises can leverage their existing identity and access management infrastructure and the principles of service-oriented security and standards-based interactions to secure their assets in the cloud. It also looks at the prospects for identity management as a service and how it will affect cloud computing’s future.

[My talk from the 2009 Oracle Openworld Conference // Associated Blog Post: blog.talkingidentity.com/2009/10/screencast-of-my-openworld-session-on-idm-and-the-cloud.html]