Global survey: only 1 in 5 organizations securely manages user identities.

• Position: CYBERSECURITY

Organizations are rapidly developing and hosting new online services but frequently under-invest in adequate cybersecurity measures, according to a recent global survey by Capgemini and RSA.

The survey, "Identity Crisis: How to Balance Digital Transformation and User Security?," polled more than 800 C-level executives in Benelux and the Nordics, France, Germany, the UK, and the United States and found that 62% consider it critical or very important for their organizations to securely enable or extend access for users to digital services, but only 26% have the technology in place to do so.

"As organizations extend to the cloud they must ensure they have solutions in place that address the risk and threats associated with assuring user identities," Jim Ducharme, vice president of identity products at RSA, said in a news release. "These solutions must understand who is accessing what; manage that access effectively; and control access across the various cloud services. These elements are absolutely essential to giving the organization the assurance that users are who they say they are in a cloud environment."

Eighty-four percent acknowledged they need to offer more flexible, adaptive authentication methods and IDs, according to the survey. And, the survey showed, companies are trying to do just that: 68% have increased their identity and access management (IAM) budgets, with 28% reporting a "strong" increase.

The survey also revealed that the way IAM is being viewed and implemented is changing, as a result of maturing and emerging technologies and user preferences. According to the results, allowing users to log in securely with their existing social identities is the goal of many companies.

The...