Personal & workplace IDs are converging.

• Position: Cybersecurity

Some 90% of enterprise IT professionals are concerned that employee reuse of personal credentials for work purposes could compromise security, according to a study by digital security firm Gemalto. However, with 68% saying they would be comfortable allowing employees to use their social media credentials on company resources, Gemalto's research suggests that personal applications (such as email) are the biggest worry to organizations.

The enterprise and consumer worlds are merging closer together, with enterprise security teams under increasing pressure to implement the same type of authentication methods typically seen in consumer services, such as fingerprint scanning and iris recognition. Sixty-two percent believe this is the case, with 63% revealing they feel security methods designed for consumers provide sufficient protection for enterprises. In fact, 52% of respondents believe it will be just three years before these methods merge completely.

Identity theft accounts for 64% of all data breaches across the globe, and consumer service breaches continue to rise, resulting in 89% of enterprises addressing their access management security policies. Forty-nine percent of enterprises have implemented extra training to allay their security concerns; 47% increased security spending; and 44% allocated further resources.

Employee expectations around usability and mobility are affecting how enterprises approach authentication and access management. Nearly half of respondents state that they are increasing resources and spending on access management. Deployment rates also are increasing: 62% expect to implement strong authentication in two years time, up from 51% of respondents who said the same thing last year, and nearly 40% responded they will implement Cloud SSO or IDaaS...