An identity provider (IdP) stores, maintains, and manages digital user identities and the information associated with them. Often leveraged to manage employee access to reliant applications within a network, IdPs provide user authentication and verification as key offerings.
In an IdP instance, users are referred to as principals. Not limited to human users, a principal can be any entity within a network, including but not limited to computers, apps, or other digital services. The purpose of an IdP is to track these entities and ensure the right principal identities are authenticated before being granted access to sensitive systems and information.
Why is an IdP important?
IdPs can help companies on several fronts. Securing digital identities and supporting worker productivity are two primary benefits. Ultimately, digital identities need to be tracked somewhere so cloud resources and apps can access that repository to retrieve and verify user information. IdPs provide a source of truth that streamlines this process.
Identity breaches are at an all time high—in frequency and associated costs—and an IdP is one of the most fundamental and secure ways to protect user identities. Incorporating an IdP into your workflow allows you to manage identities and create a secure foundation on which to add advanced authentication methods—like single sign-on (SSO) and multifactor authentication (MFA)—and access controls.
What are the benefits of an IdP?
- Ease of password management: Through most IdPs, companies are able to introduce single sign-on (SSO), which eliminates the need for users to maintain multiple usernames and passwords for the resources and apps they use.
- Logging of access records: An IdP will maintain a trail of access events and changes, making it easier to track which resources are being accessed and by whom.
- Employee productivity: Employees need access to a range of tools, at various times and across time zones. It can be challenging to manage this manually. An IdP can reduce a lot of the friction that exists in the access process.
- Heightened security: IdPs make it easier to verify user credentials and ensure a user is who they claim to be. IdPs also make it possible to verify users across multiple systems and networks, reducing the possibility of identity breaches.
Summary
Identity is one of the most important assets a company has. With 80% of cyber attacks involving compromised credentials and the average cost of an identity breach hitting$4.45 million in 2023 (a 15% increase over a three-year period), securing identity is a top-of-mind initiative for most organizations.
Adopting an IdP allows you to create a secure foundation on which to layer additional security controls and systems to ensure you’re protecting your organization from breaches while enabling employee productivity.