BIO-key IAM solution deployed by colleges as Centrify survey shows biometrics needed for remote work

Identity and access management (IAM) technology is taking on new prominence with in-person processes disrupted across virtually every industry, and a new report suggests the global consumer IAM market will grow to $15.3 billion by 2025, up by 15.1 percent CAGR from $7.6 billion in 2020.

BIO-key continues to have success signing up higher learning institutions for its PortalGuard IAM solution, and a survey from Centrify indicates that over half of businesses are looking into biometric authentication to plug cybersecurity gaps related to remote work.

BIO-key partners with Campus and signs up three colleges

Colleges in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia have selected the PortalGuard identity and access management solution from BIO-key and the Campus.app digital education portal to give students capabilities for convenient single sign-on (SSO), and password management.

The Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pennsylvania, University of Mount Olive in Mount Olive, North Carolina; and East Georgia State College in Swainsboro, Georgia are each integrating the combined solution.

The combination of PortalGuard and Campus.app provides easy access and management of popular higher-education technologies, data, and content, according to the company announcement. Students can use the integrated solution to access learning management systems, account balances, grades and financial aid status from anywhere.

“Our partnership with Campus, a new member of the BIO-key Channel Alliance Program (CAP), has captured strong interest because improving the student experience is such a critical success factor for schools today,” says PortalGuard President March Cochran. “Schools are telling us that they need to provide students a modern user experience for educational apps while also ensuring that online access is secure and convenient.  We are pleased that our integrated offering with Campus.app delivers both the rich user experience and fast time to value that is required to meet the new demands placed on the higher-ed community.”

Centrify survey finds remote work driving biometric authentication demand

Businesses are having a hard time with employees circumventing cybersecurity policies while working from home, according to a survey by Centrify, and are looking into biometric authentication to combat poor security practices. Nearly two out of every five UK businesses (39 percent) have dismissed an employee since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic due to a breach of cybersecurity policy.

Nearly two-thirds of companies (65 percent) have made changes to their cybersecurity policies in response to COVID-19 and remote working, but 58 percent say employees are more likely to try to get around those practices, creating security risk. As they attempt to boost security, 57 percent of businesses surveyed say they are currently implementing new measures like fingerprint and facial recognition for secure, often multi-factor employee authentication.

Additionally, 55 percent say they have or plan to bar the use of personal devices for remote work.

“The reality is the weakest link in any organisation continues to be the human element. Combatting this issue starts from the top,” says Centrify VP Andy Heather. “CIOs and business decision makers must implement strict and transparent, cloud enabled and identity-centric security solutions. This will allow companies to quickly and safely deploy scalable security privileged access management measures, which make it impossible for an employee to access company networks, applications and data, unless they are following correct procedures.”

Article Topics

access management  |  authentication  |  BIO-key  |  biometrics  |  Centrify  |  cybersecurity  |  identity access management (IAM)  |  identity management  |  PortalGuard