What is Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)?

What are the Key Features of CIAM?

Below are the most notable features of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM):

1. User Onboarding

The first step in a CIAM process is user registration, where anonymous users become known, active, and registered. The CIAM registration process is user-friendly and collects valuable customer identity data. Multiple registration options, such as self-service registration, social registration, and delegated administration, are available. Identity validation is crucial to ensure users are who they claim to be using techniques like email verification and identity proofing.

2. Consent and Privacy Management

CIAM solutions must comply with government regulations and industry guidelines for data gathering. They provide centralized data access governance policies, user interface options for granular user preferences, and capabilities to ensure regional data storage, privacy and compliance.

3. User Profile Management

Progressive profiling allows organizations to build a comprehensive user profile over time. The user profile starts with limited information and can be expanded as the user becomes more accustomed to the organization. CIAM systems provide customer self-care portals for users to define preferences, which are stored in a unified customer profile.

4. Authentication and Authorization

Single Sign-On (SSO) ensures a consistent login experience across the entire company. CIAM systems should support standard federation protocols like SAML, OAuth, and OIDC. Authentication mechanisms include social login, multi-factor authentication, and adaptive authentication.

5. Fraud Detection and Prevention

CIAM systems must detect and prevent fraud by consuming fraud information to evaluate risk and make authentication decisions. They should deny or permit access and transaction completion based on risk.

6. Omni-channel Support

CIAM solutions should be optimized for cross-channel user experiences, including laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles, and personal digital assistants. Customer Identity and Access Management plays a critical role in authenticating and managing customer preferences across channels to build a unified customer profile.

7. Developer Tools and APIs

CIAM solutions offer developer tools and APIs to integrate applications or services. These tools and APIs provide features such as authentication APIs, user management APIs, and event notifications, enabling organizations to customize the user experience, automate user management tasks, and scale securely.

What are the Benefits of Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM)?

Providing a seamless customer experience is crucial, as it ensures a smooth journey from prospect to loyal customer. To achieve this, companies must personalize the experience without being overly intrusive, collecting data from various sources such as websites, apps, and partner apps to develop comprehensive customer profiles. Customer Identity and Access Management offers several key benefits that can help businesses achieve a seamless customer experience while ensuring data protection and security.

These key benefits include:

• Enhanced Security: CIAM provides enhanced protection of customer data through multi-factor authentication and adaptive authentication.
• Improved User Experience: CIAM enables users to access multiple applications seamlessly through a single solution.
• Smooth Migration: CIAM allows for smooth migration of users without disrupting their experience.
• Customization: CIAM offers customization options with flexible APIs for developers.
• Accessibility: CIAM supports various devices and entry points for customers.
• Self-Service: CIAM empowers users through self-service account management.
• Efficient Management: CIAM provides efficient application lifecycle management for businesses.
• Compliance: CIAM ensures compliance with security and privacy standards.
• Informed Decision-Making: CIAM provides customer behavior analytics for informed decision-making.
• Scalability: CIAM offers scalability and reliability for high-volume usage.

CIAM vs IAM

While traditional IAM solutions focus on securing corporate applications for employees and contractors, CIAM solutions cater to customers accessing public-facing applications and services. Despite the different use cases, both IAM and CIAM solutions share similar needs when it comes to scalability, security, and accessibility. To deliver a seamless user experience, both solutions must meet these requirements, including supporting massive user bases, integrating with various systems, and adhering to strict data privacy regulations like GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA. Below is a summary of the differences between CIAM and IAM:     

IAM (Identity and Access Management)

• Limited user base: 10,000 to 100,000 users with moderate demand

• Single identity per user for secure access control

• Company registration and closed system for internal purposes

• Strong internal authentication and security policies

• Employee access and profile data used for internal administration and monitoring

CIAM (Customer Identity and Access Management)

• Scalable solution for millions of users with unpredictable access patterns

• Ability to handle rapid spikes in traffic and volume at peak times

• Support for multiple identities per user

• Self-registration option for users

• Highly accessible on any device with a consistent login experience

• Authentication with external sources (e.g. social media) to reduce friction and improve security

• Customer data used for analytics, marketing, business decision-making, security, and compliance

How Lepide Helps With CIAM

Contrary to the common misconception that CIAM is solely provided by a single product, it is often delivered through a solution that integrates multiple components. These components typically include IAM solutions, data analytics platforms, customer data management platforms, identity proofing systems, and other essential components. As business needs evolve and change over time, so too do the requirements for CIAM, making it essential to have flexible and adaptable solutions that can seamlessly adapt to these changes.

The Lepide Data Security Platform can help with CIAM in the following ways:

• Access Monitoring: To prevent unauthorized access, the platform allows you to monitor and audit access to your data, revealing who has access to what and how those permissions were granted. This enables you to swiftly reverse excessive permissions and maintain a secure digital environment.
• Activity Monitoring: Real-time monitoring of user behavior is also a key feature of the Lepide Data Security Platform. By tracking user activity, you can detect potential security threats and respond quickly to changes that may compromise your data. This includes identifying single-point anomalies that may indicate a security breach.
• Reporting & Real-Time Alerting: The platform also provides a range of pre-set reports tailored to specific data access governance challenges. These reports offer valuable insights and help you stay on top of potential security risks. And, to ensure prompt response, the platform offers real-time alerting, delivering notifications to your inbox or mobile device when potentially harmful changes are detected.