Under The Microscope: Consolidating ID Management Will Help Banks Manage Security Ops

Published September 03, 2007, 1:00 a.m. EDT

Updated August 27, 2020, 1:41 a.m. EDT

2 Min Read

LONDON - Banks need to invest in consolidating identity management across the enterprise so end-users can have a single sign-on across all product systems, channels and locations in order to facilitate and simplify identity management.

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That is one of the key conclusions in a report published by independent market analyst Datamonitor titled, "IT Security and the Role of Technology in Retail Banking Security."

"It is critical that banks use strong identity management for both customers and employees to ensure they can monitor and analyze who is accessing which systems and data and when," said Clare Buckmaster, financial services technology analyst with Datamonitor and author of the report. "Banks must control every aspect of identity management; from user IDs, passwords and authentication to controlling access levels and monitoring usage."

The study found banking systems have grown in a siloed manner. As a result, employees often have different sign-ons for different applications. While this is inconvenient for employees, it also means applications administrators have to go into individual applications when they want to change permissions and access levels. This is compounded by the fact banks often also have separate systems for each channel and product line. While this is a headache for administrators and end-users alike, Datamonitor said it also makes it harder to analyze end-user activity across the bank for business and fraud intelligence purposes.

According to Datamonitor, by investing in single sign-on technology, banks can manage the administration of identity management from a centralized point across the enterprise. This eases the burden on staff, as well as making identity management simpler for administrators, thus enabling them to keep up to date with all changes.

On the customer identity management side, banks must ensure customers have access to the appropriate information, that they are behaving in the manner expected of them regardless of the channel they are using and their activity is monitored across all the channels that they have access to.

Datamonitor is a provider of online data, analytic and forecasting platforms for vertical sectors. The company gives its clients analysis and forecasts for seven industry sectors: automotive and logistics, consumer markets, energy, financial services, healthcare, retail and technology.