Types of digital identities in cybersecurity

In this post we look at the different types of digital identities and what role they play in protecting digital assets; also best practices for managing and securing identities in a corporate environment, and laying the foundation for a robust and efficient security strategy.

Delves into the types of digital identities and their importance for enterprise security. Practical advice for security managers.

It is important to understand what the types of digital identities are in order for companies to succeed in their cybersecurity strategy . In fact, with cyber threats on the rise, establishing identity security policies is more important than ever. Identity and access management (IAM) includes different techniques used to authenticate users and ensure that only authorized users have access to sensitive systems and data.

The establishment of these access and identity management protection measures also improves cybersecurity compliance. Tools such as Cloud & Cybersecurity by aggity help organizations manage access and identities by covering aspects such as personal data protection, device identity management or different digital identification systems. Here are some of the main types of digital identities:

User identity

User identity is the most common type of digital identity in the context of cybersecurity. It is a type of digital identity that is associated with individuals and used to authenticate their access to systems, applications and online resources.

This is a common method in companies and also among users, who use it every time they try to access any type of service they have contracted. The usual form of authentication is to use a user name and password. However, these types of secure authentication protocols are evolving given the ability of cybercriminals to get their hands on keys. Therefore, the use of more advanced authentication methods, such as Multifactor Authentication (MFA), or biometric authentication, is becoming increasingly common.

Device identity

This is based on the fact that, just as it is important to identify the person connecting, it is also important to identify the device that is trying to access a system or a corporate network. These types of digital identities only allow access to authorized devices. Device authentication is critical to ensure security in Internet of Things (IoT) environments, where a wide variety of devices are interconnected and information security is essential to prevent cyber-attacks.

Application identity

These types of digital identities are used by software and systems to authenticate each other when interacting in networks and distributed environments. The principle they start from is that applications verify the authenticity and integrity of communications with each other, which is crucial to prevent spoofing attacks and ensure cybersecurity and data privacy.

Service identity

In this case, it is used for the relationship between companies and users with services provided over the Internet or in the cloud. Service identity is also fundamental to web application security and cloud security. cloud security .

Thanks to it, services can communicate securely and access protected resources in networks and cloud environments. They are usually associated with digital certificates and service-specific access keys, which are used to guarantee the authenticity of requests and the integrity of data transmitted between services.

Identity of the organization

These identities are responsible for granting access rights to users and systems within an organization’s infrastructure. As such, they encompass different elements: from individual user accounts to automated systems to network devices and business applications.

In this regard, some of the cybersecurity strategies that are included in this section are the. Role Based Access Control (RBAC)which assigns permissions and privileges to users according to their roles within the organization or the Minimum Access Privilegewhich states that users should have only the privileges necessary to perform their specific job functions.

Federated identities

Federated identities or identity federation allow enterprises to share user authentication and authorization between different security domains. These simplify access and password management for users, while improving security by reducing the proliferation of login credentials.