Osterman Research Surveys Show IT & Security Decision-Makers Plan Investments in Multi-Factor Authentication & Zero Trust Solutions to Counter Rising Cyberthreats
December 13 2021 - 7:57AM
BIO-key International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an
innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and
Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today announced research
findings from IT decision-maker surveys conducted with
Osterman Research, a leading cybersecurity, data
protection and information governance market research firm. The two
research programs surveyed over 290 security and IT professionals
across a variety of mid to large organizations to determine the
factors influencing their application and investment in
multi-factor authentication (MFA) and Zero Trust cybersecurity.
Zero trust is a more secure paradigm providing ongoing verification
of trustworthiness. The survey research is available on the BIO-key
website via these links: The State of MFA and Why Zero Trust is
Important.
The research revealed a wide gap between what IT and security
decision makers understand to be highly secure MFA methods and the
methods currently implemented within their organizations. As a
result, most organizations (63%) plan to increase future
investments in MFA for employees over the next five years,
particularly with a focus on passwordless security features
(40%).
While earlier security approaches assumed people and devices
within a network were trustworthy, Zero Trust approaches reject
this assumption and require ongoing verification of
trustworthiness. Broad awareness of security threats to
organizations and enterprises is proving to be a key driver of Zero
Trust adoption. For example, 53% of IT and security decision makers
said that they were influenced to adopt more secure solutions by
high profile ransomware incidents such as SolarWinds, Colonial
Pipeline and JBS. Furthermore, 38% of respondents said the pandemic
era digital transformation influenced their adoption of Zero
Trust.
MFA Awareness and Current Adoption at
OddsSingle-Factor Authentication (SFA) is a method where
users access resources by having them present only one way of
verifying their identity, such as the use of a password. While most
organizations surveyed still rely on password-based authentication
for employee security, many have plans to move to passwordless
solutions. Companies are using passwordless authentication even
less with their customers, and most companies surveyed have no
current plans to move customer access to passwordless MFA
solutions.
While decision makers were found to have a good understanding of
the need and value of multi-factor authentication and its
applications, the research demonstrated a serious disconnect
between what decision makers perceive to be highly secure MFA
methods and what they have implemented for authentication. For
example, although 60% of respondents perceived biometrics to be one
of the most secure MFA methods, only 27% of organizations use them
for employees and only 13% do so for customers. The majority of
decision makers plan to address this disconnect with increased
investment in MFA solutions, especially around biometric
authentication.
Additional insights include:
- An average of 70% of employees and 40% of customers are
required to use MFA to access corporate applications and data.
- Only 26% of those surveyed believe passwords as an
authentication method are highly secure, yet 85% of organizations
still use them for employee access and 78% continue to use
passwords for access by customers.
- 40% of organizations plan to implement passwordless
authentication workflows for employees.
- When working with customers, only 9% of organizations have
implemented passwordless authentication workflows for customers,
while 23% are planning to do so.
The Driver for Implementing Zero TrustA second
research program focused on the trends which have impacted
respondents’ decisions to embrace a Zero Trust architecture. Key
drivers for deploying this architecture noted as “extremely
impactful” or “highly impactful” by respondents include:
- High profile ransomware incidents (53%)
- Work-from-home workforce (51%)
- General ransomware attacks (51%)
- Credential theft (45%)
- Pandemic-accelerated digital transformation (38%)
Most respondents were looking to external factors and other risk
awareness as key drivers to adoption. Organizations see Zero Trust
approaches as enabling stronger cybersecurity protections primarily
focused on internal matters. Key deployment drivers include:
- 78% of respondents view confidential files — secret, sensitive,
and other protected information held within the organization — as
the most important data source to include in Zero Trust
initiatives.
- 73% of respondents who make decisions on IAM for employees
consider Zero Trust solutions as a key design modification.
Survey MethodologyBIO-key conducted two surveys
in partnership with Osterman Research. Study findings are based
upon 294 completed surveys. The MFA and Passwordless Survey was
composed of 169 individuals in organizations with a median of 1,500
employees. The Zero Trust Survey polled 125 IT and security
decision-makers in mid-and large-sized organizations (11,992
average employees; 1,500 median employees).
Visit BIO-key’s website to view these research studies and other
relevant content.
About BIO-key International, Inc.
(www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing
authentication technology for thousands of organizations and
millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with
biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management
(IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that
provides convenient and secure access to devices, information,
applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented
software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric
capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based
Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized
enterprise solutions.
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"estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates,"
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without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our
ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our
intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in
our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the
marketplace; continued services of our executive management team;
security breaches; competition in the biometric technology
industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our
products under development; the duration and severity of the
current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our
business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic
markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products
and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as
well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk
Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2020 and other filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as
of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes
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statements whether as a result of new information, future events,
or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the
Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in
forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to
differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the
consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and
the industry in general and the financial position and operating
results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are
changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
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BIO-key Media ContactMary AmentaMatter
Communications BIO-key@matternow.com860-550-1736
Investor Contacts William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR BKYI@catalyst-ir.com212-924-9800
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