Ping Identity Predicts Proliferation of Blockchain Identities and Death of Knowledge-Based Authentication

Ping Identity, the leader in Identity Defined Security, has unveiled its top five cybersecurity predictions for 2018, authored by its CTO office. These include advances in biometrics, the mass exposure of personally identifiable information from numerous data breaches, and a blockchain craze in 2018.

"With rampant data breaches in 2017 targeting victims from consumers and enterprises to politicians and nation states, the protection of personally identifiable information has never been more important," said Patrick Harding, CTO, Ping Identity. "While new threats will continue to emerge, 2018 looks promising for advancements and innovation in cybersecurity."

The following highlights Ping Identity’s top five cybersecurity predictions for 2018:

1. Facial Biometrics to Go Mainstream
Multi-factor authentication has already been drastically enhanced with the addition of biometrics like fingerprint sensors in devices. However, with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone X with the FaceID feature in 2017, facial biometrics officially stole the spotlight. Android is already planning to adopt it widely into its ecosystem. Ping Identity expects authentication with facial recognition will take off this year.

2. The Death of Knowledge-Based Authentication and Rise of Identity Proofing Alternatives
Knowledge-based authentication-a known fact that grants access to an account, e.g. "your first pet’s name"-is arguably the weakest authentication method. This information is as easy to find today on social media as a phone number. To replace knowledge-based authentication experiences, expect to see services such as "photograph your physical ID" thrive in 2018.

3. A Zero-Login Reality
This is the year where the authentication ceremony starts to blur a bit. As zero-login technologies start to gel, continuous authentication based on passive factors will become more pervasive, leading to a strange phenomenon where users are in fact being authenticated more often, but challenged less often.

4. Identities Built on Blockchain
Last year was a defining year for cryptocurrencies, with a market value increase of more than 2,700 percent. Cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technologies, and the millions of individuals currently invested in the crypto market with a crypto wallet have their own blockchain identities. Identities are all based on public keys, while the private keys are managed by the crypto wallets. In 2018, we will see these blockchain identities being used for non-crypto identity-related uses.

5. More Cyber Attacks Targeting Multi-Factor Authentication Methods
As effective as multi-factor authentication (MFA) is at curbing opportunistic attacks, a determined and persistent hacker cannot always be stumped. Now that MFA has become a normalized part of identity protection, expect bad actors to look to harvest metadata about the types of additional factors associated to a given account-in order to begin to mount opportunistic automated multi-factor attacks across multiple sites.