REDUCING COMPLEXITY IN IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
PwC
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
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REDUCING COMPLEXITY IN IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT
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www.pw c. com
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PWC’S IVO VAN BENNEKOM AND DUANE CARSTENS ON THE ROLE OF IDENTITY AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT IN FACILITATING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
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wC has identified a number of trends. affecting organisations, centered around a digital landscape that was growing in
complexity even before the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are in a very strange and unprecedented situation - the ‘new normal’, as we call it within PwC,” 04
says Ivo Van Bennekom, Director, Digital Identity. “What that new normal means, is that it’s accelerated a big change that was already happening prior to the COVID-19 situation, where we see clients changing from a traditional value chain that was very direct, to starting to become more part of a digital ecosystem, collaborating to delivering a variety of services towards the end consumer.” Increased digital complexity and ever-changing employee roles within an organisation means identifying and allowing the access of users is all the more important. “Managing identity is vital, but it’s also a daunting task for many organisations who lack proper identity and access management (IAM) for governing their digital identities,” says Duane Carstens, Director, Cybersecurity & Privacy. “That’s regardless of their IAM service maturity
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“ W E ARE IN A STRANGE AND UNPRECEDENTED SITUATION -THE ‘NEW NORMAL’, AS WE CALL IT WITHIN P W C” — Ivo Van Bennekom, Director, Digital Identity, PwC
and whether they are adopting or replacing digital technology through their digital transformation”. To help organisations with digital identity, the company maintains more than 950 digital identity professionals as part of a broader cyber team that is 3,500 strong, with extensive experience across various industries. PwC consequently differentiates itself from competitors in the space along a number of lines. “One of the biggest benefits that clients see when work-
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ing with us, is that we can deliver an integrated approach to the whole breadth and depth of cybersecurity and digital identity management,” says Van Bennekom. Carstens believes in the transformative power of PwC’s cyber business. “The purpose of our cyber business is to help build a secure digital society. This is done through three key aspects, including 1) serving our clients, 2) extensive research and disruption to the market and to threat actors which is done by challenging conventional thinking, and 3) shaping society by being an exemplar. These three key aspects are encompassed by our DNA which includes
empowering an innovative and
which companies must respond to.
diverse team.
“We see key emerging cybersecurity
PwC is equally focused on forging
risks as a result of COVID-19,” says
strong bonds with their customers.
Carstens. “There are a lot of opportun-
“Our value is defined by the relation-
istic threats at the moment.
ship with the client,” says Carstens.
The increasing attacks on businesses
“That relationship is born from an
means that identity and access man-
intelligent, engaged, highly collabora-
agement continues to be of paramount
tive process. It’s about helping them
significance, in the risk management
through their digital transformation
priorities of organisations.”
journey, through their challenges and
“The focus should be on provid-
providing the insight to assist clients
ing the right people, with the right
to reach their objectives.”
access, at the right time through the
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in innovative attack vectors
identification, authentication and app ropriate authorisation information
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Ivo Van Bennekom Title: Director, Digital Identity Location: Arnhem-Nijmegen Region Ivo leads the PwC Digital Identity Impact Center for the EMEA region. Ivo has over 15 years of experience within the digital technology space, with a specific focus on global identity market patterns and translating them to business objectives for clients. He is a strategic and tactical Subject Matter Expert on digital identity topics advising Client Senior management. Ivo works for a variety of sectors, with a main focus on Finance, Retail and high-tech firms. He is engagement leader of several global Cyber Security & Digital Identity programs. www.pw c. com
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PwC and Okta: delivering cloud identity solutions
Okta’s Paul Rooke, Managing Director - GSIs and Advisories, on the company’s provision of its cloud identity platform alongside PwC Okta is a cloud identity platform focussed on enabling organisations to use technology securely, as Paul Rooke, Managing Director - GSIs and Advisories, explains: “We promise to always protect the identities of our customers’ work force and their customers. We have 14 offices around the world, 2,700 employees, approaching 9,000 customers and six and a half thousand integrations with other technologies.” As companies look at their digital transformation programmes, they don’t want to get locked into legacy applications that take years to roll out, and they don’t want to be locked into identity solutions that are stuck onto those applications as an afterthought. We take away the headache of identity, allowing PWC to focus on the business requirements of their clients.” The partnership has afforded Okta the ability to get a broad view of client requirements, as Rooke explains. “PwC are authoring not just identity strategy, but across digital transformation as a whole. With PwC at the forefront of a client relationship, they work very strongly with our own professional services team, our own customer success organisation, and our engineering teams, to really get deep into our technology and make sure that our technology fits the requirements of those large programmes and customers.”
Rooke identifies legacy migration as one of the keys powering the relationship into the future. “We’re able to leverage Okta’s Access Gateway into legacy tools, whilst at the same time moving that organisation, as part of it’s transformation program, into the new world. That involves replacing on-premise apps with cloud apps, and at the same time, having Okta sitting on top of everything as a cloud technology that retains a gateway into legacy systems.” The company is further empowering users by putting its technology into the hands of developers. “Developers can actually build Okta into their own home-grown applications. That’s something that PwC can offer as a service to clients, guiding and helping them strategise around that.” Rooke remains confident in the strength of the partnership and its ability to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it has presented to clients. “The remote work piece has obviously developed at pace this year, and that’s something PwC and Okta can deliver solutions for. For example, a soft drinks organisation is now managing the relationship with suppliers and their distributors globally using Okta as the identity solution. That’s something we’ve only seen accelerate this year.” okta.com
PWC
1998
Year founded
9,400
Number of employees in Africa
27,600
Number of employees globally 10
security principles” Carstens adds. “Identity and access management is not just about the technology, it also involves the organisation’s people, processes and governance on the service. This holistic approach will provide secured flexibility for your remote workforce to remain productive and ‘work from anywhere’.” Defending against those threats requires capabilities across a range of arenas. “Digital identity can roughly be carved up into four different areas,” says Van Bennekom. “One is the workforce identity space, so access management, but also identity governance. Second, is privileged access management, for users such as database administrators that, basically with one press of a button, can wipe out a complete IT estate. Thirdly, we have customer identity, from B2B customers to consumer scenarios, or even governments and how they interface with their citizens. Lastly, we have artificial intelligence, RPA and the identity of things.” With such a wide range of areas to be aware of, a holistic approach is necessary. “What’s most important www.pw c. com
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PwC BriqBank helps with digital identity CLICK TO WATCH
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12 in terms of digital identity is that
“The vendors that we typically work
management should have a complete
with are on a journey together with us to
vision for their identity and access
actually decrease the technology debt
management program. Coupled with
that you need in order to fulfill a lot of
that vision should be capability in man-
those use cases,” adds Van Bennekom.
aging and governing identity, as well
“Cloud solutions, for instance, simplify a
as controlling and monitoring access,”
lot of the technical digital identity com-
Carstens says. “Capabilities have to
plexity while also reducing the cost of
run across different groups, including
operating such a system.” The effective
human and non-human users, who
utilisation of appropriate technologies
will be in contact with your organisation
will allow organisations to spend more
and the assets that you’re trying to
time on what really matters: managing
protect, from applications in the cloud,
business risks related to digitalisation.
to on-premise solutions, databases and
An accomplished cybersecurity
operating systems and the data that
strategy is a vital complement to digital
resides on these assets.”
transformation. “Digital transformation
“ M ANAGING IDENTITY IS VITAL, BUT IT’S ALSO A DAUNTING TASK FOR MANY ORGANISATIONS” — Duane Carstens, Director, Cybersecurity & Privacy, PwC
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Duane Carstens Title: Director, Cybersecurity & Privacy Location: City of Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa Duane is an Associate Director in the PwC cybersecurity and privacy practice, providing comprehensive cybersecurity solutions to assist businesses with assessing, building and managing their cybersecurity capabilities, and enabling effective management to a myriad of potential threats from strategy to execution. Duane’s working experience spans over 15 years working with listed entities across various industry sectors, in numerous countries, and within multiple roles. He is engaged in the understanding of technology and trends, and being able to articulate and make comprehensive, pragmatic decisions for businesses and consumers. Through Duane’s career, he has worked on security programs / ISMS development, vendor & client management, assessments, governance, risk & compliance, formalizing innovative business operating models, improving processes and optimizing controls, while achieving strategy and objectives.
www.pw c. com
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PWC
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“ O UR VALUE IS DEFINED BY THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CLIENT” — Duane Carstens, Director, Cybersecurity & Privacy, PwC
can result in a company becoming a target for attackers because they know that there’s a lot of volatility within the organisation,” says Van Bennekom. “We understand how to integrate cybersecurity into those types of transformations, because technology continues to be the driver and it’s
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evident that security is an enabler of
required agility of cyber defence is
those digital journeys.”
also increasing. We’re also bringing
PwC consequently ensures its cyber
in consultants from other PwC com-
defence offering keeps up with the
petencies to understand business
pace and evolving trends. “We are
processes and take the right approach
already in the fourth wave of digital
to help organisations become smarter
transformation. Agility is becoming
in terms of cybersecurity defense,”
more important and, with that, the
says Van Bennekom. www.pw c. com
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While as a consulting and advisory
it employs to help clients achieve
house PwC remains technology and
their goals. “The technology vendors
vendor agnostic, SailPoint, OKTA and
that we work with are a big part of
CyberArk are some of the solutions
helping clients to decrease their IT
“ W E ARE ALREADY IN THE FOURTH WAVE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION” — Ivo Van Bennekom, Director, Digital Identity, PwC
assist not only its clients but society at large with transformation in access management, decreasing complexity and improving the utility of digital envi-
complexity so that there’s more room
ronments. “We’re focused on building
to create business value,” says Van
trust in society and solving important
Bennekom. “Typically, the vendors
problems while making sure that
that we work with are capable of cover-
we are looking at this from a broader
ing a whole ecosystem of use cases
perspective rather than just creating
and different types of identities, all
locks,” says Van Bennekom. “You need
from the cloud.”
to understand what an organisation
The companies with whom PwC
wants to achieve from a business
works with are therefore carefully
perspective to understand how
selected through a consultative
cybersecurity can support that most
approach, based on product value
effectively. We’ll continue integrating
and market need. “Digital identity
all those different competencies to
for us as a business is one of our
decrease the complexity and the risks
growth priorities over the next few
of our clients’ ecosystems.”
years,” says Carstens. “Together with the right partnerships, matching a solution to a client problem, and our robust methodologies supported by our global network of subject matter experts, we will continue to add the desired value to our client engagements.” Going forward, the two are clear that PwC stands in good stead to www.pw c. com
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