Identity is the means of differentiating oneself from everyone else. And in today’s world, an individual has to maintain both a physical identity and a digital identity. 

A digital identity is a one-on-one relationship between an individual and their digital presence. This identity usually consists of attributes (PI, authentication credentials, role definitions) along with related behavioral & biological data. It is how we gain access to all the digital services we use in our daily lives, and as such, it wouldn’t be erroneous to state that digital identities are the cornerstone of the modern economy. 

Challenges with traditional identity systems

Yet, in the current scenario, emerging threats from attackers jeopardize the security & sanctity of your digital identity. Some of it is controllable by the user, through measures like using strong passwords and MFA. However, that is hard to maintain in a scenario illustrated by a recent NordPass survey, where the average person has 168 passwords. It leads to weak, often repeated passwords, and according to a survey by GoodFirms, 30% of users have experienced security breaches due to weak passwords. This is controllable through good practices, but that doesn’t make it any less challenging for the user.

However, there are certain aspects of their digital identity that are completely uncontrollable for the user, namely where all their personal data is being stored by the entities they interact with. This is where the responsibilities of your organization come into play, both in terms of safeguarding your stakeholder data as well as insulating your entity from debilitating breaches that come from holding all that data.

Sadly, most of this data is currently stored in centralized identity management databases that are prime targets for hackers. And why wouldn’t they be – one successful hit leads to all contained user data becoming compromised and attackers profiting massively from it. It was seen this year when AT&T suffered two separate breaches, the most recent one exposing over 110 million records. And the more records you keep in one place, the higher the risk to your bottom line – a study by Statista claims that the cost per stolen record in data breaches worldwide amounted to $164 per stolen record. Multiply that by the 110 million records breached in just one of the AT&T attacks, and your head will probably spin. This precarious scenario is making users increasingly wary about sharing their digital identity with organizations.

Advantages of decentralized identity management with 1Kosmos

There’s no need for fear. There is a mechanism to secure all these various controllables and uncontrollables, and the key lies in decentralizing digital identities. This process lets users and organizations manage & control digital identities by distributing them into different secure locations. 

In the case of BlockID, the decentralized identity management solution provided by the iValue-1Kosmos partnership, all your stakeholder PI resides in our private blockchain that encrypts digital identities in various secure enclaves through a distributed ledger. Then, in a complete eradication of the risks and attack vectors associated with passwords, these digital identities are only accessible through advanced FIDO-2 certified biometric verification. This results in the most accurate authentication out there, fortified by NIST 800-63-3 Level of Identity Assurance.

If you’re worried that all this advanced authentication will involve a lot of additional tech costs, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to hear that biometrics can be successfully captured and authenticated using mechanisms currently present in smartphones and laptops. Decentralized digital identity leverages advances in prevailing devices, cryptography and blockchain technology to establish high assurance trust online between your organization and its stakeholders, in a solution that effectively balances security, privacy and convenience.

By adopting 1Kosmos solutions facilitating identity management and identity verification through decentralized security, you will experience various advantages to the overall posture of your organization:

• Acceleration of user onboarding, including for your consumers and your employees – to read more about how BlockID helps with employee onboarding, click here
• Protection of all your digital accounts from unauthorized access
• Highly improved and streamlined user experience
• Tools to combat various kinds of identity fraud
• Ready compliance to all the myriad regulations your organization must adhere to

Why decentralized identity management is the future

Yet, despite all these positives, the true benefit of decentralized identity management is the empowerment it brings to both sides. Organizations are empowered to do their best work, having less fear of their data getting breached and more trust in the authenticity of the customer information being shared with them. But more importantly, it puts your stakeholders – both consumers and organizational members alike – back in full, complete control of their personal information. That is the true security we are alluding to in the title of this blog.

Here is how 1Kosmos provides the most fortified decentralized identity management in the market:

• A digital wallet organizes and stores all the information gathered, triangulated and validated during the identity proofing stage of user onboarding. The uniqueness of biometrics allows for accurate verification without the need to ever physically meet in person. These wallets also simplify and reduce the fragmentation that comes from juggling several accounts.
• The wallet is then fortified with decentralized identifiers (DIDs) and public key cryptography, which gives it a public key and a private key. For enrollment, the wallet submits a registration payload with the public key to our blockchain.
• The public key is then published on our secured private blockchain through a distributed ledger, and the digital wallet in question subsequently receives a DID linked to that key that will come of use during authentication.
• The private key resides in the user device, completely minimized from compromise through their presence in our Secure Enclaves.
• During authentication, for the private key to find the public key, a zero knowledge proof (ZKP) is conducted to satisfy an information request while protecting user privacy.
• The service provider facilitating the authentication looks for the shared DID in the ledger, and if found, sends matching biometric data to the application.
• The user signs the transaction by providing live biometrics linked with the private key. This completely ensures the user who is currently authenticating is the same user that initially enrolled.
• The service provider successfully authenticates, and subsequently lets the user perform specific actions relevant to their role.

Not only does this process remove the need for the user to carefully manage so many accounts, it also removes central repositories & databases that attract so many attackers. It is definitely the future of IAM, with behemoths like Verizon, Microsoft and MasterCard making massive steps in recent times to make their processes completely decentralized.

If you’re looking to do the same for your organization, click here to discover how 1Kosmos can revolutionize your identity management.