Streamlining Credential Updates: A Crucial Shift Towards Enhanced Cybersecurity
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, the importance of modernizing credential systems has become a strategic imperative for organizations worldwide. This shift is aligned with broader goals such as risk reduction, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience.
The Advantages of Modern Credentials
Modern solutions to vulnerabilities in outdated authentication methods like proximity and iCLASS cards involve the adoption of passwordless FIDO2 tokens, biometric and PKI-based smart cards, mobile access credentials, and centralized identity management. These modern credentials mitigate risks of cloning, tampering, and replay attacks inherent in legacy systems by providing encrypted, phishing-resistant, and multi-factor authentication methods.
FIDO2 Tokens and Smart Cards
FIDO2 tokens and smart cards eliminate passwords, reducing attack surfaces and enhancing user experience with phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Biometric and PKI-based Smart Cards
Biometric and PKI-based smart cards require physical presence and cryptographic verification, making them more secure than fixed identifiers prone to copying.
Mobile Access Credentials
Mobile access credentials, using smartphones or smartwatches via secure mobile wallets, improve security, operational efficiency, and sustainability by eliminating lost-card issues.
Integration with Zero Trust Security Models
Integration of these solutions into broader Zero Trust security models ensures continuous validation of user identity and device posture, thereby limiting lateral movement of threats in networks.
A Phased Approach to Modernization
For organizations upgrading from legacy systems like proximity or iCLASS cards, a phased approach is recommended:
- Assessment and Planning: Conduct a thorough security and operational audit of current credentialing systems to identify vulnerabilities and compliance gaps.
- Pilot Deployment: Introduce modern credentials in parallel with legacy cards for a selected user group or facility.
- Incremental Migration: Gradually expand issuance of modern credentials across the organization.
- Decommission Legacy Systems: Once adoption is sufficient, retire legacy proximity and iCLASS systems.
- Continuous Monitoring and Improvement: Implement continuous authentication, monitoring, and resilience audits to stay ahead of emerging threats and ensure compliance with evolving cybersecurity standards.
The Time to Act is Now
As the attack surface expands and legacy credentials remain a glaring weak point across industries, the time to act on credential modernization is now. Organizations must empower IT and security teams to evaluate, pilot, and implement new credentialing technologies without being hampered by budgetary or bureaucratic constraints.
In the education sector, threat actors using stolen credentials account for about 24% of breaches, and ransomware attacks on educational institutions rose by over 35% in 2024. Non-compliance with regulatory standards can result in fines, lawsuits, and loss of accreditation.
In healthcare, smart cards with advanced encryption or tap-and-go mobile credentials can streamline workflows while maintaining compliance with HIPAA and other regulations. In manufacturing or research environments, unauthorized access can lead to system manipulation, downtime, or intellectual property theft.
Cybercrime will cost the world $23 trillion by 2027, an increase of 175% from 2022. 22% of all breaches can be traced back to stolen credentials, and the global average cost of a data breach hit a record $4.88 million in 2024.
DMP introduces JamAlert, a detection device to combat the growing threat of illegal cell jammers that leave security systems vulnerable. In higher education, mobile credentials or FIDO-based passkeys offer secure, passwordless access to shared workstations, labs, and learning platforms.
In summary, modern credential solutions combine phishing-resistant, encrypted, multi-factor authentication via FIDO2, biometrics, PKI, and mobile credentials. Organizations can adopt these incrementally, starting with assessments and pilots, then gradually migrating users and decommissioning legacy systems within a phased strategy that aligns security, budget, and operational goals.
- In the realm of finance, the implementation of modern credentials can bolster cybersecurity measures and ensure compliance with financial regulations, thereby reducing potential losses due to breaches and fines.
- For businesses in the education-and-self-development sector, investing in advanced authentication systems can protect against ransomware attacks, safeguarding sensitive student data and maintaining accreditation, which is beneficial for both the organization and its learners' self-development.
