Moving to a passwordless experience: Identity in the age of Covid

Emma Maslen, Vice President and General Manager for EMEA and APAC, Ping Identity, discuss how the pandemic is changing security needs and authentication strategies, and her experiences changing companies during the global health crisis

The Coronavirus pandemic has hugely disrupted our working and home lives, in many cases seeing a blurring between the two as people increasingly work from home, with more flexible hours.

This change has impacted the security risks to organisations of all kinds, something which Emma Maslen, Vice President and General Manager for EMEA and APAC, Ping Identity, notes

"I was hunkered down for apocalypse in January," begins Maslen. "I watched the pandemic unfold and became aware that we have executives and government officials working from home. These people are voting in parliament from home. How can we be sure that they are who they say they are [when they attempt to vote from home]? I had visions of graduates working from MPs with passwords written on post-it notes trying to get them logged in.

"I realised this is really going to change the way we manage identity," she adds.

Maslen previously worked in several startups in the identity space before she was approached by Ping.

"We've all got a million passwords, and we get frustrated when try to log in and forget one of them. So we're focused on trying to make a frictionless experience for our customers. At the same time we're trying to lock everything down because of GDPR.

"Now all business is conducted online so the need to understand who people are is important, but we don't want to put people off with a poor user experience. John Lewis for example is going from predominantly bricks and mortar to everything being online this Christmas. They want a good customer experience, but also to protect data and their brand. It's a balance around how much to lock up and how much think about the experience."

So how does Maslen seen this balance resolving?

"We see the world moving to a passwordless experience, where you can be authenticated and verified, allowed to go to do what you need providing you behave in normal way.

"We start from a position of zero trust, so you have to tell us who you are at the beginning when you first log in, and then we challenge you again if you step outside your normal behaviour. So if we see you accessing data you wouldn't usually, or you start bouncing around from a network perspective, we pick that up."

Maslen joined Ping five months ago, during the pandemic. Having worked for a string of US-based companies, she's used to building relationships remotely, so hasn't felt it especially hard to adapt to life in a new organisation whilst under lockdown.

"In my role I'm expected to come in, set strategy and do a job. That hasn't changed. I've always worked for US companies, and always built relationships remotely. The thing that's different is the way you work with people underneath you. Especially when in a transformation role, you need everyone to be with you. Usually you meet them and chat and build trust in that way. I'm now having to do that remotely, which probably take longer than it otherwise would."

She chose Ping in part for its culture.

"When interviewed I was looking for the culture of the company, Ping is very similar to Concur [where Maslen worked previously]. They have a startup mentality. It's a very flat structure, anyone can talk to the board, they love to hear everyone's ideas."

She adds that Ping is an ideal choice for larger organisations.

"What makes us the number one choice for organisations that are large and complex, and going through their own disruptions. There will lots of merger and acquisition activity at the moment, and that suits us very well. Generally you see digital disruption where organisations go from bricks and mortar to fully online. If you're looking to accelerate that strategy, that's where Ping really comes in. Companies are buying us because they want to disrupt themselves, and Coronavirus gives us all an opportunity to press the reset button."

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