The 70th Edition of the Identity Jedi Newsletter

Access Fabric, Elephants, and culture

Hey Jedi welcome to the 70th edition of the Identity Jedi Newsletter! Wow…70 editions, that’s crazy! Almost to 100, I think we should do something special for that one. But first a quick note about some changes coming to the newsletter.

Addressing the elephant in the email…last week's newsletter never made it to your inbox. Apologies, but life is, as we say, “living.” With the activities picking up on my end, I’m finding it harder and harder to get the newsletter out on a weekly basis, so I’m going to move the newsletter to twice a month. This would allow me some time to capture some relevant events, and also just time to be able to create content for the newsletter. And ya know..not go crazy…lol

Also, please check out the web version of the newsletter, as Beehiiv has been rolling out some awesome features! ( Comments, likes, etc.) It makes it easier to engage with the content.

Let’s Get to the Good Stuff!

  • Identity…it’s a culture, not a solution

  • ConductorOne Access Fabric

WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK

The culture of identity

I’ve had very interesting conversations with customers about building an identity program in the last couple of months. Most customers face the challenge of a decentralized business organization in which business units have full autonomy over their functions. And while this has lead to growth and value for the business, it’s become a headache for “centralized” centric ( try saying that three times fast) initiatives like identity or security. That’s not to say that identity has to be done in a centralized manner, but it does need a little sprinkle of central. You need visibility across the entire organization, regardless of the business unit.

So how do you accomplish this?

In my opinion, it starts with the culture. Getting the organization to understand that identity is more than just tickets and tasks; it is a secure way of delivering value to the business. To do that, you have to understand what identity means to an organization. Both internally and externally. You have to develop a team of people who not only want to learn identity but also how to teach it.

These aren’t things you can do overnight; no vendor can sell you this, and neither can an integrator. It’s something you have to build and nurture in your organization. The most successful identity programs I’ve seen all have that in common.

ConductorOne releases Access Fabric.

Exciting news is coming out of ConductorOne this week. Visibility is THE starting place when trying to build an IAM program. You can’t govern what you can’t see.

Ok, big deal, we’ve got directories and IAM systems that show us identities.

Well, that was step one. The next step is do you actually understand what you are looking at. Do you understand the context behind the identities and their entitlements?

Said differently, do you understand the relationships?

Well from the looks of it, ConductorOne is helping organizations do just that. AND I LOVE IT!

THIS is the direction we need more identity companies moving to. ( Shout out to RadiantLogic as well, as they have a similar concept).

Helping customers understand and visualize the context around identity is so critical to where we are in today’s environments.

Full disclosure: I haven’t seen or tested this functionality so I don’t know it’s limits. It’s the direction I’m excited about, more than anything else.

What are your thoughts?

Unlock your IAM Future with IDPro

I love identity. ( Duh, I write a weekly newsletter about it) But the REASON I love this crazy, complicated industry is because of the really cool and smart people. I’ve learned a ton from them, and I want YOU to get the same opportunity. Check out the IDPRO site, and sign up for a membership. I promise you the Slack channel alone is worth the price!

#255 - CAEP and SSF 101 with Atul from SGNL and Sean from Disney

Listen to this episode from Identity at the Center on Spotify. In this episode of the Identity at the Center Podcast, hosts Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman are joined by guests Atul Tulshibagwale, CTO of SGNL and Co-chair of the Shared Signals Working Group, and Sean O'Dell, Senior Staff Security Engineer at Disney. The discussion revolves around Continuous Access Evaluation Profile (CAEP), Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), and the Shared Signals Framework (SSF). Atul and Sean share their insights into the importance of CAEP, ITDR, and SSF for IAM practitioners. They also delve into real-life examples of how these concepts work together. The conversation concludes on a lighter note, with Sean sharing his Star Wars-themed office room and everyone discussing their favorite Star Wars, Marvel, or Indiana Jones movies and shows. Connect with Atul: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tulshi/ Learn more about SGNL: https://sgnl.ai/ Connect with Sean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanodentity/ Re-thinking federated identity with the Continuous Access Evaluation Protocol: https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/identity-security/re-thinking-federated-identity-with-the-continuous-access-evaluation-protocol Shared Signals Working Group: https://openid.net/wg/sharedsignals/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at idacpodcast.com and follow @IDACPodcast on Twitter.

Identity Jedi Show Podcast

Hang out with the Jedi

As more and more events pop up, I’m going to keep a list of things I’ve got coming up. If you’re able to make them, it would be great to hang out in person

Events

Date

Location

Time

Registration

Panel Discussion

2/1/24

Fairway Social, Alpharetta, GA

5 pm

N/A

Emancipate Me Conference

3/16/24

Atlanta, GA

Pending

https://iemancipateme.com/

The Last Word

2024 is off to a blazing start! It’s almost surreal, and it’s only the first month of the year. Article pickups in publications like Dark Reading, podcast requests, speaking events..it’s bananas right now. ( https://youtu.be/UqcONoahlmQ?si=ePbInuv1zr8qqz1E&t=8)

ANNND even more things that I’m not quite at liberty to share just yet. So that’s the reason for the slowdown in newsletters.

I’ll leave you with this. Make it a priority this year to share your knowledge with someone. You have experience and expertise that matters. It may be a small thing to you, but could be a HUGE thing to someone else. Till next time.

Be Good to each other, Be Kind to each other, Love each other

-Identity Jedi

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