Last week, from October 10 to 12, the it-sa once again took place in Nuremberg. It has now developed into the largest and most important IT security trade fair in Europe. Naturally, we were also on site to gain an overview of the current Identity & Access Management trends vendors are seeing, and which IAM topics are currently top of mind for trade fair visitors.

We were already surprised by the crowds upon entering the exhibition. As later confirmed by press reports, this year once again set new attendance records, absolutely confirming our impression. Over the three days, 630 exhibitors from 24 countries were present, and the organizers reported more than 12,000 professional visitors from Germany and abroad. However, since the it-sa was held in two halls for the first time this year, visitors were fairly evenly distributed across the stands of the IT security vendors and service providers.

European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR)

One of the first topics to catch our attention—discussed at many booths and the subject of several expert talks—was the new European General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), coming into effect on May 18, 2018. Numerous studies and surveys have shown in the past that many companies have so far taken preparations lightly. The most recent IDC study even confirms that nearly half of all surveyed companies have not yet taken any concrete steps to meet the requirements, despite the threat of fines. It’s no surprise, then, that many security vendors made GDPR the centerpiece of their presence at it-sa. We too still see a great deal of catching up to do for many companies. That said, there’s no need to panic—well-functioning and efficient Identity & Access Management already makes a valuable contribution to proper preparation. Incidentally, exactly our area of expertise as IAM specialists!

Multi-Factor Authentication

For other vendors and visitors, the focus was on multi-factor or two-factor authentication. The triggers and reasons are varied, but there was unanimous agreement that passwords alone no longer provide sufficient protection. For example, an IT manager from an automotive supplier told us he was looking for a strong authentication solution because an audit by an automotive manufacturer was imminent. In recent years, car manufacturers have significantly tightened security requirements for their suppliers to better protect their know-how.

Identity Management

Classic identity management topics such as user life cycle management, user provisioning, and role-based access control (RBAC) were also important for some visitors. Many large enterprises already have an identity management solution in place, but are constantly working to optimize and expand it in light of ever-changing requirements. A trade fair like it-sa is therefore the ideal place to learn about current developments and innovations in the IAM market. One IT employee from a major bank, for example, was specifically looking to extend their existing IDM solution to support role-based assignment of entitlements.

The situation is quite different in the SME sector. Here, Identity & Access Management is not yet widely adopted, and many companies are still searching for a suitable IAM product—such as the IT manager of a mid-sized sanitary equipment manufacturer, who inquired with several IAM vendors about an affordable solution.

Keynote by Daniel Domscheit-Berg still available

Finally, a note for all those who missed the keynote by Daniel Domscheit-Berg. It is definitely worth watching. The net activist and former spokesperson of the whistleblowing platform WikiLeaks presents, in a very entertaining manner, the profound changes that digitalization will bring in his view—and isn’t afraid to question whether politics is responding appropriately to the challenge.