Decentralized identity (DCI) democratizes digital identity by decentralizing both the storage and the use of identity data. The primary benefits of DCI are privacy, anonymity and user autonomy. DCI tools include a trust fabric, typically a distributed ledger like a blockchain; a digital wallet, which is tied to an entity (user); verifiable credentials (VCs), which represent identity attributes used to prove identity claims; and decentralized identifiers (DIDs), which establish pseudonymous relationships for issuing and verifying claims. DCI systems are delivered via software and SaaS capabilities. Users are primarily humans, but machines and even business entities can be users of DCI.
IT Security refers to products and services that protect digital systems and data from cyber threats and unauthorized access. This category includes markets that focus on network security, identity management, data protection, and cloud security, enabling organizations to reduce risk, ensure compliance, and operate securely in a digital world.
Gartner defines user authentication as the journey-time process that provides credence in a claim to an identity established for a person for access to digital assets. User authentication is delivered by some combination of (a) an authenticator, (b) signals evaluation and (c) an authentication decision point, which may be from different vendors. User authentication is used to provide credence in an identity claim for a person already known to an organization. The credence must be sufficient to bring account takeover (ATO) risks within the organization’s risk tolerance. Without effective authentication, the security of and trust in that person’s digital interactions are deeply undermined. User authentication is foundational to and protects the value of other functions within an organization’s identity fabric, namely: runtime authorization, especially segregation of duties (SOD), audit (individual accountability), and identity analytics.