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The Future of IAM

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Identity and Access Management: A Critical Foundation for Security

Identity and Access Management (IAM) has long been essential to how colleges, universities, and research institutions handle their technology systems—and that importance isn’t going away anytime soon. Today, IAM is also becoming a crucial part of how organizations protect themselves from cyber threats.

We’re living in a world where people and systems request access to digital resources more than ever before. This means we need better ways to verify who—or what—should actually get in. Modern security approaches, such as zero-trust frameworks, depend on strong identity systems that can instantly confirm access requests. This applies not only to people, but also to automated systems and AI agents that are increasingly operating within our digital environments.

The End of Passwords? How Technology Is Changing the Way We Log In

Eliminating passwords entirely may sound like science fiction, but new technology is making it increasingly realistic.

Thanks to modern security tools like FIDO2 (a passwordless authentication) tokens and WebAuthn Passkeys, it’s now easier to use safer login methods across different websites and apps. Instead of typing in passwords, more students, professors, and researchers are simply using their fingerprints or face recognition (known as biometrics) on their own phones and computers to access their accounts and protect their schools’ information.

As digital IDs and credentials become more prevalent, your personal devices will play an increasingly significant role—not just in verifying who you are when you log in, but also in determining what you’re authorized to access and verifying your credentials.

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The Trust Network: Simplifying Access for a Connected World

As technology advances, the way you log in and access services needs to advance, too. That’s why we’re adopting OpenID Federation—a new approach that makes it easier and more secure for people to access multiple services with a single login.

OpenID Federation, a shared trust framework built on top of OpenID Connect and OAuth, is the future of multi-lateral federation and single sign-on (SSO).

Think of it like this: instead of needing a separate relationship with every organization you want to work with, OpenID Federation protocol creates a “chain of trust” that connects everyone. Organizations can verify each other’s identity through this shared network, even if they’ve never worked together directly before.

This technology builds on proven security standards and will power the next generation of global research partnerships and collaboration—making it simpler for researchers and institutions worldwide to work together securely.

Help Shape the Future of Identity and Access Management (IAM)

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