New index highlights govt service delivery issues

US-based identity management vendor Auth0 has released findings from its first Public Sector Identity Index. The global report, including detailed ANZ data, provides insight into the identity maturity of public sector organisations and highlights the importance of a centralised identity strategy in putting safe and accessible services into the hands of citizens.

The pandemic prompted an immediate need for deployment of digital infrastructure to maintain continuity of services — such as offering licence renewals online and virtual education — with many agencies now grappling with the impacts on cybersecurity and user experience.

The 2022 Public Sector Identity Index, conducted by Auth0 and Market Connections, captures the perceptions of 850 IT and line of business decision-makers within national and state/local government organisations across the US, UK and ANZ.

Key findings include:

• Only one in five is extremely confident in either the security (17%) or ease of use (19%) of their current authentication solution.
• Username and password is the most frequently used authentication method by citizens (86%), compared to very little usage of biometric or passwordless authentication (16%).
• Four in 10 are currently building their own IAM solution in-house (41%), and cite speed to implementation (83%) and using internal staff to manage IAM internally (82%) as two of the biggest pain points in doing so.
• Most governments are looking to expand their digital services in the next two years (75%) and rank protecting citizens’ privacy and data as most important when thinking about citizen services (73%).
   

Regional analysis shows confidence in ANZ agencies around improving the user experience falls short of expectation — 72% of respondents see it as an area of high importance, yet only 60% are confident their organisation can deliver.

An Identity-first approach puts identity at the centre of government digital transformation, while also laying the foundation for a Zero Trust security model. Key to this approach are modern login technologies that replace traditional passwords, and introduce friction only when suspicious behaviour is detected.

The Auth0 Identity Platform is a product unit within Okta. To learn more and download the full report, click here.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Tierney