Interview: Michael Warnock, SecureAuth

In our annual Leaders in Technology series, we ask the experts what the year ahead holds. Today we talk identity and security with SecureAuth’s Michael Warnock.

Which technologies do you think will be game changers in 2020?

At the top of nearly every agency’s agenda is providing enhanced services via a digital business transformation program. Nearly every agency is looking at ways to use technology to improve interactions with its constituents — driving engagement and enhancing self-service delivery. Success of these initiatives means more meaningful customer relationships. Successfully implementing ‘frictionless’ customer identity management is an essential building block in any digital business transformation.

Detecting fraud, protecting high-risk/high-value accounts and safeguarding customer identities in today’s threat landscape requires more than simple authentication. I see a need for authentication processes to adopt adaptive authentication risk checks. These risk checks will analyse multiple factors of each authentication request to determine the legitimacy of every login attempt.

How are AI, IoT and cyber threats changing your industry sector?

I see the adoption and the possibilities for operational improvement that can result from AI will only continue to expand in 2020. However, I also see that we will get smarter about how we use AI and what the best use case looks like. The sophistication and scale of cyber attacks are increasing at a faster rate, outpacing existing defensive measures. But, we can’t simply throw an AI algorithm at every problem; there are times when humans still need to be part of the correlation and decision-making process. It will be those who identify the right use case that will derive the most value in the year ahead.

Which innovations or disruptions are your customers most concerned about in the year ahead?

I am hearing a lot about the desire for users to go password-less and remove unnecessary barriers to the way they choose to authenticate when accessing online applications and services. It is imperative that you create a ‘frictionless’ experience when users are authenticating. I see biometrics combined with multiple risk checks of device, location, IP address and behaviour achieving better protection than any password or 2FA method alone, and enhancing the user experience.

What will be the biggest growth opportunities for your company in 2020?

We are certainly hearing from the market, there is a need for a new way of approaching Identity Security. Given the need to defend today but prepare for tomorrow, many companies we see are grappling with how they manage identity across on-premise and cloud-based environment. Given our platform operates across on-premise, hybrid and cloud, we are confident we can accelerate our growth by protecting customers’ cloud transformation journeys.

For 2020, our focus remains to be one of the most innovative companies in security, and to continue to lead the evolution of identity management into a next-generation technology. We will continue to empower customers digitising their business, safeguarding workforce and consumer identities, and protecting the business and assets while providing the most seamless user experience possible.

As SecureAuth’s Country Manager ANZ, Michael Warnock’s role is to lead the company’s regional operations. His focus is the continued growth of SecureAuth as a leading cybersecurity company, concentrating on the business-critical area of Identity Security.