Forgerock pictureLast month, ForgeRock introduced its enhanced Identity Management Platform that continuously and contextually assesses the authenticity of users, devices and things. Built on privacy-by-consent principles, it is the first identity management platform to fully implement the User-Managed Access (UMA) standard, making it possible for organizations to address expanding privacy regulations and establish trusted digital relationships.

In the past, identity management was used primarily for employee security and viewed as a necessary enterprise cost. Now, however, innovations in identity management technology enable enterprises and government organizations to securely provision digital services to millions – and up to billions – of customers and citizens.

As more digital services and the Internet of Things (IoT) devices come online, the enhanced ForgeRock Identity Platform supply companies with new ways to simplify and enrich their customers’ lives:

Continuous Security at Scale: Conventional identity products only provide protection “at the doorway,” not through the life of a session. The ForgeRock Identity Platform is the first identity management platform to offer continuous security, making it possible to assess the authenticity of users, devices and things. Through ForgeRock’s contextual authorization features and adaptive risk engine, organizations can verify the authenticity of users, devices, things and services throughout a session, and mitigate risk whenever an anomaly is detected. If a suspicious action is detected – for example, a user moves from a protected network at his office to an unprotected network at the nearby coffee shop – the ForgeRock Identity Platform can apply step-up authentication and require further authorization for the session to proceed. Additionally, the enhanced platform enables identity professionals to simplify security and lower the total cost of deploying multi-factor authentication with ForgeRock’s out-of-the-box mobile iOS or Android mobile authentication app. The new mobile app provides strong multi-factor authentication, generates one-time passwords, and delivers easy and secure provisioning with quick response (QR) codes.

Security for the Internet of Things (IoT): Traditional identity management platforms have been designed to only support authorization policies for URLs and lack the ability to address the unique needs of the IoT. The ForgeRock Identity Platform’s new universal authorization capability, however, makes it possible to secure IoT devices and things: For example, universal authorization can be used to enable a hotel room to be unlocked with the guest’s phone.  With universal authorization, it’s now possible to define specific resource types or “things” with custom actions to build solution-specific policies.

Enhanced Data Privacy Controls: The upcoming General Data Protection Regulation presents global implications for the way in which organizations deal with data privacy – not just for customers but for employees as well. However, there has not previously been a standardized way for organizations to provide capabilities to control, share, and revoke access to data, whether that be for internal employees, partners, other organizations or consumers. User-Managed Access (UMA) is a new standard featuring a group of capabilities designed to enable individuals to selectively share, control, authorize and revoke access to data. ForgeRock is the first identity management platform vendor to include a full implementation of the UMA standard. Now organizations can build customer trust and unlock new opportunities by offering consumers the choice of who to share their personal data with, under what circumstances and for how long: For example, a patient collecting cardio data through a health wearable could stream data to a clinician to monitor heart rate, or collect and share that data with another doctor for a short time window in order to get a second opinion.

For organizations, they no longer need to rely on proprietary tools to securely share data with employees, partners and third parties.

“ForgeRock’s focus on highly scalable, business-to-customer identity management technology differentiates it in a sector still concerned primarily with traditional business-to-business offerings. Building identity management platforms around the customer rather than the business delivers significant benefits in terms of user experience, security and privacy online,” said Rik Turner, senior analyst on Ovum’s Infrastructure Solutions Team. “The implementation of the UMA standard in ForgeRock’s new platform will put unprecedented levels of data control into the hands of the consumer. This approach will help build greater trust online by ensuring that consumer privacy is front and center of the online experience.”


“Organizations, particularly those in the retail, healthcare and financial services industries, want an identity management platform that can aid them in providing their customers with highly personalized and convenient digital services faster than their competitors,” said Mike Ellis, CEO of ForgeRock. “With the recent growth of the IoT and the shifting regulatory environment, it’s also paramount that organizations are able to secure and meet demand for greater control of customer data. By leveraging our new platform, ForgeRock customers are able to build trusted digital relationships with their customers as well as address legal requirements for user consent.”

The ForgeRock Identity Platform is available for download at: https://www.forgerock.com/downloads/