Highlights:

  • A customer authentication authority is a centralized service within CIAM platforms designed to provide uniform sign-on and registration experiences across all applications.
  • An authentication authority centralizes and streamlines authentication processes across all digital platforms, regardless of complexity.

The registration process is often a customer’s first impression of your brand. If it’s cumbersome, they’ll likely abandon it, costing you the chance to convert them.

Similarly, if customers are required to remember multiple passwords across your digital properties, they’ll disengage, leading to lower activity, smaller wallet share, and decreased revenue.

While streamlining these processes seems simple, complexities arise. Different teams may have created your applications, each with varying customer data and sign-on credentials.

Some enterprises use legacy identity systems, built in-house or as off-the-shelf solutions, that aren’t equipped for the digital experiences needed today.

These systems may lack security features, standards support, or even basic capabilities like social login, leading to lost opportunities and frustrated customers.

Customer identity and access management (CIAM) has evolved to address the complexities of managing digital identities for millions of customers.

Modern CIAM platforms offer flexible cloud deployment options (IDaaS, private clouds, on-premises, or hybrid) and ensure seamless experiences across devices and use cases while protecting customer data from breaches and fraud. Legacy solutions, designed for employees, fail to meet these needs.

A key feature of modern CIAM solutions is serving as an authentication authority, ensuring consistent sign-on and registration across all apps.

CIAM authentication authorities support features like social login, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and passwordless authentication, delivering exceptional customer experiences while meeting performance and scalability requirements.

What is Customer Authentication Authority?

A customer authentication authority is a centralized service within CIAM platforms that ensures consistent sign-on and registration experiences across all applications.

It simplifies complex and disjointed architectures in enterprises with numerous customer-facing applications.

Application silos

Large enterprises often have numerous customer-facing applications, arising from mergers, acquisitions, or various initiatives.

These apps may use various methods for user registration and authentication, such as legacy IAM systems, home-built login processes, or diverse identity solutions. As a result, they may vary in their standards and capabilities.

A customer authentication authority can streamline authentication across all applications, supporting common standards like OAuth, OpenID Connect, and SAML, as well as custom apps.

Finally, it ensures consistent security, capabilities, and credentials for customers, despite the application they access.

Comprehensive use case scenarios

With diverse applications, many use case combinations are needed to achieve consistent single sign-on (SSO).

A brand might use a popular app as an identity provider (IdP) for all its other apps. An authentication authority ensures a centralized session from the IdP works across all service provider (SP) apps.

It directs users to the correct sign-on point, whether they start on an SP app (SP-initiated SSO) or navigate from the IdP app (IdP-initiated SSO).

For instance, in online banking, signing into the main app (IdP) grants seamless access to related services like bill pay or stock trading (SPs), making the process invisible to users.

Many enterprises may have even more intricate configurations, such as:

  • Offering customers multiple sign-on options
  • Supporting social login or passwordless authentication for selective apps
  • An IdP acting as an authentication source for one or multiple SPs
  • Multiple IdPs, each linked to different groups of SPs
  • Authentication for IoT devices or APIs in addition to users

To handle diverse use cases, an authentication authority can switch roles between IdP and SP to manage, translate, and pass tokens or assertions.

For instance, if a user accesses a service provider app, the authentication authority may redirect them to a SAML IdP to authenticate, acting as an SP. It then translates the SAML assertion into an OpenID Connect ID token for the app and shifts to an IdP role.

Regardless of complexity, an authentication authority centralizes and manages authentication across all digital properties.

Cloud flexibility

Enterprise application portfolios often span private clouds, SaaS, and on-premises environments. Some customers may prefer a simple, hosted, multi-tenant identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) solution, while others might need more control over uptime, security, and user data, making a private cloud ideal.

For those who want private cloud control without managing the environment, a hosted, single-tenant private cloud is a viable option.

Since there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, modern customer authentication authorities must offer flexible cloud deployment options—IDaaS, on-premises, private cloud, hosted private cloud, or combinations—while seamlessly managing sign-ons across all environments.

Why a Customer Authentication Authority is Beneficial?

Customers have straightforward expectations from a brand. It is nothing but to deliver exceptional experiences and safeguard their data.

An authentication authority fulfils both requirements by streamlining registration and login processes. Here are some benefits:

  1. Authentication consistency

Authentication authorities ensure uniform customer credentials, password policies, account recovery, and authentication experiences across all digital properties.

  1. Safeguard customer information

Customers may not notice security, but they will notice breaches or friction during sign-on. An authentication authority ensures a balance of security and convenience across all apps, reducing breach risks.

  1. Flawless authentication design

Brands invest in pixel-perfect apps and websites, and the same care should apply to authentication and registration UIs.

An authentication authority ensures consistent, flawless sign-on and registration interfaces across all apps.

  1. Authentication solutions

Customers may prefer various sign-on or registration methods (forms, social media, IdPs, passwordless, etc.). An authentication authority ensures consistency across all channels.

  1. Fraud prevention

Hackers target both enterprises and customers with phishing and other attacks. Many customers prefer protection through user-friendly multi-factor authentication (SMS, email, or push notifications).

An authentication authority provides these capabilities to safeguard against fraud.

Customer Authentication Authority: A Modern Solution for Secure User Access

Strong identification and authentication are the foundation of robust cybersecurity. By implementing global, adaptive authentication, you can centralize risk signals and policy decisions.

  1. Basic authentication

Basic authentication utilizes the traditional username-password combination but has become increasingly vulnerable to attacks like credential stuffing and phishing.

Credential stuffing employs bots to exploit stolen credentials, while phishing uses tools like Modlishka to mimic legitimate sites.

Although authentication authorities have improved defenses, attackers continue to evolve, maintaining a constant battle.

  1. Multi-factor authentication (MFA)

Pairing basic authentication with additional factors enhances security and prevents account takeovers.

Customers prefer user-friendly MFA methods like push notifications, soft tokens, SMS, email OTPs, or third-party apps like Google Authenticator. Moreover, not all methods are equally secure.

NIST discourages SMS due to phone number hijacking risks, and email OTPs can be vulnerable if email credentials are not set well.

The most user-friendly and secure MFA option is pushing notifications sent to a trusted device, leveraging mobile SDKs and device biometrics.

However, customers vary in their preferences, and some may opt for email or SMS OTPs instead. An authentication authority ensures flexible MFA options, offering secure and convenient methods to suit diverse customer needs.

  1. Passwordless authentication

Many companies are removing passwords to enhance security and reduce user friction. With passwordless authentication, users verify their identity using a trusted device or second factor after providing a username—or sometimes without a username by scanning a QR code.

This approach is ideal for UI-limited or public devices, like logging into a hotel TV streaming service via a QR code using a mobile app.

  1. Adaptive authentication

Adaptive authentication enhances security while reducing friction by evaluating contextual factors like the user, device, and requested resource.

It adjusts authentication requirements based on risk—requiring more factors for high-risk actions and fewer for consistent, low-risk behaviors.

Over time, as user behavior becomes predictable, authentication can be less frequent, improving user experience, satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue.

Final Words

Beyond authentication, customer identity contains creating a unified profile to improve customer experience.

A unified profile allows applications to store rich, diverse data—such as preferences or favorite colors—without limitations.

In opposite to legacy systems, a unified profile lets developers store data in any form (structured or unstructured) without the need for risky migrations, ensuring flexibility and seamless customer experiences.

Enhance your expertise by accessing a range of valuable security-related whitepapers in our resource center.