Identity management has a long history, almost as long as computing itself. The first password was implemented by Fernando Corbato in the early 1960s, and this familiar concept passed into Multics and then Unix. However, passwords are no longer suitable on their own for identity management – Corbato himself called them “a kind of nightmare” in 2014.
Keeping user identities, their passwords, and the resources they need to access secure has been made even harder this year with Covid-19 leading to more remote work for the vast majority of companies. These challenges triggered new investments in security, privacy, and identity management tools.
