Business intelligence has been around for decade, but has transformed significantly since the outset of the digital revolution in the late 1990s and now blossomed into one of the more advanced realms of technologies, techniques and solutions. Big data has effectively made it into nearly every industry in some degree or other, while the increased affordability and ease-of-use that have accompanied a diversified and matured market have made it possible for even smaller businesses to use the tools. 

However, more data will generally translate to more problems, especially when this is regarding modern analytics which are founded on higher volumes, faster velocities and more complex formats of information. Not surprisingly, privacy issues have been among the most common impediments standing in the way of more widespread adoption and acceptance, and this might be the result of continued use of antiquated identity and access management systems. 

For a novel technology such as big data, organizations must modernize their security and privacy protection controls to avoid a major headache. 

An interesting switch
Network World recently reported that larger organizations are already beginning to leverage big data-like solutions to tighten up their security strategies through more tailored and better-guided decision-making. This technology comes with the promise of transforming massive volumes of unstructured and structured information into actionable insights, meaning that leaders will have more accurate and timely data related to whichever operational wing is being guided by the tools. 

As such, it has become clear that the highly complex and sophisticated cybercrime arena is demanding that organizations attain a higher level of intelligence when managing their access and identity controls. According to the news provider, one survey from ESG Research revealed that more than 40 percent of the organizations with 1,000 or more employees already consider their security-related information collection and analysis to be aligned with big data. 

The source went on to note that 44 percent of those that did not yet consider their security practices to be big data-oriented today believe that they will be within the near future. However, Network World did affirm that certain architectural matters that dictate the systems being used for information generation, collection, storage, sharing and analysis must be on the priority list to ensure the big data strategy is simultaneously efficient and secure. 

Applications of authentication
It should come as at least some surprise that so many organizations are beginning to leverage the most novel technologies in the world, such as cloud computing, smartphones, tablets, big data and more, but are still using password systems that have been around for decades. Considering how frequent and damaging data breaches have been in recent years, it is baffling that the one area that has yet to be comprehensively modernized is in fact identity and access management. 

Regardless of which novel technologies or strategies a business is using, leveraging dynamic authentication tools can swiftly shore up defenses while boosting the agility of operations to safely take on more advanced solutions and initiatives in the future.