Bring Your Own Identity

Bring Your Own Identity (BYOI) is an emerging concept in enterprise security that parallels Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) mobile policies. With BYOI, instead of organizations providing all authentication tools, individuals use personal, user-owned credentials or identity verification methods to access corporate systems. This approach is gaining traction as employees who bring their own devices to company environments expect the same level of flexibility and convenience when it comes to authentication. While promising, BYOI requires careful consideration of privacy, interoperability, and security to ensure identity management remains consistent across the enterprise.

In practice, BYOI often involves biometric identity verification, such as facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, or passkeys tied to personal devices. For healthcare organizations, this means clinicians could leverage familiar authentication methods already in use on their personal devices to securely access sensitive systems. However, this also introduces unique challenges, such as ensuring webcams and biometric readers are reliable, managing privacy expectations around personal data, and addressing reimbursement or compliance issues in regions like California, where personal-phone multifactor authentication (MFA) carries financial implications. These considerations underscore the importance of well-designed access controls that balance convenience with enterprise security.

Enterprise access management solutions must evolve to support BYOI without compromising regulatory compliance, especially in industries like healthcare that have strict data protection requirements. Offline authentication for electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) or multifactor authentication (MFA) further complicates BYOI adoption, as organizations must ensure secure access even when internet connectivity is limited. BYOI represents a natural extension of passwordless technologies, but it must be implemented with care to address operational complexity.

Imprivata views Bring Your Own Identity as a natural step forward in the evolution of access management. By integrating BYOI into Imprivata Enterprise Access Management, we can support customer needs with differentiated solutions that respect privacy while enabling secure, seamless authentication. This approach enables organizations to leverage user-owned identity verification methods without sacrificing compliance, ensuring sensitive information remains protected while enabling users to work more efficiently.