HID, a global frontrunner in identity solutions, has today unveiled its enlightening '2024 State of Security Industry Report.' The report provides insights from 2600 end users, security, and IT personnel, highlighting major industry themes and trends. By delving into the core concerns that are currently propelling innovations, this document helps to clarify the technologies that form their basis.

The report identifies and expands on six important themes. First off, mobile identification appears set for ubiquity within the next half-decade. The proliferation of mobile devices has seen growing momentum around their use in supporting identity. Surveyed end users anticipate that almost 80% of organisations will have established mobile IDs in the next five years. Industry partners have an even more positive perspective, foreseeing 94% of their customers will have deployed mobile IDs.

Secondly, despite the slowly accelerating execution of Zero Trust, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is widespread. A staggering 83% of respondent end users revealed their organisations currently utilise MFA, primarily due to the frailties of passwords. This often represents organisations' preliminary step on the long road towards Zero Trust, a security approach mandating stringent access controls and advocating the default policy of 'never trust, always verify.'

Sustainability is the third trend identified, demonstrating increasing significance in business choices. Both end users and partners rate its importance at a 4 on a 1-to-5 scale. Furthermore, 74% of end users note the rising importance of sustainability over the past year, with 80% of partners seeing growing significance among their customers.

The enduring momentum of biometrics is the fourth theme. 39% of installers and integrators report their customers are currently using fingerprint or palm print verification, and 30% are utilising facial recognition. Looking forward, 8% plan to examine or implement some form of biometrics over the next year, and 12% aim to do so within the next three to five years.

The fifth trend points towards cloud-based identity management. Close to half of the end users are transitioning to this method, with 24% already using it and another 24% in the process of integrating such systems.

Lastly, the report identifies the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) for analytics use cases. 35% of end-users stated they would be testing or implementing some AI capability over the next three to five years, with 15% already utilising AI-enabled biometrics.

Steve Katanas, regional head of mature markets, ANZ, Physical Access Control Solutions at HID, elaborated on the report's findings. "As businesses in Australia commence their digital transformation journey, HID plays a crucial role. Mobile identity, for instance, can be key in altering authentication methods. The advent of digital wallets and mobile credentials has revolutionised workplace access, making it easier, safer, and more efficient than ever before for stakeholders."

Katanas continued with a concrete example. "Charter Hall, one of Australia's leading fully integrated property groups, sought to provide a frictionless, secure, and sustainable tenant experience. Choosing to extend its existing relationship with HID, Charter Hall's National Operations Team elected to implement HID Mobile Access and HID Signo Readers for access control."

This strategy enabled any compatible mobile device to act as a credential for secure access to doors, gates, networks and more. Not only significantly increasing convenience and boosting operational efficiency, this ensures security is not compromised, and substantially reduces operational costs.