In the modern app ecosystem, virtually every application leverages identity to provide customized and secure user experiences. Customer identity and access management (CIAM), also known as secure user management, or secure customer identity, is the system an application deploys to determine who a user is, and what information they have access to. It encompasses authentication and authorization, as well as managing login experiences, user preferences, and user data. Collecting and managing this data securely is complex, and requires a heavy investment in development time and expertise to execute and manage. But it’s critical to get it right — the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that 80% of consumers will defect from a company in the next two years because their sensitive data was impacted by a breach. Even tech giants like Uber are susceptible to these attacks. Companies must consider the potential implications of building their own customer identity solution.