Mastering the Trust Identity Continuum: Airbus Unifies Identity Management with CIAM 

As a global frontrunner in the aircraft manufacturing industry, Airbus operates within a vast network of 18,000 suppliers and their extended teams across the globe. To enable effective collaboration within this diverse ecosystem, Airbus needs to rely on a comprehensive identity management system that can cater to different types of identities. These identities though fall into different levels when it comes to the trust identity continuum.

In this blog, we explore how Airbus can successfully manage the entire identity spectrum with a single CIAM (Customer Identity and Access Management) platform.

Understanding the trust identity continuum

The identity continuum represents the varying levels of trust associated with user identities in the digital world.

Spanning from highly authenticated and verifiable identities to those that are not so strictly verified, the continuum encompasses a spectrum of trust levels. This framework enables organisations like Airbus to navigate the complexities of their diverse global network, including suppliers, third-party collaborators and different teams, by implementing a nuanced identity management system that adapts to the diverse trust attributes inherent in these identities. 

Balancing these diverse range of identities across multiple business divisions, however, presents a challenge for Airbus: How can the company ensure that the appropriate access level is granted to users dynamically throughout the organisation for improved collaboration, seamless user experiences and better risk management?

A single CIAM platform for all identities

As the aerospace industry continues to embrace the principles of Industry 4.0, digital transformation becomes paramount for Airbus. Using a single CIAM platform can help Airbus not only address the challenges of managing identities across the entire trust identity spectrum but also align perfectly with the demands of a modern and interconnected aerospace ecosystem.

Enhanced collaboration and productivity

In an organisation as vast and intricate as Airbus, the delegation of granular access and authorisation management to decentralised teams plays a pivotal role. With multiple teams and departments requiring access to specific resources, and with users having different backgrounds and technical experience, striking a balance between ease of use and security is essential.

Using a flexible CIAM platform, like the Thales OneWelcome Identity Platform, can enable Airbus to manage access privileges more efficiently while adhering to predefined security authorisation policies. This not only ensures streamlined operations but also upholds the integrity and confidentiality of data across the organisation, simplifies collaborations and ultimately increases productivity.

Faster time to market

In the fast-paced aerospace industry, quick decision-making and faster time-to-market are crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. A single CIAM platform can enable Airbus to expedite the onboarding and offboarding of new suppliers and partners, facilitating rapid integration and collaboration on critical projects. Consider the following scenario:

Airbus collaborates with a business partner that has its own ecosystem of identities that need to be onboarded. Instead of handling onboarding processes themselves, Airbus can elect a delegated manager within that company who will be responsible for onboarding their colleagues. This delegated manager can onboard entities in accordance with their trust status. Depending on the level of trust, different onboarding protocols can be used, which Airbus can define. This establishes trust and transparency between Airbus and the company and streamlines their access and interaction with Airbus’ systems. It allows the business partner to integrate faster, collaborate sooner and achieve a faster time-to-market.

As the process unfolds, the company's account is created in Airbus’ internal directory and a synchronisation with the CIAM solution updates the company's and users' information. This allows for the gradual advancement of low trust identities to higher trust levels through progressive profiling whenever needed, further enhancing business relationships and access privileges.

Faster staff onboarding and offboarding

Time is of the essence for aerospace leaders like Airbus. With Thales’ OneWelcome Identity Platform, Airbus can streamline the process of onboarding new staff, ensuring it takes less than 10 minutes to set up new identities with a higher level of assurance. This not only accelerates the integration of new employees into the organization but also reduces administrative burdens and potential errors associated with manual onboarding processes.

To better illustrate this process, let’s revisit the earlier example of a supplier’s employee being onboarded by their delegated manager.

Upon self-registration in the CIAM solution, this new employee’s account is created with a not so strictly verified status. Throughout the entire identity journey, the user can access essential documents and interact with colleagues they have permission to collaborate with. If this new employee wants to upgrade their trust status, for example, to a higher level to gain access to other documents or collaborate with peers on a different team, the delegated manager can send them through a lifecycle. A lifecycle can consist of identity proofing or additional security trainings where the new employee will have to meet additional certification requirements.

If there is an influx of new employees coming in, the delegated manager also can elect more delegated managers to help implement and streamline onboarding processes across all new entities. Airbus can define and tier these new delegated managers according to their level of trust as well.

Increased security and better risk management

Security and risk management are paramount concerns for Airbus, especially when dealing with identities on the higher end of the trust spectrum that have access to confidential and sensitive information. A unified CIAM platform can provide failsafe and auditable procedures, reinforcing Airbus' security posture. The Thales Onewelcome Identity Platform incorporates lightweight governance, ensuring consistent security policies across Airbus' modern, regulated factories, simplifying the process of proving ‘‘who you really are’’ and “what you are allowed to do” across multiple business lines. The platform’s delegation and relation management capabilities allow Airbus to maintain control over user accessibility with a bird’s eye view. With Thales' expertise in digital identity and security, Airbus can stay ahead of emerging threats proactively and comply with industry regulations.

Seamless user experience

By adopting Thales’ CIAM solution, individuals of diverse technical backgrounds and experience levels can gain access to digital resources through a single, user-friendly portal. This eradicates redundant access challenges, ensuring ease of use and faster operations. Moreover, the platform can extend its convenience to physical access, enabling, for example, users to wear a single wearable or badge for accessing resources and facilities. This streamlined approach optimises interactions with various systems, catering to multiple needs. Thus, user convenience remains uncompromised, without sacrificing security, allowing all identities in the continuum to enjoy a seamless experience that will minimise staff turnover and enhance productivity in the long run.

Designing the future of aerospace

Through a single CIAM platform, Airbus can effectively manage identities across the trust continuum without compromising security or seamless user experience. This unified approach enhances collaboration and fosters innovation. But most importantly it propels Airbus’ mission of developing cutting-edge technologies that will support the manufacturer, and even business partners and suppliers, in designing the future of aerospace.

Learn more about how Thales can serve Airbus’ identity and security needs for the extended enterprise.