Johanna Baum is the founder and CEO of Strategic Security Solutions (S3) Consulting and is a CPA in the state of Georgia with over 20 years of security, eGRC, IDG, and SAP technical and strategic advisory experience. Her vast expertise in the security and compliance field has served both industry and large consulting organizations. Johanna sought to build an organization that approached security and identity initiatives differently. She wanted a community of experts focused on the holistic needs of the client and their employees rather than simply a technology reseller. She also sought to change the approach of boutiques looking to build the entire employee, not simply utilization-driven targets without empathy and investment in the individual. Johanna founded S3 Consulting in 2005 to provide strategic professional services and guidance around security, eGRC, and IDG services for Fortune 2000 companies. Since beginning the company 15 years ago, Johanna has been hands-on in providing successful assessment, implementation, and deployment solutions throughout the full life cycle of both technical and strategic initiatives. Identity threats will increase exponentially, causing organizations to focus on prevention: Identity attacks are also happening faster. In 2021, the focus is shifting from authenticating identity and authorization to controlling access. Even if a business keeps the attack contained, they still have a significant issue – identity was compromised. Increasingly, organizations will take cyber security awareness training to better secure and manage user identities and scrub for inactive identities. Talking points/key messages: tips / best practices for ensuring strong identity. What does identity mean? Also, with the rise of ‘contactless’ everything means authentication will become more complex. Amid COVID-19, e-commerce, online banking/payment systems, contactless travel, and other transactions are rising, however they require a high level of identity assurance and authentication. In 2021 and beyond, preventing credential compromise will depend on stronger, more complex authentication security and identity validation. Increasingly, an individual’s identity will become their credentials (face scans, finger prints, etc.) We also discuss how enterprises are slowly shifting away from enterprise password use and over to more secure alternatives.