In today’s fast-paced digital world, managing identity has become a critical challenge for organizations of all sizes. With an increasing number of applications, platforms, and services moving to the cloud, the traditional model of managing access based on usernames and passwords simply doesn’t work anymore. Security breaches, unauthorized access, and the complexity of managing user identities across a wide variety of systems have created a perfect storm for organizations to rethink their approach to identity management. This is where identity and access management (IAM) solutions like Ping Identity come into play—helping businesses streamline their identity management processes, secure their applications, and provide seamless user experiences.
When we talk about identity management in cybersecurity, it’s more than just ensuring that the right users have access to the right resources. It’s about enforcing the principle of least privilege, ensuring data protection, complying with regulations, and providing a frictionless user experience. In the past, managing identity was relatively simple—each user had a single access point, a username, and a password. But the digital landscape has changed. Now, we have multi-cloud environments, hybrid networks, mobile apps, third-party integrations, and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Protecting identity has become more complex, which is why solutions like Ping Identity are more important than ever.
This course is designed to introduce you to Ping Identity and guide you through the world of modern identity management solutions. Whether you are a seasoned cybersecurity professional looking to expand your knowledge or someone new to the field, this course will help you understand how Ping Identity solves complex identity challenges while offering a unified solution for secure authentication, authorization, and identity governance.
Ping Identity’s solutions, which include PingFederate, PingOne, PingID, and PingAccess, form a comprehensive suite for securing identities across both cloud and on-premises environments. The focus of this course is not only to help you understand how to configure these tools but also to appreciate the overarching principles of identity and access management, the evolving security needs, and the technologies that allow organizations to manage identities effectively in today’s interconnected world.
Before we dive into the technicalities of Ping Identity’s offerings, let’s take a step back and examine why identity management is such a crucial part of cybersecurity. As businesses move toward digital-first models, they are forced to provide employees, customers, and partners access to a wide range of resources—from applications to services, from databases to APIs. With this shift, organizations need to make sure they have the right tools in place to manage access to these resources securely. They also need to ensure that users are who they say they are and that only authorized individuals are accessing sensitive systems and data. This is where identity management systems, like Ping Identity, come into play.
In a traditional setup, organizations would rely on usernames and passwords to authenticate users. However, this method is becoming increasingly ineffective in the face of growing cybersecurity threats. Passwords can be stolen, guessed, or phished, and with many users recycling passwords across multiple systems, a single breach can lead to widespread compromise. This is why modern identity management solutions emphasize multi-factor authentication (MFA) and adaptive authentication. Ping Identity’s MFA capabilities integrate seamlessly with its broader identity management solutions, offering additional layers of security to protect users from identity theft and unauthorized access.
The key to Ping Identity’s value lies in its ability to simplify complex identity processes, making it easier to manage authentication and access control across a range of environments. Whether you are dealing with on-premises applications, cloud-based services, or hybrid systems, Ping Identity provides a unified platform to manage users and their access seamlessly. As part of the course, we will explore how Ping Identity’s core components—PingFederate, PingOne, PingID, and PingAccess—work together to offer secure, scalable, and adaptable identity management solutions.
One of the first major topics you will learn in this course is single sign-on (SSO), which is one of the cornerstones of Ping Identity’s offering. The idea behind SSO is simple but powerful: users should not have to log in to every application or service individually. Instead, they should be able to authenticate once, and then automatically be granted access to all resources they are authorized to use. This convenience improves user experience, reduces password fatigue, and enhances security by decreasing the number of times users need to enter their credentials. PingFederate is a key solution for enabling SSO, providing centralized authentication and federated identity management that allows users to access a variety of services with just one set of credentials.
Another important feature of Ping Identity’s solution suite is its identity federation capabilities. In today’s interconnected world, businesses often have partnerships or collaborations with other organizations, which means that employees from external organizations may need access to an internal system. Identity federation allows organizations to securely share identity information across different domains, making it easy to manage access for both internal and external users. PingFederate supports a range of federation standards, including SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), OAuth, and OpenID Connect, ensuring that your organization can securely integrate with other organizations or services that use different authentication protocols.
As organizations increasingly embrace the cloud, securing access to cloud applications becomes paramount. Cloud identity management is another critical area of this course, and you’ll see how Ping Identity’s PingOne solution simplifies this process. PingOne is a cloud-native identity-as-a-service (IDaaS) platform that provides secure access to cloud applications without compromising user experience. It offers support for both identity management and authentication services, allowing businesses to seamlessly integrate with cloud services like Microsoft 365, Salesforce, and Google Cloud. One of the most valuable aspects of PingOne is its ability to centralize authentication and authorization for all cloud-based services, making it easier for organizations to manage users and secure their digital environments.
However, identity management is not just about convenience and access; it’s also about governance. Identity governance and administration (IGA) play a vital role in ensuring that users have the appropriate permissions and that access is granted based on roles, policies, and regulatory requirements. With growing concerns around data privacy and the need for compliance with regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and others, identity governance has become more important than ever. Ping Identity provides comprehensive tools for managing and auditing user access, ensuring that businesses can track and enforce access policies across their organization. The course will cover how PingAccess works to enforce policies at the application layer, protecting your resources from unauthorized access while ensuring compliance.
As part of a comprehensive identity management solution, multi-factor authentication (MFA) is another key component of Ping Identity. MFA enhances security by requiring users to provide more than just a password when authenticating. Instead of relying on a single factor (such as something the user knows), MFA combines something the user knows (password), something the user has (a phone, a token, etc.), and something the user is (biometrics, for example). By leveraging multiple forms of authentication, MFA reduces the risk of unauthorized access due to stolen or compromised credentials. Ping Identity’s PingID solution makes it easy to implement and manage MFA, supporting a wide range of authentication methods, from push notifications to biometrics to hardware tokens.
The adaptive authentication feature, available in Ping Identity, allows organizations to go beyond traditional MFA by adjusting the level of authentication required based on risk. For example, if a user logs in from a known device and location, they may only be required to provide a simple password. But if they log in from an unfamiliar location or an unrecognized device, they may be asked to provide an additional form of verification. This flexibility allows organizations to balance security and user convenience, ensuring that legitimate users are not unnecessarily burdened by complex authentication steps while still protecting against potential threats.
One of the ongoing challenges in cybersecurity is ensuring a seamless user experience while maintaining a high level of security. Users today are accustomed to services that are quick and easy to use, and they expect the same from authentication processes. Ping Identity understands this and prioritizes usability as part of its solution. For example, PingOne’s intelligent authentication policies automatically adjust to risk levels, streamlining the user experience without sacrificing security. Similarly, PingID’s push notifications provide a simple yet secure way for users to authenticate without needing to manually type in codes, reducing friction while maintaining robust security controls.
In this course, you will also learn how to manage and monitor identity and access events across your organization using Ping Identity’s administrative tools. Logging, reporting, and alerting are all essential aspects of any cybersecurity strategy, and Ping Identity provides administrators with powerful tools to monitor user activity, detect suspicious behavior, and respond to incidents. You’ll explore how to set up custom alerts, review logs, and track policy compliance in real-time.
By the time you complete this course, you will have a deep understanding of Ping Identity’s full suite of identity and access management solutions. You will be able to implement SSO, MFA, identity federation, and adaptive authentication in real-world scenarios. You’ll also be able to manage and govern identities effectively, ensuring that users have access to the resources they need while protecting your organization from unauthorized access.
The value of mastering identity management solutions like Ping Identity cannot be overstated. As organizations continue to expand their digital footprint, ensuring the security of identities across both on-premises and cloud environments is essential. Ping Identity’s robust and adaptable platform helps organizations stay ahead of modern cybersecurity threats while simplifying the user experience. With this course, you will gain the skills and knowledge needed to protect identities and access across a wide range of environments, making you a key player in your organization’s cybersecurity strategy.
Welcome to the world of Ping Identity—where identity management is smart, adaptive, and secure. The journey starts here.
1. Introduction to Ping Identity
2. Setting Up Ping Identity
3. Understanding Identity Management Basics
4. Key Terminology in Identity Management
5. Navigating the Ping Identity Interface
6. Running Your First Identity Scan
7. Interpreting Identity Scan Results
8. Common Identity Management Challenges
9. Generating Identity Reports
10. Integrating Ping Identity with Development Tools
11. Understanding False Positives and Negatives
12. Configuring Basic Identity Management Settings
13. Ping Identity for Small Projects
14. Basic Authentication and Authorization Testing
15. Introduction to Identity Lifecycle Management
16. Preventing Unauthorized Access
17. Protecting Sensitive Identity Data
18. Basics of Identity Relationship Management
19. Managing Identity Data Sources
20. Identity Onboarding and Offboarding
21. Advanced Authentication Techniques
22. Advanced Authorization Testing
23. Identity Relationship Management
24. Path Traversal Vulnerabilities
25. XML External Entity (XXE) Injection
26. Optimizing Automated Identity Scans
27. Customizing Identity Management Policies
28. Integrating Ping Identity with Bug Tracking Tools
29. Advanced Reporting Features
30. Analyzing Identity Scan Logs
31. Conducting Large-Scale Identity Scans
32. Testing Identity Management for E-commerce Sites
33. Web Services Security Testing with SOAP
34. JavaScript and AJAX Security Testing
35. Detecting Insecure Direct Object References
36. Testing Session Management
37. Testing for Insecure Cryptographic Storage
38. Identifying Insecure Deserialization
39. Remote Code Execution Testing
40. Handling Complex Authentication Mechanisms
41. Exploiting Authentication Mechanisms for Penetration Testing
42. Advanced Authorization Exploitation Techniques
43. Advanced Identity Relationship Management
44. Advanced Path Traversal Techniques
45. Advanced XML External Entity (XXE) Exploitation
46. Customizing the Ping Identity Exploitation Engine
47. Post-Exploitation Techniques and Strategies
48. Advanced Security Misconfigurations
49. Advanced Techniques for Detecting Outdated Software
50. Advanced Sensitive Data Exposure Techniques
51. Advanced Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Exploitation
52. Complex Authentication and Authorization Testing
53. Comprehensive Reporting and Metrics
54. Automating Identity Scans with Scripts
55. Integrating Ping Identity in DevOps Workflows
56. Advanced Bug Tracking Integration
57. Advanced Management of Knowledge Base
58. Testing Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)
59. Advanced API Security Testing
60. Mobile Application Security Testing
61. Complex Deserialization Vulnerabilities
62. Advanced Remote Code Execution Techniques
63. Session Management Exploitation
64. Advanced Cryptographic Storage Testing
65. Penetration Testing with Ping Identity
66. Evaluating Security Posture of Identity Management
67. Red Teaming with Ping Identity
68. Blue Teaming: Defense Strategies
69. Threat Modeling for Identity Management
70. Incident Response Using Ping Identity
71. Vulnerability Management and Prioritization
72. Continuous Monitoring and Reporting
73. Advanced Custom Vulnerability Detection
74. Real-time Vulnerability Mitigation
75. Integrating Ping Identity with SIEM Tools
76. Advanced Threat Detection Techniques
77. Data Exfiltration Prevention
78. Understanding Attack Vectors
79. Identity Management Standards
80. Conducting Security Audits with Ping Identity
81. Automation in Identity Management
82. Ethical Hacking with Ping Identity
83. Advanced Social Engineering Techniques
84. Security Compliance Testing
85. Implementing Security Best Practices
86. Security Metrics and KPIs
87. Advanced Incident Handling Procedures
88. Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration
89. Security Awareness Training
90. Threat Hunting in Identity Management
91. Building a Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
92. Cloud Security Testing with Ping Identity
93. Advanced Malware Analysis
94. Zero-day Vulnerability Management
95. Secure Coding Practices for Developers
96. Protecting Against Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
97. Privacy and Data Protection
98. Network Security Fundamentals
99. Secure Configuration Management
100. Future Trends in Identity Management