So, when we started KuppingerCole Analysts some two decades ago. The sort of the initial idea was to fill a gap in the analyst space for identity management. So I had a own history, being a freelance journalist, book author for many years but also working at, software companies and so on one hand working with analysts. On the other hand, researching the identity management markets for quite a while. And this is what really triggered the journey, of KuppingerCole Analysts.
And so when we started back then, it was a relatively small market with, yes, way more than a handful, but probably way less than 100 vendors. When I look at the market today, we have definitely hundreds of vendors in the identity management space. It grew really big. And I think it was a good decision to cover this market. When I look at this journey and evolution, we started off with identity management back in the days. It was really an administrative thing. So managing accounts and different systems starting to synchronize.
And then that we saw more single sign on stuff coming in, but also quite early. So a stronger regulatory perspective and always this was a security element in that. So we looked at other areas. Some privacy is close to identity GRC governance risk compliance was something which came in and which is still very widely a role in access governance. And from there, we also started to look more and more in other areas of security. And nowadays we tend to use the broader industry as well.
The term identity security, which already makes clear that there's a strong intersection between identity and cyber security. Yes, there are areas in cyber security which are not very identity focused, like whatever network security. On the other hand, there are areas in digital identity that are less security focused, like the digital journey of customers and consumers. But in the center there's an intersection, because when you look at today's attacks, then they a very large amount of today's attacks, a very large ratio is identity based or identity based attacks. With phishing for passwords?
A lot of types of credentials with impersonation and so on. Account take-over, all these things are identity related. So at the end security starts with identity and there's this, as I've said, this intersection, and it was very logical for us to expand into the broader cyber security space, to provide a full coverage as well as we look at privacy as well. If we look at decentralized identity EUDI wallets, which are more on the digital journey, digital service, digital enablement side of things, but at the core, there remains identity, security. So when I look at what we are currently doing.
Then I think there are two very interesting things to mention. And one is, a new product. We are just launching, starting to, to bring to the market, which is our KuppingerCole Rising Stars or KC Rising Stars, where we look at, usually start ups in a relatively early stage that demonstrate both, really strong innovation and an excellent product market fit. And there are many of these in identity and cyber security and security for AI and all these adjacent areas.
And that is what we cover, where we highlight this vendors, because we believe this is very important for, virtually everyone, for the vendor community, for the investor community, for the end user community to understand who are the new players, the new kids on the block, so to speak. That is one thing. The other thing is our KuppingerCole membership or KC membership, which provides access to our services and also access to the analysts, to the advisors, to the experts, via are workshops, via the inquiry calls, via other types of services.
And I think this is something I believe everyone in this industry must have. And so I definitely can encourage you to, to look at a KuppingerCole membership. So when we look at the future, it's always a bit of a look into to the crystal ball in some sense. On the other hand, some, some evolutions are very clear.
We have, challenges that will arise sooner or later, like, the impact of quantum computing on, cryptography and thus on encryption on signing on, public key infrastructures. And also that means also authentication and other things, where quantum safe encryption will play a very important role, where cryptoagility becomes important. We have the field of AI and the identity, which is, so to speak, the part we look at. So identity for AI.
Like for instance, having an identity for, for AI bots or agents as well as managing the relationship between the human and their identities and the bots that are acting on behalf of them. So there are there are very interesting challenges, security for AI, but also AI for identity, AI for security.
This will be definitely a topic we look at, and which will be covered and which will be relevant over the next years, become bigger and bigger as this is the same as decentralized identity, EUDI, wallets, all types of wallets, and the entire evolution of this space which we are covering for probably more than a decade already in its various forms, and which we will continue to cover. So we will, as usual, try the the established themes as well as everything which is emerging and relevant to the market.
It was to various forms of our content be it our reports, be it our events and conferences, be it our webinars, our podcasts, our videos, we do all that stuff. We will highlight what is happening. We'll provide insight into, how the market is evolving.
We will, deliver what everyone, in our audience needs, to make good decisions. So to provide the information that is needed to for everyone that is involved in the identity and cyber security market. So with that, I wish you a happy holidays, happy New Year and may you not be impacted by any cyber security attacks in 2025 enjoy the break.
