Understanding Risk Score Behavior and Feature Requests for Error Handling in IDSP

Products

• Symantec Identity Security Platform - IDSP (formerly VIP Authentication Hub)

Issue/Introduction

When identity verification or authentication risk processing encounters an error (such as a timeout or system failure), the Identity Security Platform (IDSP) engine assigns a default risk score of 100. While treating errors as maximum high risk ensures a fail-secure posture for fraud alerting, it can obscure the difference between a genuinely suspicious user event and an operational engine failure during log reviews.

Customers frequently inquire about modifying this error-scoring behavior or proposing alternative indicators (such as non-numerical scores or designated error-specific score ranges) to better distinguish technical failures from true high-risk activity.

Current System Behavior

• Default High-Risk Assessment: Under current system design, operational errors or timeout events during risk evaluation automatically result in a risk score of 100.

• Rationale: This fail-secure mechanism ensures that potential security threats are not inadvertently allowed through or flagged as low-risk due to transient operational failures.

Environment

Symantec Identity Security Platform - IDSP (formerly VIP Authentication Hub)

release : 4.0.4

Resolution

Modifications to the error-scoring mechanism or custom error code mapping within the risk engine fall under product enhancement requests.

• Enhancement Request Status: Requests to adjust error-handling risk scores within the IDSP product are formally reviewed and evaluated by the Product Management team.

• Evaluation & Roadmap: Product Management assesses these requests based on security impact, engine performance, and overall product roadmap priorities. Updates regarding potential changes to risk score handling will be communicated through official release notes and product documentation.