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GUEST OPINION: Cybercriminals are constantly on the hunt for new ways to gain access to corporate IT infrastructures. Increasingly, their targets of choice are identity and privilege.
They are attempting to exploit every identity – both human and non-human - that is susceptible to compromise if not properly secured. This leaves every identity across an organisation at risk of potential compromise.
If not properly secured, an identity might become a pathway to other privileges and lead to further compromise. Embracing principles like Zero Trust while leveraging advanced technologies like AI and machine learning is considered imperative for effective identity protection.
This is why identity security is no longer just an identity and access management (IAM) problem. It is an organisational risk that, if not managed properly, could land in the hands of an attacker and provide them with the upper hand.
Evolving beyond IAM
Gone are the days when IAM was the sole gatekeeper of identities. The online presence of identities has shifted cyber threats, and IAM tools alone aren’t enough to combat sophisticated attacks.
This has led to a required shift in focus toward a more comprehensive identity security strategy. This shift has centred around identity-centric security, where the emphasis is on securing identities themselves rather than just managing access.
It also recognises that identities are now the perimeter in today’s hyperconnected digital world. By prioritising identity security, organisations can better safeguard their sensitive data and systems against these threats.
Combining identity and cybersecurity
Identity security and cybersecurity are no longer siloed concepts but intricately connected facets of a layered defence-in-depth strategy. Without strong identity security measures in place, cybersecurity efforts are inherently weakened, leaving organisations vulnerable to breaches, data theft, and compromise.
Understanding the interdependency of these two areas is critical when it comes to building a resilient and cohesive least-privilege, defence-in-depth posture. By enhancing identity security measures, organisations can strengthen security at individual access points while improving overall cyber resiliency. The ability to secure identities at every facet of the organisation - from employees and contractors to vendors and third parties - allows organisations to proactively mitigate identity risks and respond to potential threats. Having a strong identity security framework serves as a foundation for building a resilient cybersecurity ecosystem, especially when the framework considers all layers of the identity fabric.
Identity security is the critical piece that should, more importantly, touch every layer of the identity fabric framework, from business personas to mitigating controls.
Embracing Zero Trust
Most organisations should be embracing some form of Zero Trust principles - and if they aren’t, they should be. Zero Trust is a proactive approach to fortifying identity protection in today’s threat landscape.
The model operates on the assumption that no entity, whether internal or external to the network, should be trusted by default. By continuously verifying and validating identities, organisations can monitor access and respond effectively when anomalies occur.
Implementing Zero Trust for identities involves a holistic approach, beginning with visibility, followed by strong authentication, continuous monitoring, and adherence to concepts like least privilege and just-in-time access, ensuring that no standing privileges exist that could be leveraged in a breach or compromise.
Looking beyond IAM
As digital ecosystems continue to grow, the scope of identity threats becomes buried under hidden layers of privilege, permissions, and entitlements. These hidden paths of privilege are often uncovered through phishing and social engineering attacks, where cybercriminals leverage these initial attacks as a foothold before pivoting to exploit privilege-related vulnerabilities.
This often leads to administrative rights being compromised within organisations. Addressing this challenge requires a comprehensive strategy that goes beyond traditional IAM measures to safeguard all identities.
To complicate matters further, in this era of digital transformation, many organisations rely on non-traditional identity sources such as IoT devices, cloud services, critical infrastructure, and OT environments to conduct business. Integrating these sources into an identity security framework presents challenges regarding authentication and access control.
If organisations expand the scope of identity security to encompass these sources, they can ensure more resilient defence against modern and evolving threats. This is why visibility is so critical in understanding organisational risk when it comes to identities.
If you don’t know about it, how can you protect it? This is why advanced identity threat detection and response is becoming such a popular topic.
Achieving holistic identity security
Cross-functional collaboration is essential for holistic identity security, and IAM teams can no longer be the only team responsible for the overall health of identity security in an organisation. Instead, organisations must embrace collaboration by bringing together IT, security professionals, compliance officers, and business stakeholders to ensure not only a comprehensive approach but also a unified strategy for addressing identity-related risks.
Many organisations need to think outside the box when addressing identity-related risks. They must recognise that they have outgrown the traditional IAM team management model as the sole authority for provisioning access and managing permissions.
Security teams must think more broadly and involve areas of the business outside the IAM team. This, in turn, will strengthen the organisation’s defences and ensure it is as ready as possible for when the next attack is attempted.