As discussed in our previous blog, as digital ecosystems continue to expand and network perimeters blur, identity security becomes the new frontier in the battle against cyber threats. For a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), understanding both the current and future states of digital identity security is critical for developing a comprehensive defense strategy. This blog lays out a vision of how organizations should think about managing identity security considering the anticipated shifts in the near future.
Key Elements for Strengthening Identity Security Program
1. Create an Identity Fabric by Consolidating Disparate Identity Security Tools
Enterprise identity security programs today have multiple siloed solutions, such as Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Privileged Access Management (PAM), and Access Management (AM). While each of these solutions are critical in their respective domains, they fail to provide a unified approach to identity security. This lack of integration leads to operational inefficiencies and creates gaps that are vulnerable to attack.
We believe that the convergence of IGA, AM, and PAM solutions under a single framework will revolutionize how organizations manage both human and non-human identities. This "identity fabric", created by sharing signals between different identity solutions, offers a unified view that spans cloud service providers (CSPs), identity providers (IDPs), databases (DBs), SaaS platforms, and DevOps environments. For CISOs, this shift creates a significant opportunity to reduce complexity while improving security by eliminating blind spots.
2. Deploy Identity Threat Detection & Response Solutions to Adopt a Dynamic and Continuous Approach to Detect and Prevent Identity Threats Before They are Exploited
As identity becomes the focal point of cybersecurity, the ability to detect and respond to identity-related threats in real time will be essential. Organizations will need to develop centralized identity threat detection and response (ITDR) capabilities that can monitor and address risks dynamically across the entire IT landscape.
ITDR works as an additional layer of defense after the foundational preventive mechanisms such as AM, PAM, IGA, etc. are in place. This has become a necessity because we cannot assume basic preventive controls alone are sufficient to stop a cyberattack, and attacks can damage identity infrastructure itself. These solutions monitor user activity and uncover deviations from the baseline. When a threat is detected, they use sophisticated analytics, AI, and automation to quickly identify and mitigate identity-based threats before they cause harm.
3. Enforce Zero Standing Privileges using Dynamic Authorization & Just-in-Time Access Management
One of the emerging trends in identity security is the move towards dynamic, policy-based, just-in-time (JIT) authorization, especially for privileged access. Traditional role-based access control (RBAC) models, while useful, can lead to a proliferation of roles, which complicates access management. Dynamic JIT access management can enable organizations to enforce Zero Standing Privileges by automatically fine-tuning their authorization policies based on context, user behavior, and the sensitivity of the resources being accessed. In this approach, no user retains continuous privileged access; instead, privileges are granted only for the time required to perform a specific task. This reduces the risk of privileged account abuse, which is a common vector for attacks.
4. Secure All Non-Human Identities as Their Proliferation and Lack of Governance Makes Them Attractive Targets for Threat Actors
As organizations lean heavily into cloud computing, automation, and DevSecOps, non-human identities (NHI) such as APIs, Keys, Tokens, AI Agents, Certificates, and Microservices have become critical elements of the security landscape. NHIs are now outpacing human identities by a staggering ratio of 45:1.
NHIs operate within a highly dynamic and distributed ecosystem, interacting with a multitude of services, APIs, and cloud resources, often across different environments and platforms. This requires specialized access controls, identity federation, and real-time policy enforcement for management and security.
NHI compromises, whether accidental or malicious in nature, are becoming more frequent as attackers are increasingly targeting these authentication artifacts.
As a starting point, organizations need a solution that can discover all NHIs across all their environments on a continuous basis and manage their access and lifecycle. NHI access should be monitored in real time to uncover and remediate risks and detect and respond to anomalous activities.
Conclusion
The evolving landscape of Digital Identity Security is spawning innovation that can help organizations strengthen their identity security programs. We believe “identity fabric” remains a white space for innovation. We continue to look for startups that are building solutions in all these areas. If you are building something in this domain, we would love to hear from you.
