Authorization Condition of Identity Protection 2024: An Upheaval in Identity Protection Is Approaching
Identity protection is foreground, and center given all the recent breaches that involve Microsoft, Okta, Cloudflare and Snowflake to mention a few. Entities are commencing to realize that a disturbance is requisite regarding the way we address identity protection both from a tactical but also a technological perspective.
Identity protection is more than just allotting access
The traditional perspective of regarding identity protection as chiefly concerned with allotting and removing access for applications and services, frequently in a fragmented manner, is no longer adequate. This perspective was depicted as a wide concept in the Permiso Security State of Identity Protection Report (2024), which reveals that notwithstanding increasing levels of assurance in the capability to identify security risk, almost half of entities (45%) remain “worried” or “extremely concerned” about their existing tools being capable of detecting and safeguarding against identity protection assaults.
The Permiso commissioned survey conducted during the summer, interviewed over 500 IT security and risk practitioners, with direct command or influence over security and risk decision-making. The discoveries signify that notwithstanding growing investment, maturity and reliance in cyber risk mitigation controls, entities remain worried in the face of evolving identity threats.
The principal perceptions encompass:
- SaaS is perceived as the most unsafe atmosphere.
- 93% of entities stated that they can list identities across all atmospheres, as well as track keys, tokens, certificates, and any alterations that are made to any atmosphere.
- 85% can conclude “who is performing what” across fragmented authentication limits.
- 45% remain “worried” or “extremely concerned” about their existing tools being capable of detecting and safeguarding against identity protection assaults.
- 45% encountered an identity protection incident in the preceding year, with impersonation assaults being the primary risk vector.
Are you able to discover renegade identities?
Despite 86% of entities stating that they can identify their riskiest identities (human and non-human), nearly half (45%) encountered an identity protection incident in the preceding year, with impersonation assaults being the primary risk vector — disclosing that social engineering-based assaults persist to be a prevalent threat to entities.
Concerning the repercussions for those that were violated, targeting sensitive data, which encompassed personally identifiable information (PII) and intellectual property (IP), headed the list for 54% of those that were violated. 46% of entities stated that the attackers also elevated privileges and targeted their supply chains (45%), both on the vendor and customer side.
Human identities continue to be a vulnerable target
Another interesting discovery was human identities are perceived as the riskiest, with employees at the forefront. Contrary to much of the market hype, non-human identities (API keys, OAuth tokens, service accounts) are seen as less risky than their human counterparts.
Identity protection is segmented
It is uncertain that entities grasp what identity protection accountability entails for the hybrid and multi-cloud reality. Despite most entities utilizing on average 2.5 public clouds, the IT team (56%) was identified as being chiefly liable for ensuring the identity protection for the organization across multiple environments. This might mirror identity still being perceived as restricted to access allotment and deprovisioning. According to Jason Martin, Permiso Co-CEO and Co-Founder, this discovery could be understood by “identity protection traditionally having fallen under the general responsibilities for IT who are seen as stewards of IT systems, which includes allotting access and securing identities. Only in a minority of entities are we seeing the security department as the primary stakeholder.”
” to safeguarding identities.”
Security resources also seem to be separated, with SaaS (87%) and IaaS (81%) environments receiving the majority of security funding compared to all environments (46%). Regarding tools, the primary focus appears to be on the IaaS layer (66%), where a blend of cloud-native security tools like AWS GuardDuty and CNAPP solutions are being utilized.
While it seems that most organizations are conscious of the cyber threats they are confronted with, it is evident that there is still progress to be made in terms of being equipped to identify and counter identity threats promptly as they emerge. Indeed, the ability to detect and prevent credential compromise, account takeover, and insider risk was identified as the top concern for organizations.
Advancing universal identity security
The responsibility falls on all of us, including vendors, organizations, and the wider cybersecurity community, to redefine the necessary elements from a human, process, and technology perspective to ensure the new landscape of human and non-human identity as the key threat point is secured. In this context, reimagining identity security entails going beyond merely granting or revoking access to applications and services and recognizing it as a strategic business enabler.
Permiso Security emerged to tackle this obstacle, making unified identity security for all identities across various environments a reality.
You may read the entire report here: https://hero.permiso.io/state-of-identity-security-survey-report-2024
Discover more about how Permiso can assist in implementing this strategy within your organization.
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