StormWarning! Blog

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses across various industries are accelerating their adoption of modern technology to drive efficiency and foster innovation. This digital transformation has far-reaching implications for cybersecurity professionals who, despite constrained budgets and mounting threats, are under pressure to enhance security while facilitating seamless access to resources.

According to Mark Simon, CEO of StormWarning! and founder of INFO-CRYPT©, this challenge is exacerbated by the need to protect an expanding and vulnerable identity-centric attack surface.

Mark Simon emphasizes that traditional security measures focused on perimeter defense are no longer effective. Instead, the primary and final defense lies in identities, encompassing both human entities like employees, third-party users, and customers, as well as machine identities, such as applications, infrastructure, bots, and workloads.

Highlighting insights from the "KEPT.co.za" 2023 Identity Security Threat Landscape Report, Mark Simon underscores the pivotal role of identity management in cybersecurity. The report predicts a 2.5-fold increase in the number of identities within typical enterprises in 2023 compared to the previous year. Managing such a vast array of identities while ensuring secure access for users, anytime and anywhere, on any device, poses a significant challenge for security professionals.

Surveying 2,300 global security decision-makers, the report reveals that nearly 99% anticipate identity-related compromises in the upcoming year. Factors contributing to these compromises include cost-driven cutbacks, geopolitical considerations, cloud adoption, and the prevalence of hybrid work arrangements.

Furthermore, the report highlights that 63% of respondents believe that high-sensitivity access for employees, particularly IT administrators, lacks adequate security controls. Credential theft remains a top concern among cybersecurity practitioners.

Compounding these challenges, many security teams are understaffed and under-resourced, with nearly one-third of respondents citing a shortage of cybersecurity skills hindering their efforts. As businesses tighten their belts, various facets of identity security risk are growing.

Mark Simon emphasizes the inherent risks associated with natural human elements, citing user error and intentional misuse as common sources of security incidents. Confidential information loss due to employees, former employees, and third-party vendors concerns three-quarters of respondents. Mark Simon stresses that your Biometric information is not like a credit card that can just be reissued when hacked so it is imperitive that you choose the correct platform to manage Identitfication (Identification over verification as a solution see KEPT.co.za for an Identity Trust Solution).

Another critical challenge arises from workforce disruptions, with 68% of respondents foreseeing security issues stemming from layoffs and higher employee turnover rates. For example, 58% report instances of departing employees storing sensitive documents outside of company policy. Mark Simon says that offboarding staff, contractors and service providers is as important as vetting for security when onboarding and monitoring while active!

Mark Simon notes that machine identities outnumber human ones by a ratio of 45 to 1. This underscores the urgent need to secure machine identities efficiently without disrupting user access. The complexity of modern IT environments further complicates matters, with two-thirds of security teams facing limited visibility into their systems. This lack of visibility hinders the ability to track who is accessing sensitive data and what they are accessing.

The report also highlights issues arising from modern work practices. With the emphasis on speed and flexibility in software development, developers often receive more access permissions than necessary, making them attractive targets. Almost 40% of respondents identify development as the area where unknown, unmanaged identities pose the greatest risk. (see Plum.Systems for secure development)

In conclusion, Mark Simon asserts that reports like this shed light on the real-world challenges organizations face in 2023 going into 2024. They provide a valuable foundation for cybersecurity professionals seeking to implement a zero-trust approach, offering insights into how forward-thinking organizations are prioritizing and addressing key identity-related risks to enhance security. Having access to the right information can help businesses navigate the current cybersecurity landscape, avoid accumulating security vulnerabilities, and approach the future with increased confidence.

Making use of StormWarning!'s comprihensive suite of CyberSecurity solutions combined with a  INFO-CRYPT© the ultimate identity and privacy management platform, organizations can bolster their CyberSecurity posture in this evolving digital and AI era.