Embracing the Future: Mastering your cybersecurity strategy with an Identity Driven Security Approach

Attributed to Steven Daniëls, Managing Director, Benelux, EMEA Identity and Advisory Practice at Xalient

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, taking control of your cybersecurity strategy is more crucial than ever. Yet, many organisations find themselves at a loss, unsure of where to begin. However, there are a few practical tips that can help companies to navigate this complex terrain. 

Key cybersecurity trends shaping the future

As digital transformation accelerates, organisations must invest in technologies to keep pace with the market and changing user behaviours. At the same time, the permanent shift towards remote and hybrid work requires innovative strategies for employee engagement and productivity while enhancing customer experience through personalised and seamless interactions remains a top priority. To achieve this companies must leverage big data and analytics for strategic decision making and to improve operational efficiency.

Against this backdrop, cyber criminals are becoming more sophisticated and are using AI and machine learning to enhance their skills. Companies must evolve too by adopting generative AI and similar tools to enhance their operations and bridge the skills gap. However, this also means that companies must boost security by building resilient and flexible supply chains that can withstand disruptions and meet growing regulatory requirements.

The crucial role of identity in a remotely connected world

As we move towards a remotely connected world, the concept of Identity has become paramount. More organisations are adopting a ‘lift and shift’ approach to the cloud, using Software as a Service (SaaS) product to remain flexible and agile. However, this also brings challenges in cybersecurity, as work increasingly occurs outside the traditional company network, and in addition to internal employees, external parties such as suppliers and even machine identities also need access to company data.

In the past, it was simply sufficient to secure the company network. Nowadays, identity has emerged as the primary control plane. It’s therefore not surprising that both the zero-trust principle and regulatory guidelines are placing increasing emphasis on identity.

Challenges in identity management

With the growing importance of identity, managing access control is becoming more complex, making it essential to identify and manage identities and their access rights. However, many organisations face challenges such as lack of visibility on assets, broken processes, underutilised tools, insufficient stakeholder engagement, and a shortage of skilled staff. Addressing these issues is critical for maintaining a robust cybersecurity posture.

According to CrowdStrike, 80% of modern attacks are identity-driven leveraging stolen credentials, but identity often falls outside the scope of security operations, leaving many organisations vulnerable. Poor identity data and configuration hygiene can lead to cyberattacks and credential compromises, which are the leading causes of breaches.

Practical tips for gaining control

To remain agile and resilient, it’s crucial to control who has access to business-critical systems and improve efficiency by refining processes, keeping data up to date, checking potential anomalies and deviations to achieve a proper security posture. This requires a holistic approach, that avoids working in silos. An identity driven security approach can serve as a compass for making day-to-day decisions and help companies move forward with confidence.

Here are some practical methods for gaining control over users and their access rights:

• Communicate: Explain to leadership how basic identity hygiene impacts the organisation’s overall security.
• Ensure accountability: Clearly define who is responsible for managing risks across the organisation via communication, policies, and standards.
• Resolve process issues: Address conflicting priorities and lack of visibility across silos to maintain identity hygiene.
• Use discovery tools: Proactively scan for issues using existing tools to identify and fix problems.
• Govern: Decide which risks to address first based on their impact on the core business.

Moving forward with confidence

The shift from traditional network security to an identity driven security approach is not a trend but a necessity.

To build a robust identity driven security strategy, focus on these key principles, which are supported by Gartner:

• Consistent: Instead of relying on specific IAM tools, focus on end-to-end processes. This creates a cohesive and flexible framework where tools work together seamlessly.
• Context Aware: Understand what data is available, where it comes from, and how reliable it is. Use various sources like CIEM, ZTNA, and SIEM to gather context data.
• Continuous: The threat landscape is always changing, so security measures must be ongoing. Assess policies and risk continuously and adapt quickly to new threats.

Adopting a practical and reliable approach to an identity driven security strategy such as the one detailed above ensures organisations can tackle their challenges holistically, considering people, processes, and technological perspectives. This comprehensive and proactive approach will enable organisations to gain control over their cybersecurity strategies, and help them protect their most valuable assets, enabling them to operate securely, efficiently, and productively amidst an evolving and increasingly complex threat landscape.