Identity Security Posture Management: Complete Guide to Strengthening Identity Security

Introduction Of Identity Security Posture Management

The ever-growing threat landscape is focused on identity and attackers look to exploit excessive privileges and orphaned accounts to access sensitive information. This is where ISPM helps to proactively prevent identity-related risk and limit the exposure.

What is Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM)?

ISPM is a new way for an organization to monitor and handle identity risk every day. It shows what’s happening in the system, giving each identity a risk score and carries out rules without the need for a person to oversee. The rules apply to human and to machines identities. Traditional IAM sets up rights once but ISPM keeps monitoring and managing them.

In simple words ISPM keeps the whole identity system healthy always - it monitors the risk as it happens, not only when someone runs a quarterly report.

The things that make ISPM apart are:

Continuous Monitoring - The system grades the identity setup always - the risk score is always UpToDate.

Excessive access detection - It detects accounts having more access than they need and flags immediately.

Automated Remediation - It fixes risky access automatically without the need for a ticket or a review.

Extended Coverage - It covers all identities - employees, contractors, service accounts, bots.

Why care about ISPM today?

Cloud services, remote work and expansion of non-human accounts push the identity perimeter farther out. Tools built for an organized on prem model can’t keep track of this growth.

Why ISPM Matters: Managing an Expanding Identity Attack Surface

• In corporate settings, the number of machine identities has quickly surpassed that of human users. As per Technology Magazine, this increase is being driven by cloud services, automation, and APIs; in some settings, there are 82 machine identities for every human one.

• There are significant security and governance issues at this scale. Organizations are vulnerable to silent privilege escalation, forgotten service accounts, and compliance gaps since the majority of existing IAM systems were not built to monitor as well as regulate this volume of non-human identities.

• As stated by IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report, stolen or compromised credentials continue to be the leading cause of data breaches.

• These figures highlight the necessity of real-time monitoring when handling identity issues. Organizations may efficiently manage today's changing environments by using ISPM, which provides a proactive method of recognizing and correcting dangerous access.

Business Impact

Identity risk is no longer just an IT issue for business and security leaders; it's a priority for the leadership. Too many permissions for users, service accounts that aren't managed, and a lack of clear visibility aren't just problems with operations.  They turn into real risks, like audit results, expensive breaches, and fines from the government.

How ISPM Helps to mitigate the risks

Lowering the risk - By continuously checking identity posture, you can find risky permissions and threats earlier. This deceases the risk of misusing elevated access or breaches without adding more work to the teams.

Audit ready reports - ISPM makes compliance easier by giving you up-to-date, real-time reports that show how well you're following policies and controlling access. This means you don't have to rush around at the last minute or waste resources.

Faster Operations - With actionable intelligence at their fingertips, security and IT teams can quickly and confidently approve or revoke access, which makes things run more smoothly and stops business from slowing down.

ISPM isn't about making things more complicated. It's about lowering risk with accuracy and clarity.

Few known integrated ISPM Solutions

• Microsoft: Features are often found within their Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure Active Directory) suite, including Microsoft Defender for Identity and Microsoft Entra ID Protection, which focus on identity threat detection and posture assessment.

• CyberArk: A leader in Privileged Access Management (PAM), CyberArk has expanded its Identity Security Platform to include ISPM capabilities, focusing heavily on securing human and non-human privileged identities.

• Okta: Offers Identity Security Posture Management as a component within its comprehensive identity platform, which provides continuous analysis and remediation insights across identities.

• SailPoint: Known for Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), SailPoint is integrating ISPM to extend its governance and compliance features into continuous risk monitoring.

• Saviynt: Offers ISPM capabilities within its Identity Cloud platform, providing continuous discovery, risk assessment, and policy enforcement across the identity landscape.

Conclusion

Identity Security Posture Management (ISPM) represents a necessary evolution in cybersecurity strategy, moving from simple access provisioning to a continuous monitoring and automated risk assessment and remediation.