Businesses, in their pursuit of automation and smart technologies, have inadvertently created a sprawling digital ecosystem with countless potential entry points. This explosion of devices, applications, and user identities presents a massive attack surface for cybercriminals, and traditional, fragmented security systems are no longer enough to defend this vast terrain.
The answer lies not in physical defences, but in identity. Every interaction with a system — every click and access attempt — leaves behind an identity trace. This offers a powerful opportunity: a shift from perimeter-based defences to identity-first security.
Security blind spots in today’s digitalised era
The digital revolution has undoubtedly transformed the way businesses operate. Cloud computing and remote workforces have unlocked unprecedented levels of flexibility and efficiency, a trend that shows no signs of slowing down. Initiatives like the Singapore government’s guidelines for flexible work arrangements reflect this shift. Businesses are increasingly expanding their IT footprint, with greater reliance on automation and smart devices, driving an exponential surge in identities to manage. In fact, organisations face the challenge of managing up to 10% more identities over the next three years. This translates to a continuously expanding attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit.
Beyond human employees, organisations now rely on a multitude of non-human identities (NHIs), such as machine identities, service accounts, and application programming interfaces (APIs). The sheer volume of NHIs — often surpassing the number of human identities — makes it difficult to distinguish them. Additionally, NHIs often operate across various cloud platforms, managed by different teams with limited oversight. This fragmented control makes tracking and managing these identities a monumental task. If compromised, these digital actors can undermine an organisation’s security from the inside out. The issue is further compounded by a lack of visibility — inconsistent monitoring and reactive governance leave organisations operating in the dark, allowing threats to lurk undetected.
To make matters worse, cyberattackers are taking AI to the next level. For example, nation-state attackers are now weaponising AI, such as ChatGPT, for smarter cyberattacks. Imagine AI automating large-scale assaults, pinpointing vulnerabilities, and crafting custom malware. This, combined with AI’s ability to weaponise disinformation, is a game-changer for these actors, giving them the power to disrupt infrastructure and manipulate public opinion.
Why traditional security measures fall short
Gone are the days of secure, isolated networks where data resided within a single, defined perimeter. The traditional approach to security, which focused on protecting the physical location of data, is no longer effective in today’s dynamic and interconnected world.
For one, the old approach prioritised securing the network itself — the physical location where data resided. However, with data now spread across various platforms and devices, the concept of a physical perimeter has become irrelevant. Moreover, many organisations remain reliant on legacy systems that are not designed to integrate seamlessly with modern security solutions. This dependence on outdated systems often results in cumbersome, manual processes for managing user access.
The constant juggling of hundreds of individual logins and passwords leads to inefficiencies, an error-prone experience, and increased risk of unauthorised access due to human oversight. Unsurprisingly, for 45% of companies, identity security remains a fragmented experience — highly manual and inconsistently integrated across the business.
Traditional security measures also struggle to keep pace with the unique challenges posed by AI, especially as organisations rapidly deploy AI-powered enterprise applications to accelerate innovation. AI’s reliance on massive data sets for training introduces vulnerabilities that threat actors can exploit by manipulating the data itself. Furthermore, while traditional security measures may be effective against known cyberthreats, they often fall short in predicting and preventing novel attacks specifically designed to exploit AI system vulnerabilities. This leaves organisations perpetually playing catch-up as cybercriminals develop new methods to breach AI-powered applications.
Moving towards an identity-first approach
Instead of focusing on securing every system and device, an identity-first approach prioritises specific identities requesting access. Within this framework, the value of role-based access control (RBAC) should not be overlooked. By focusing on predefined roles within an organisation, RBAC can enhance efficiency and consistency in access control. Moreover, it can effectively manage complexity — particularly in large organisations with diverse user bases — by grouping users with similar needs into roles and preventing unauthorised access.
An identity-first approach is intended to help modern enterprises manage user accounts, machine identities, and applications more effectively by consolidating them under a unified platform. This can reduce the need to juggle complex, siloed systems, offering a more comprehensive view of everyone and everything accessing an organisation’s resources. It also supports granular access control, helping ensure that only the appropriate identities gain access to the relevant resources at the right time. This approach aligns with the principle of least privilege, potentially limiting damage from compromised credentials or unauthorised access attempts.
Furthermore, identity-first security is designed to adapt to dynamic environments, scaling in line with an organisation’s growth. It aims to handle the increasing number of identities and access requests associated with cloud adoption and a distributed workforce. By extending core identity security features across all connected applications, organisations can apply consistent security policies and access controls, which may help create a more cohesive security framework.
By focusing on identity at the core of their security strategies, organisations aim to protect their data and resources more effectively. This approach is intended to help them respond to emerging threats and adapt to the evolving digital landscape.
