The exponential growth of the attack surface—that is, identities—can create enormous challenges for cybersecurity and security operations center (SOC) teams. That’s especially true for organizations that don’t have the unified tools they need to eliminate silos and enable centralized management, automation and identity control across users, devices and apps.
Companies today have to provide their security teams with modern tools and approaches, particularly at a time when cybersecurity professionals are in short supply and high demand. ESG research found that cybersecurity is the No. 1 area where shortage of skills has become problematic, cited by 45% of IT decision-makers.1
By embracing an Identity Security platform with integrated automation, organizations can significantly reduce the pressure on cyber teams. ESG research shows businesses have saved the equivalent of about 10 full-time positions as a result of their investments in Identity Security, enabling team members to instead focus on strategic initiatives such as digital transformation, hybrid work, digital supply chain and customer experience.2
This article explores some of the ways in which a holistic, unified Identity Security platform centered on intelligent privilege controls—including automation, zero trust, real-time threat detection and other capabilities—can improve security and significantly ease the burden on cybersecurity and SOC teams.
Intelligent privilege controls: Cybersecurity and SOC teams can dramatically improve operational efficiencies by securing credentials wherever they exist and enforce least-privilege access. Strengthening operational efficiencies is the No. 1 driver of digital transformation initiatives, according to ESG research.3 Using security intelligence as part of an Identity Security platform, SOC teams can automatically detect multicontextual anomalous user behavior and misuse of privileged access.
Unified threat detection and prevention: Leveraging real-time alerts combined with intelligence-based recommendations, SOC teams can accelerate and automate identification, analysis and response to potential attacks. With unified threat detection for workforce and privileged identities, they can eliminate duplicative processes, improve detection accuracy and respond to security events with greater speed, accuracy and efficiency.
Zero trust and automation: Identity Security is the foundation for zero trust. A unified Identity Security platform can discover all human and machine identities, with centralized and automated control to empower secure access to whatever services, applications and resources have been authorized by any device or user at any location. This reduces the workload on cyber teams by automating key tasks such as managing permissions and entitlements and centralizing security of application credentials. It also enables consistent application of zero trust and least-privilege access principles for all identities.
See related article: How Identity Security Enables Zero Trust Strategies
Compliance, audit, lifecycle management and governance: Meeting the needs of compliance regulations and auditors can be one of the most daunting and time-consuming jobs for cybersecurity teams. More than a third of decision-makers cited data security and privacy regulations as one of the biggest reasons for increased IT complexity, and nearly 30% said improving regulatory compliance is one of their top spending imperatives for 2023.4 An Identity Security platform offers a wide range of capabilities, including multicloud visibility, high levels of automation and a unified approach to intelligent privilege controls, governance and identity lifecycle management. These features ease the burden of proving compliance to auditors and regulators.
See related article: 5 Ways Identity Security ‘Done Right’ Reduces Compliance Risk
Taking the next step
This is a critical time in the evolution of cybersecurity. Identities of all types are growing at an exponential pace with seemingly no end in sight, particularly as human and machine identities rapidly expand along with hybrid work, digital supply chain and digital transformation. This has the potential to be a monumental burden on cybersecurity and SOC teams that are already under tremendous pressure.
However, organizations can transform this burden into an opportunity by using Identity Security as a way to reduce risk and improve operational efficiencies. Those that have invested in an Identity Security platform have already reaped the benefits of this approach. According to ESG research, organizations that have been the most strategic about their investments in Identity security are:
- 2.8 times more likely to secure all their machine identities, versus companies that are behind the curve in Identity Security.
- 2.5 times more likely to secure all their privileged identities.
- 3.3 times more likely to be able to secure all their test identities.
- 2.6 times more likely to be able to secure all their application identities.
Critically, these organizations are 3.1 times less likely to have been the victim of a successful attack versus those that are the least strategic about Identity Security. They also spend less time and effort collecting and consolidating identity-related data to respond to and satisfy audits. In addition, they are less likely to have paid compliance fines or suffered lost revenue or brand damage.
When it comes to supporting the needs of today’s cybersecurity and SOC teams, Identity Security is a modern approach that has proved to reduce risk and increase productivity, while also helping to future-proof organizations in the face of larger attack surfaces and a more automated and sophisticated threat environment.
Please visit CyberArk to learn how your organization can leverage an Identity Security platform to empower your cybersecurity and SOC teams.
1“2023 Technology Spending Intentions Survey,” Enterprise Strategy Group, November 2022
2“Identity Security Maturity Model Survey,” CyberArk and Enterprise Strategy Group, September 2022
3Ibid. footnote 1
4Ibid. footnote 1
