Navigating the New Frontier: Strengthening Cybersecurity Through Next-Gen Identity & Access Governance

It can be difficult to fully appreciate just what has changed when it comes to cybersecurity – and by how much. Up until around two decades ago, the network was the definitive perimeter of cyber defense, the place where organizations set up the sentinels to protect their digital environments. A decade later, with laptops and desktops, the focus shifted to the endpoint as the security perimeter. The thinking was clear: secure the endpoint that accesses the network, and you have the digital environment secured.

In today’s mobility-driven world, however, the endpoint has become quite fluid. Users, be they employees or end-users, are accessing a host of interconnected applications and services across multiple devices—from laptops and desktops to tablets, smartphones, and other IoT-driven gadgets and appliances. This holds truer in the post-pandemic era than it did before; businesses now have work-from-home access given to their employees through VPNs and cloud-based enterprise sandboxes. The device no longer matters –the user does.

The Emerging Threat Landscape: Why We Need to Rethink Security

Identity, as a result, has become the only constant in enterprise digital environments that shift, change, and evolve at an unprecedented pace. With the rise of cloud computing, remote work, and the Internet of Things (IoT), the attack surface for identity and access-based cyberattacks has also expanded dramatically.

Threat actors today are using increasingly sophisticated methods and Gen AI to exploit weaknesses in identity and access management, from phishing attacks and insider threats to social engineering. Why? Because identity is everything. If they gain access to even one set of user credentials, they can move laterally within the network to access sensitive data, compromise even more users, and cause significant damage. This is why next-generation identity & access governance (IAG) is a nice-to-have feature and an absolute cornerstone of modern cybersecurity strategies.

Next-Gen IAG Solutions: Where Innovation Meets Security

What makes next-gen IAG different? In a word: intelligence. New-age IAG solutions are smarter, more adaptable, and far more effective at helping organizations, especially those in critical sectors such as BFSI, to protect themselves against identity-based threats and vulnerabilities.

One of the most significant advancements in this space is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These technologies allow IAG systems to continuously monitor and capture user behavior in an access data lake, which learns what normal activity looks like, analyzes it, and flags anything that deviates from the pattern. For instance, if an employee who typically logs in from one location suddenly tries to access the enterprise network from another, using identity binding, the system can automatically trigger the most relevant security protocols such as requiring additional verification or locking the account. Next-gen IAG also allows for more stringent and effective zero-trust protocols and frameworks to be implemented across the enterprise digital ecosystem (customers and partners included).

IAG complements enterprises by assessing and providing the entitled requirements for each user within the network. This ensures that each time a new user is created, all required details are passed onto the host application for ID creation. All new non-entitled requests must go through workflow-based approvals before access is granted. It also manages access across the user life cycle of Joiners, Movers, and Leavers (JML) through automated user access review and recertification (UAR). Presenting information on access provisioning, deprovisioning, and other identity administration on a centralized dashboard is required. This addresses major security issues such as stale and dormant access and allows the relevant stakeholders to view and manage their users and access levels in real-time from day 1 via a single dashboard.

Next-gen IAG also balances the need for security with usability and agility. The focus is on strengthening the governance of access and identity through additional layers to balance security with usability. For example, multifactor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) provide a robust layer of additional security to complement typical measures such as only OTPs and ID/password-based logins, while being easy to use. This ensures that the functionality, usability, and security remain unimpacted even if user login credentials are compromised, especially when accessing the network through a mobile device.

Integration Benefits: Why It’s Worth the Investment

Implementing next-gen IAG solutions can require some upfront investment, but its benefits far outweigh its costs. When you consider the potential cost of a data breach—not just in terms of money, but in lost trust, damaged reputation, and legal consequences—investing in an IAG solution starts to look like a bargain. IBM Security’s Cost of a Data Breach Report (2024) revealed that a single data breach within the financial sector could end up costing enterprises around $6.08 million on average. That a significant number of these breaches were identity-based—about 19% of all breaches committed by compromised or stolen credentials—only adds to the importance and criticality of investing in state-of-the-art IAG solutions.

But beyond just preventing breaches, next-gen IAG offers several operational benefits. For one, it significantly reduces the burden on IT teams. With automation handling many of the routine tasks associated with identity and access management, IT professionals can focus on more strategic work such as improving overall security posture or developing new initiatives. Automated systems also help reduce human error, which is one of the leading causes of security breaches.

Another benefit is scalability. As an organization grows, managing identities and access becomes more complex. New-age IAG solutions are designed to scale with business needs, ensuring security remains robust no matter how large the digital environment becomes. This comes with the additional benefit of improved performance on several key parameters such as productivity and operational costs. For instance, IAG can help enterprises identify cost optimization opportunities such as license harvesting. This ensures they don’t pay for dormant and stale licenses once the user moves to a different role or leaves the organization.

Organizations, particularly the larger ones, conduct bi-yearly reviews and audits of their processes. In most cases, these reports can take anywhere between a week to a month to generate–time that can prove extremely costly for enterprise security in the event of compromised access. Through single-point dashboards with real-time visibility into user identities and access, organizations can generate detailed reports about the overall security posture of their digital environments at the touch of a button. This helps meet governance and compliance stipulations as well as mitigate risks with the required urgency.

Real-World Success Stories: Learning from the Best

When it comes to the impact that next-gen IAG solutions can have on businesses, let’s take a recent real-world example from the financial sector. A prominent bank in India, founded in 1943, wanted to address security issues caused by manual provisioning and deprovisioning of user access. It also faced several challenges with UAR as well as audit and compliance, as it lacked controlled processes for user identity and access life cycle management. The fact that this needed to be done for over 15,000 users and 200 applications only added to the task’s complexity.

The cutting-edge IAG solution brought on board helped address this issue with end-to-end automation of access provisioning and deprovisioning and enterprise-wide user life cycle management. Through a centralized dashboard, it also ensured better access governance and compliance through audit reports generated in real-time, with to-the-minute details about the health of identity and access security. The single pane of glass that this solution provided also enhanced user access visibility, enabling internal security teams to bolster the overall security profile of the organization.

Future Trends: What’s on the Horizon?

As we look to the future, it is clear that the role of IAG in cybersecurity will only continue to grow. One trend gaining traction is the concept of decentralized identity, where individuals control their own digital identities, reducing reliance on centralized systems that are prone to attack. This could fundamentally change the way we think about identity management, making it more secure and user centric.

Blockchain, in particular, will play a major role here by decentralizing identity management. Storing identities across secure distributed networks will make it much harder for threat actors to access, tamper with, or steal information. Doing so will also address the burning ‘single point of failure’ issue that traditional systems often struggle with.

Another trend to watch is the increasing integration of AI and machine learning into IAG. As these technologies become more advanced, enterprises can expect to benefit from even more sophisticated vulnerability detection, threat nullification, identity governance, access provisioning/deprovisioning, 24×7 identity threat detection & response (ITDR), and UEBA capabilities with next-gen XDR and SIEM SOC operations. We are also likely to see greater adoption of cloud-native IAG solutions, which offer the flexibility and scalability needed to secure complex, multi-cloud environments.

The Path Forward

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, staying ahead of the curve is not just a challenge – it’s a necessity. By embracing these advanced solutions, businesses can implement a federated and simplified identity and access model designed for enterprise-scale needs. This approach powered by AI offers transformational insights and a comprehensive method for managing identity and access. It not only secures digital environments but also creates a safer, more seamless experience for users.

As we navigate this new frontier, one thing is clear: the future of cybersecurity lies in the intelligent, adaptive, and resilient capabilities of next-gen IAG.

About the Author

Pankit Desai, Co-Founder and CEO, Sequretek. Pankit Desai is an entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Sequretek, a cybersecurity, cloud security products and services company. He Co-founded Sequretek in 2013, along with Anand Naik, and has been instrumental in growing the company into a leading provider of cybersecurity and cloud security solutions. Before starting Sequretek, Pankit held various technology leadership and management roles in the IT industry across companies such as NTT Data, Intelligroup, and Wipro Technologies. He holds a degree in computer engineering and has a strong background in technology and entrepreneurship.

At Sequretek, he is proud of the growth that this team has been able to achieve within a short duration. With product offerings that have found resonance with over 200 customers across industry segments, it has been able to grow at phenomenal growth rates and has ambitions to create India’s first truly global security product and solutions company. The success of the company got a boost with multiple rounds of funding by very renowned funds including Omidyar Network India, Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, Alteria Captial, FIS, ICBA, Pontaq Ventures, GVFL, and Unicorn Ventures. Under Pankit’s leadership, Sequretek has won several awards and recognition for its innovative solutions and commitment to the cybersecurity industry.

Pankit can be reached at [email protected] and at our company website https://sequretek.com/.