• More than 4 in 10 companies are still in the early stages of their identity-security journey.

• Security professionals are struggling to communicate the business value of identity.

• Even mature companies cover less than 70% of the identities in their organization.

• Companies leveraging SaaS, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and automation scale 10-30% faster.

SailPoint Technologies, Inc., a leader in enterprise identity security, released the findings from the 2023 edition of its annual research report, ‘The Horizons of Identity Security,’ at Navigate 2023. Produced in collaboration between SailPoint and Accenture, a leading global professional services company, the report is based on insights from more than 375 global cybersecurity executives across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The goal was to examine the current state and future direction of the identity security market.

“Focusing on the business value that identity security drives is going to resonate best with executives and help them understand the pressing need to accelerate their identity maturity if they want to avoid becoming the next major victim.”

With 90% of cybersecurity breaches being identity related, identity security is the most important security aspect that every organization must get right. Yet, findings from the Horizons of Identity Security report show that 44% of companies are still at the beginning of their identity journeys. And, concerningly, even mature companies cover less than 70% of the identities in their organizations through foundational governance capabilities. However, respondents noted that communicating the business value of identity security to executives is a key challenge. This underscores the need for identity security advocates to build executive-friendly business cases that are tailored to their audiences’ strategic priorities and value-driven mindset.

A worrying 77% of respondents indicate that “limited executive sponsorship or focus” is a primary obstacle to investment in identity security, second only to budgetary constraints (91%). However, report findings clearly demonstrate that a strong identity security program can power business agility and innovation, risk mitigation, efficiency gains, and advancement of tech initiatives. For example, it can accelerate organizational change by as much as 30% through quicker integration of identities, applications, data and infrastructure.

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“A strong identity security program can generate real value for today’s organizations, but that value isn’t always obvious to business stakeholders,” said Matt Mills, President of Worldwide Field Operations, SailPoint. “In today’s threat landscape, stopping just one breach can save millions of dollars in lost revenue, regulatory fines, and reputational damage. It’s important for security teams to have the information they need to communicate their needs in an outcomes-based way. Focusing on the business value that identity security drives is going to resonate best with executives and help them understand the pressing need to accelerate their identity maturity if they want to avoid becoming the next major victim.”

Identity ecosystems are becoming increasingly complex and a preferred attack vector for threat actors. According to the report findings, on average more than 30% of the identities in an organization are not properly covered by identity solutions, with particular gaps around third-party identities, machine identities and data. Bringing those identities under the umbrella of a strong identity management program is essential for breach avoidance. Foundational security capabilities accelerate incident response, prevent bad actors from authenticating into internal systems and limit excessive access rights for employees — which survey respondents selected as the most common security deficiency enabling breaches.

Among other notable findings in the report was the fact that AI-based solutions have proven to be a potent accelerator, helping businesses add advanced new capabilities and drive greater agility. Encouragingly, the report shows a growing number of organizations are exploring AI-backed dynamic trust models to evolve access based on user behavior. The findings also show that companies leveraging SaaS, AI and automation scale a notable 10-30% faster and get more value for their security investment through increased capability utilization. More specifically, an identity platform leveraging automation and AI enables companies to scale identity-related capabilities up to 37% faster than companies without AI enablement.

“Organizations are facing unprecedented challenges when it comes to managing their complex identity environments and massive data sets,” said Damon McDougald, the global Security Digital Identity lead at Accenture. “While advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and generative AI are making it easier to expedite, manage and scale identity security initiatives many organizations are still at the start of their journeys. Organizations should view this as an opportunity to accelerate their identity maturity timetable and establish a foundation for a secure digital transformation.”

Adoption Assessment tool

SailPoint is launching a new adoption assessment tool that can help organizations assess their current capabilities, as well as how they stack up against their peers. The tool can help businesses identify what their greatest barriers to stronger identity security are, and how they can generate greater business value by investing in identity.

SailPoint’s flagship ‘Navigate: Identity Security Accelerated’ conference kicks off in Austin, Texas on October 9^th, and will be followed by a series of global events in London, Singapore, Sydney, Washington DC, Toronto and São Paulo.

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