Centralizing Identity-Based Risk

Michael Peters

6 hours ago

As the traditional network boundary dissolves and remote work becomes standard practice, identities are the major frontier for security. Whether we’re talking about human users, service accounts, or machine identities, these have emerged as both the primary access mechanism and the most targeted attack vector.

It has become imperative for providers to centralize identity management and security to strengthen their security. Here, we’re discussing what that means for an organization like yours.

The Evolution of Identity as the New Perimeter

Identity-centric security has fundamentally transformed how we approach cybersecurity. Workers now access applications from countless devices, locations, and networks. Traditional perimeter security can’t keep up.

This shift created an “identity explosion.” Enterprises manage:

Thousands of human identities
Tens of thousands of service accounts
Millions of machine identities across cloud platforms, SaaS applications, and on-premises systems

Compromised credentials now drive most data breaches. Identity-related attacks dominate successful cyber intrusions. Without centralized visibility, organizations miss anomalous behavior, excessive privileges, and dormant accounts. Threat actors weaponize these blind spots.

Understanding Identity-Based Risk in Today’s Landscape

Identity-based risk encompasses more than just weak passwords or phishing attacks. Vulnerabilities emerge throughout an identity’s lifecycle, creating a complex web of threats that can turn a basic user account into a ticking time bomb once a hacker gains access to it.

First, a major culprit: excessive privileges create pervasive risk. Most user accounts hold access far exceeding their job requirements. Privilege creep expands the attack surface, and a single compromised account can unlock sensitive systems and data that should remain off-limits.

Orphaned and dormant accounts also become prime targets for attack, ones that can become major problems with the least warning. Consider:

Former employees with active access
Temporary contractors whose accounts persist after projects end
Service accounts are created once but never deleted

Attackers know these forgotten identities rarely face monitoring. Yet they often retain significant access rights.

Lateral movement vulnerabilities multiply when identities access multiple systems without adequate segmentation, which is a primary reason they are a key target for APTs. An attacker compromises one identity, then pivots through the environment. They escalate privileges and advance toward high-value targets. Centralized identity risk management enables the detection of these patterns. Without it, organizations spot movement only after significant damage occurs.

Hybrid and multi-cloud environments intensify these challenges. Each cloud platform operates its own identity management system, with a unique permission model. Many organizations maintain on-premises Active Directory alongside cloud identity providers. This fragmentation multiplies identities. A single user might have multiple accounts across different systems, each with different privilege levels and security controls.

The Case for Centralization

Centralizing identity-based risk management addresses fundamental security gaps that fragmented approaches can’t solve.

Centralization provides a single pane of glass for all identities, their access rights, and their behavior across the entire IT ecosystem. Security teams can finally answer critical questions:

Who has access to what?
Which accounts have excessive privileges?
Are there anomalous access patterns indicating compromise?

Without this holistic view, organizations examine individual systems in isolation. They miss broader patterns that reveal true risk.

Operational Efficiency at Scale

Security is a cumbersome job, and centralizing it across your organization makes it that much more efficient and cost-effective.

You can unify their approach to:

Access reviews and certification campaigns
Privilege rightsizing and least privilege enforcement
Identity lifecycle management from onboarding to offboarding
Incident response and remediation workflows

This standardization reduces workload on security and IT teams. It ensures that consistent security controls are applied across all systems.

Streamlined Compliance and Governance

Most frameworks have robust requirements for identity management, and centralized management provides a universal way to manage across your obligations. Centralized identity risk management delivers the audit trails, reporting capabilities, and control frameworks necessary to meet these requirements efficiently. Comprehensive compliance reports are generated on demand.

Proactive Threat Detection

Centralization promotes proactive risk management rather than just a reactive security posture. Analytics, machine learning, and AI can correlate identity data across systems and use behavioral patterns as metrics for potential threats.

Key Components of a Centralized Identity Risk Strategy

Building an effective centralized identity risk management program requires several foundational components working together. This isn’t a single technology implementation. It’s a comprehensive strategy that combines technology, processes, and governance.

Identity governance and administration (IGA) platforms serve as the backbone. These solutions provide the workflows and automation you need to manage identity lifecycles consistently across all systems. They automate provisioning and deprovisioning, ensuring you grant access based on defined policies and remove it promptly when it’s no longer needed. Modern IGA solutions also facilitate regular access reviews where business owners certify whether users still need their current permissions.
Privileged access management (PAM) solutions zero in on your most sensitive identities. Elevated privileges can cause significant damage if compromised. PAM systems layer on additional security controls: session recording, just-in-time access elevation, and credential vaulting. When you integrate PAM with centralized identity risk management, privileged accounts get the heightened scrutiny and protection they require.
Identity threat detection and response (ITDR) continuously monitors identity behavior, applying analytics and threat intelligence to spot compromised credentials and potential insider threats. Centralizing this monitoring across all identity systems enables you to detect attack patterns that span multiple environments. You can’t do this when you monitor each system independently.

The integration layer connecting these components matters just as much. Successful identity management will rely on “identity fabrics” or orchestration platforms that connect data and consistent policies across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Implementation Considerations and Best Practices

Successfully centralizing identity-based risk requires careful planning and a phased approach. Organizations that attempt to transform all identity management simultaneously often become stuck in complexity and resistance. A strategic, incremental approach is more effective.

Start with Discovery and Assessment

Discover all identity sources across your environment, including those often-overlooked service and machine accounts. Catalog all identities and map their current access rights across systems. Identify existing identity-related risks: excessive privileges, orphaned accounts, and policy violations. This baseline assessment gives you the foundation for prioritization and roadmap development.

Prioritize Based on Risk

Start with privileged accounts. These represent the biggest potential impact if compromised. Next, tackle identities with access to sensitive data or critical systems. Focus on the systems and data that would cause the most damage in a breach. This risk-based approach ensures your early implementation phases deliver maximum security value.

Engage Stakeholders Early and Often

Identity risk management touches every department. Gain buy-in from business leaders, application owners, and end-users. Communicate business benefits clearly: improved security, streamlined access provisioning, reduced compliance burden, and better user experiences. Address concerns proactively, especially those about potential disruptions to existing workflows. Set up an Identity Governance Council with representatives from IT, Security, HR, and key business units.

Select Technology Thoughtfully

Prioritize integration capabilities that connect with your identity sources and target systems. Cloud-native options often deliver the flexibility and scalability that modern hybrid environments demand. Verify compatibility with on-premises systems to support gradual migration strategies.

Establish Strong Governance Frameworks

Define clear policies around access provisioning, access reviews, and privilege management. Document your identity lifecycle management processes from hire to termination. Establish exception processes with clear approval workflows and time-bound access controls.

Measuring Success and Continuous Improvement

Centralizing identity-based risk management isn’t a one-time project. It’s an ongoing program that needs continuous measurement and refinement. Establish key performance indicators and security metrics to track progress and demonstrate value.

Some key metrics include:

Risk Reduction	Efficiency	GRC	User Experience
Removing Permissions	Improve Resource Provisioning Times	Audit Readiness	Password Reset Volume
Deleting Orphaned Accounts	Improving Self-Service IT Rates	Segregation of Accounts and Permissions	Frequency of Account Lockouts
Improving Mean Time to Revoke Access (MTTR)	Lower Response Times		Adoption of Single Sign-On (SSO)

Bolster Your Identity Protection and Management with Lazarus Alliance

The centralization of identity-based risk management represents a critical evolution in cybersecurity strategy, and organizations can no longer afford to manage identity risk in fragmented silos.

To learn more about how Lazarus Alliance can help, contact us.

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