Developing a Resilient Occupational Safety Strategy

The increase in cyberattacks poses significant challenges for organizations, which face an assault every 42 seconds. Additionally, detecting and containing a data breach can take an average of 270 days. Nearly half of security incidents involve data exposure across multiple environments, putting considerable pressure on security teams that must manage thousands of accounts and privileges across various access points, both controlled and uncontrolled.

To protect their systems, companies implement measures such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO). However, cybercriminals can easily access stolen credentials on the dark web at a low cost, giving them advantages in circumventing MFA. For example, they can bombard users with MFA notifications in the hope that they will approve requests while trying to log in with stolen passwords. By impersonating legitimate users, attackers can infiltrate unnoticed.

The growing complexity of cyber threats makes it crucial to establish adaptable, multi-layered identity security. Modern security methods must go beyond conventional practices, offering dynamic protection that does not complicate the work of security teams. A proactive identity security strategy that evolves with the workforce has become an essential component for ensuring business resilience and long-term security.

The expanding attack surface demands innovative solutions. Shared accounts, weak password practices, and unrestricted administrative rights make organizations susceptible to ransomware, malware attacks, and data breaches. The situation is exacerbated by the presence of temporary or external workers, which increases the IT team's workload with constant requirements for onboarding, offboarding, password resets, and handling lost authentication devices.

Even those organizations that utilize identity security models often rely on disconnected solutions that do not fully integrate, creating gaps in user activity. It is essential to adopt a modern approach that treats every user as potentially privileged, implementing smart privilege controls throughout the user lifecycle, from onboarding to deactivation. These controls must strike a balance between security and user experience, allowing employees to work efficiently without unnecessary friction.

Centralized identity management should act as the single source of truth for all user-related data. By combining MFA, SSO, and lifecycle management with endpoint security, users are protected from the device to the cloud. Eliminating identity silos and integrating controls from other areas, such as privileged access management (PAM), enables employees to securely access applications and resources without the need for multiple logins.

The result is scalable and adaptive security that grows alongside the organization, relieving the burden on internal teams through automation in access management. Thus, an employee can log in from a remote location using a single set of credentials that grant access to everything they need without the hassle of managing multiple logins.

With SSO, users enter a portal with their existing credentials, gaining one-click access to all assigned applications. The experience is streamlined by allowing profile updates and password resets without compromising security. In high-risk web session cases, monitoring and controls are implemented to detect unusual activities in real-time, providing security teams with valuable insights into user actions.

In light of the growing market for credentials being sold at minimal prices, the necessity for a comprehensive security strategy has never been more evident. Organizations that once dealt with outdated systems have the capacity to transform their security strategies. By adopting a unified identity and access security framework, they can adapt to the complexity of the current threat landscape, requiring a shift in perspective and mindset that prioritizes security at all levels of the login process.