A provider of identity security for companies has presented its latest study "Horizons of Identity Security". Companies with advanced identity security are more open to AI-based solutions, have lower cyber risk and pay lower cyber insurance premiums.
SailPoint Technologies' latest 2024-2025 report shows that most organizations are still at the beginning of their identity security journey, while those that have already reached a certain level of maturity are achieving an above-average return on investment.
Currently, the added value that identity security offers remains largely unused. Of the companies surveyed, around 41 percent are at the beginning of identity development, and only 10 percent are already at an advanced stage.
Key findings of the report
- 83 percent of organizations reported fewer identity-related security issues due to their security investments in 2023.
- Companies with mature identity security report higher profits than average.
- Machine identities are expected to grow by about 3 percent over the next 5 to 30 years, gaining importance faster than any other type of identity.
The report lists several areas where mature identity security programs have made progress and unlocked new value opportunities:
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Read the best news from B2B CYBER SECURITY once a monthBetter visibility of machine identities
Among organizations with mature identity security, 87 percent report greater visibility and control over their non-human or machine identities, compared to 28 percent of organizations in the early stages of identity development. The survey results also show that machine identities are highly fragmented within organizations and are growing faster than any other class of identity. Previous survey results have shown that machine identities account for more than 40 percent of all identities in an organization. A third of respondents also expect machine identities to grow by 30 percent in the next year.
Increased visibility of third-party identities
Among companies with mature identity security, up to 50 percent have more visibility and control over third-party identities than companies that are still in the early stages of identity development. Third-party identities, i.e. partners or external employees, are also an identity class that is gaining importance. More and more companies rely on third parties for critical services, for example, and thus increase their potential attack surface if they do not secure these identities accordingly.
use of intelligent identity data
Organizations with mature identity security are twice as likely to be able to leverage identity data to gain actionable insights and unlock new use cases, including intelligent user access policies, contextual security policies, and intelligent access controls. This is important because it enables more accurate and timely access decisions, a critical key to reducing security risk.
Greater acceptance of AI and willingness to invest in GenAI
Organizations with mature identity security are almost twice as likely to adopt AI-based identity solutions. These solutions provide scalability and increase productivity. Organizations with mature identity security have the foundations in place to invest in scalable GenAI-based use cases, prioritizing tools for creating workflows, user permissions, role descriptions, and natural language search. In contrast, most organizations focus on automating basic help desk tasks in the early stages.
Lower cyber insurance premiums
92 percent of respondents say insurers assess their resilience to cyber attacks before setting premiums. Interestingly, more than 7 in 10 decision makers consider identity security to be one of the top three security features that help determine cyber insurance premiums.
Investments in cybersecurity pay off
"The right identity strategy is critical to mitigating risk and combating the ever-present cyber threats," said Matt Mills, President of SailPoint. "With the right strategy, operating model, technology and expertise, organizations can achieve this goal, achieve superior ROI and positively impact the identity security value curve for their business. In general, we find that cybersecurity spend pays off linearly. But organizations around the world and across all industries have already begun to realize significant and sustainable benefits from advanced identity security."
Cybersecurity is increasingly characterized by integrated identity programs across different technology environments. This includes unified access controls that provide visibility across all types of identities, integration with security processes, and support for automated identity management. Access decisions are increasingly driven by AI-powered analytics that increase security through anomaly detection, identity patterns, and behavioral analytics. Organizations can leverage these capabilities to realize the vision of the future of identity security.
About the study and the methodology
For Horizons of Identity Security, identity and access management decision makers worldwide were asked to assess their identity security capabilities and define the future of identity security. This year's report is based on the insights of 350 global information technology, cybersecurity and risk leaders. More than half of respondents work in organizations with more than 10.000 employees. Unless otherwise noted, all data in this press release refers to the results of this survey.
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About SailPoint
SailPoint is a leader in identity security for the modern enterprise. Enterprise security begins and ends with identities and access to them, but the ability to manage and secure identities is now far beyond human capabilities. Powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning, the SailPoint Identity Security Platform delivers the right level of access to the right identities and resources at the right time.
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