Identity Security: Cornerstone of Modern Cyber Stacks

Advisor@AegisIntel.ai
Apr 30
4 min read

The floor at the RSAC this week in San Francisco is crowded and sometimes confusing. The evolution of the threat landscape and the solution provider market landscape are not only on overdrive, but IAM is now actually one of the core 'control planes' for all of Enterprise Cybersecurity.

Here we begin a multilayer look at the state of the industry as of RSAC 2025. In follow up articles we will expand on both CISO Playbook for 2025 and beyond, as well as a SWOT analysis of the leading & competing vendors in the space, lending some structure and clarity at the end of the day.

The Rising Stakes of Identity Security

Increasing its pace in 2025, Identity Security has emerged as a critical priority for CISOs, ranking second in the ETR State of Security Study report with a MaxDiff score of 57, just behind # 1 ranked Vulnerability Management. This prioritization reflects the urgent need to address credential-based breaches, which account for 80% of cyberattacks, and the growing complexity of securing sprawling SaaS and cloud environments.

As zero-trust architectures become standard, CISOs and CIOs reframe their security stacks with Identity at the core. In the midst of the RSAC 2025 annual gathering, we explore why Identity Access Management (IAM) is paramount, and review vendors leading the fray— including Microsoft, Okta, Ping Identity —alongside their platform based competitors, and finish by offering a strategic roadmap for enterprises to strengthen their defenses.

More specifically, Enterprises manage an average of 300+ SaaS applications, each a potential attack vector, according to the 2025 Netskope Cloud Report. As well, it is estimated that the average Enterprise IT Dept. incorporates approximately 75 security specific vendors in their operations.

Multi-Factor Authentication and Zero-Trust: The Core of Defense

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is foundational, with 95% of enterprises deploying it, per Okta's 2025 State of Identity Report. Advanced MFA phishing affects 70% of organizations annually. Zero-trust principles, requiring continuous verification, amplify these protections. Forrester's 2025 IAM Market Analysis notes that zero-trust architectures reduce breach likelihood by 50%, making IAM a strategic priority.

Hybrid cloud adoption and remote work have rendered traditional perimeter security obsolete. Gartner predicts that 68% of enterprises will adopt zero-trust IAM by 2026, up from 45% in 2024, driven by regulations like GDPR 2.0. The financial impact is significant: a single breach costs $4.45 million on average, per IBM's 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report. One CISO encapsulates the urgency: "Identity is our weakest link—zero-trust is non-negotiable" (CISO Insights).

Fencing the Borders

Beyond these core tenets, below is the beginning framework for protecting and managing user identities within an organization's digital ecosystem, ensuring secure access, compliance, and resilience against threats. Initially, IAM was rolled up under the 4 topical A's:

Administration, where access rights are created
Authentication, where the user's identity is determined
Authorization, where it is decided if the user is allowed to perform a certain action
Audit, where the previous three As are reviewed for correctness

The field has grown in complexity due the nature and frequency of the threat landscape, however, and as of 2025, this conceptual architecture has evolved into a field of 10 specific subsectors:

Authentication: Verifies user identities through methods like passwords, biometrics, and multi-factor authentication (MFA), ensuring only authorized access, such as logging into a corporate VPN with a fingerprint and password.
Authorization: Determines user permissions based on roles, controlling actions like allowing HR to view employee data but restricting edits, ensuring least privilege access.
Identity Governance: Manages user account lifecycles, including onboarding, role changes, and offboarding, ensuring compliance with policies, such as revoking access for terminated employees.
Access Management: Controls and monitors access to systems, applications, and data, often via single sign-on (SSO) or federated identity, simplifying logins across platforms like Office 365 and Salesforce.
Identity Analytics: Monitors identity-related activities for anomalies, such as detecting unusual login locations or privilege escalations, enhancing threat detection.
Identity Lifecycle Management: Automates the creation, modification, and deletion of user accounts, improving efficiency and security, like automatically disabling accounts after 90 days of inactivity.
Privileged Access Management (PAM): Secures accounts with elevated permissions, preventing misuse by enforcing strict controls, such as requiring additional verification for admin access.
Federated Identity: Enables secure access across multiple domains or organizations without redundant logins, like using a corporate Google account for third-party services.
Identity as a Service (IDaaS): Offers cloud-based identity management for hybrid environments, supporting remote work by managing identities across on-premises and cloud systems.
Compliance and Auditing: Ensures identity practices meet regulatory requirements, providing audit trails for accountability, such as logging all access changes for GDPR compliance.

Conclusion

Identity security is the cornerstone of modern cyber stacks, enabling enterprises to secure cloud ecosystems and meet regulatory demands. While Microsoft Entra, Okta, and Ping Identity offer dedicated IAM platforms, PANW (Palo Alto Networks) and CRWD (CrowdStrike) provide valuable identity-related features within broader security frameworks.

By prioritizing advanced MFA, zero-trust policies, and scalable solutions, CISOs can reduce breach risks and enhance agility. With a competitive market offering diverse options, enterprises have the flexibility to choose the best fit for their needs, ensuring resilience in a dynamic threat landscape. The competitive IAM market offers diverse options, ensuring CISOs can select platforms tailored to their needs. In our next review, we will examine the current best practices playbook for Enterprise CISO's in IAM for 2025 and beyond.