Why Legacy IAM Tools Can’t Stop Today’s Identity-First Threats

The challenge isn’t a lack of effort. Many organizations have invested heavily in tools and policies. Unfortunately, existing approaches to identity security are fragmented and incremental and fail to address the full scope of modern threats. After nearly a decade working within a global enterprise and now advising organizations worldwide on identity challenges, I’ve seen firsthand where many identity strategies fall short.

Following are the most common mistakes organizations make when implementing identity security protection and some solutions. 

Where identity strategies go wrong

Skipping the foundation — Many organizations jump to implementing complex tools and technologies without understanding who (and what) in their environment needs protection. The reality is that any account is a target for identity-first attackers. Today’s leaders must identify and contain the systemic risks that can turn a single account compromise into an existential threat. Yet having an up-to-date picture of all identities, their usage, and their protection is challenging for most organizations, but it’s the essential first step to success. 

Too often, companies try to implement advanced controls without this foundational understanding, leaving their programs reactive rather than strategic. This causes the cycle to repeat: identify a problem (via red teaming or audit), contain it, then discover more issues and repeat. While this method addresses immediate issues, it doesn't address the root causes or the most critical vulnerabilities. It also leads to difficult conversations with C-suite executives over time, as it becomes challenging to measure improvements to your security posture without basic control and protection.

Relying on legacy IAM tools not built for security — Containing identity risk is extremely complex, especially at scale. Many organizations do not look at their overall identity security posture holistically or evaluate how well it addresses the modern threats posed by identity-first attackers. Most IAM technologies weren’t originally designed with security in mind. Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) emerged to drive business efficiency, and Privileged Access Management (PAM) was created to meet compliance goals and protect select systems or accounts.

These tools were built to manage identity, not to secure it. Securing identities often means playing catch-up, constantly discovering and onboarding accounts and applications. Until those accounts are identified and managed, your organization remains vulnerable.  

Disregarding non-human identities — The identity world has woken up to non-human identities, or NHIs, though they’re not new since service accounts have been around forever. Identity teams can spend years focused only on human users, only to realize too late that their NHIs have been exploited. In fact, 80% of security breaches involve compromised NHIs. These identities require the same level of oversight, lifecycle management, and protection as any user account. Only 5.7% of organizations have complete visibility into their service accounts.

Creating a better path forward

To move beyond these common missteps, organizations should focus on three guiding principles that lay the groundwork for stronger, more scalable identity security.

Establish a better security baseline — Recognizing these missteps, organizations must now raise their security floor before aiming to push their ceiling. Instead of focusing solely on high-end protections for select systems, the priority should be building broad, foundational security that addresses common attack vectors and security risks. In practice, this means implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and other protection for all accounts — human and non-human — and resources within the organization. 

From this baseline, organizations can build out other security measures. Establishing this baseline creates a resilient foundation that mitigates the most significant threats and reduces overall risk. It also gives organizations the space to plan for future investments and create a comprehensive and scalable security strategy. This approach ensures that no account, no matter how “insignificant,” is left vulnerable to compromise, and the entire organization is better protected against evolving threats.

Use leverage to your advantage — Organizations need to focus on the controls that deliver the most significant impact. Not all security investments offer the same value. Some controls solve isolated problems, while others create leverage by mitigating adjacent risks. High-leverage investments provide a multiplied return, reducing the urgency of solving related risks. Protecting all server authentication with MFA or usage restrictions (e.g., limiting service accounts according to source and destination) mitigates a host of password-related and access management risks.

Poor-quality passwords, uncertainty about where passwords are stored or written down, lack of rotation for non-human identities, and concerns about overprivileged accounts will be less urgent problems to solve if proper authentication protection is put in place. 

Broad protection matters — Attackers will always take the path of least resistance. They will simply pivot to lower-hanging fruit if an organization restricts its security efforts to a limited number of systems or accounts. Most cyberattacks are financially motivated and opportunistic. Considering how complex and connected our systems are today, organizations cannot assume that any account, no matter how innocent-looking, is safe or too low of a priority for protection.

The key to scalability is to assess investments for their ease of scaling. Platforms that enable an easily manageable control plane are more scalable than incremental, decentralized controls. To achieve scalability, a comprehensive approach is necessary to close these gaps efficiently. Managing risk around identity is insufficient today; identity must have security and protection built in by policy.

Adopt a protection-first mindset

This shift starts with adopting a protection-first mindset, which requires technology that sets guardrails and rules for identities and embeds protection as an inherent feature of the identity environment.

To stay ahead of identity-based threats, organizations must prioritize investments that provide leverage, broad coverage, and centralized control to reduce risk at scale. Those who focus on building a strong foundation and scalable strategy will gain the time and space needed to stay ahead of attackers who are moving faster every day.