As our worldwide digital footprint grows, so too does our risk of cyberthreats. And now, an uncertain economy is challenging the resources that organizations need to defend against rising attacks.

Identity has become the new battleground. In fact, did you know:

• There are 11 million password attacks a day1
• Password breach replay attacks grew to 5.8 billion per month (2022)1
• Phishing attacks rose to 31 million per month1
• Password spray attacks have climbed to 5 million per month1

Clearly, organizations need to do something, but what? And how do they prioritize? What can their security teams do now to make the biggest impact? Here are some priorities we think you should consider.

1. Simplify and automate identity governance.
2. Modernize identity security to ‘do more with less.'
3. Protect access by configuring identity/network access solutions to work together.
4. Protect against identity compromise using a ‘defense in-depth’ approach.
5. Verify remote users in a cheaper, quicker, more trustworthy way.

By adopting the latest identity innovations, your organization will be able to better protect your digital estate ... and your budget.

1. Simplify and automate identity governance
Identity governance helps reduce internal risk and is critical for every organization. Microsoft Entra Identity Governance is a complete identity governance solution that helps you comply with regulatory requirements while increasing productivity through real-time, self-service, and workflow-based entitlements. It extends capabilities already available in Azure AD by adding:

• Lifecycle Workflows
• Separation of duties
• Cloud provisioning
• On-premises apps.

2. Modernize identity security to ‘do more with less’
Modern, cloud-native identity solutions such as Microsoft Entra are resilient, scalable, and more secure against modern threats. Plus, they’re better equipped to accommodate the rapid changes to products, services, and business processes necessary to compete in business today. You can significantly increase business agility and save money by taking advantage of the advanced, integrated features in Microsoft Entra.

3. Protect access by configuring identity/network access solutions to work together.
In most life scenarios, key players are better when they work together. The same applies to security. You can strengthen your overall security posture by integrating tools that currently operate in silos. Applying a Zero Trust approach means explicitly verifying every access request using every available signal. You can get the most detailed picture of session risk by combining everything the network access solution knows about the network and device with everything the identity solution knows about the user session.

Protecting user accounts is critical but no longer enough. You now need to protect every layer of your identity ecosystem, plus the infrastructure that provides, stores, and manages your identities. Your best bet is a Defense in Depth approach that requires close collaboration between your security operations center (SOC) and identity teams:

1. Security posture management
2. Real-time protection and remediation with identity
3. Identity threat detection and investigation

A great first step is to make sure multifactor authentication is turned on. Its simple and a great feature that's included with every subscription to Microsoft Azure Active Directory, which is a part of Microsoft Entra.  

Fun fact | Of all the accounts compromised in a single month, more than 99.9% didn’t use multifactor authentication.2

5. Verify remote users in a cheaper, quicker, more trustworthy way
Identity verification is a significant expense for many organizations. If you collect and store such information in a centralized database, you’re responsible for everything it takes to secure and protect it. This not only creates risk for you, but for your employees and customers.

Verifiable credentials introduce the concept of a per-claim trust authority. The trust authority populates a credential with a claim about you that you can store digitally. Microsoft Entra Verified ID helps organizations reduce the burden of identity verification and simplifies processes such as new employee onboarding. 

Let’s get started
AMTRA can help you secure more with less. We can help you navigate where to focus your energies and how to empower your organization to do more with less. We’d love to join you on your security journey. Send us a note today.

1. https://mytechdecisions.com/network-security/microsoft-entra-identity-priorities/#:~:text=The%20Redmond%2C%20Wash.%20tech%20giant%E2%80%99s%20analysis%20of%20identity,continued%20to%20climb%20to%205%20million%20per%20month.
2. https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-99-9-of-compromised-accounts-did-not-use-multi-factor-authentication/