Identity is Security: Access is the New Black

When your organization gets breached, will you know how the hacker got in? If you don’t know who has access to what resources in your enterprise, you probably won’t. That’s why the big news of the week in our world is the release of our Identity Report, which is the identity industry’s first benchmark. What really resonated was that IT teams are struggling with support in their identity programs and properly governing user access. TechRepublic honed in on this data point in particular as part of their review of our Identity Report.

We aren’t the only ones doling out grades for security this week though. Another report out found that educational institutions rank last in overall security posture. It’s no surprise, given the number of identities and the revolving door of third parties they have accessing their systems, applications and data.

On the government front, there were a couple of developments that caught our eye. The first is the identity and access management program the Department of Justice is building over the next three years. We also got a peek at some cybersecurity priorities laid out by The House Energy and Commerce Committee who released the Cybersecurity Strategy Report, which included six key priorities for preventing and addressing cybersecurity incidents.

And finally, we turn our attention to a major discovery made by a cybersecurity research firm: More than 40,000 credentials for unlocking online accounts for government services were stolen. Yet again, getting access to user accounts is the primary target for hackers.

What did you read in cybersecurity news this week?