90 percent of enterprises experience identity-related incidents

A new study from the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) finds that 90 percent of organizations experienced an identity-related incident in the past year and 84 percent suffered a direct business impact as a result.

The survey of over 520 identity and security professionals from organizations with over 1,000 employees finds the most significant impact, seeing a measurable rise this year, is distracting from core business (52 percent).

This is followed by the cost of recovering from the breach, which dropped from number one this year but increased from 33 percent to 47 percent. Close behind and keeping third place is the negative impact on the company's reputation, increasing from 25 percent to 45 percent.

"Identity-related incidents are on the rise, emphasizing the need for strong identity security measures," says Jeff Reich, executive director at IDSA. "Many of today's major breaches result from sophisticated phishing and social engineering attacks or not having multi-factor authentication. These incidents not only impact operations, they cost a fortune -- UnitedHealth experienced a $872 million loss from the Change Healthcare cyberattack. And they can also lead to significant drops in stock prices and lasting reputational damage. With identity threats becoming more severe, it's crucial for organizations to strengthen their identity security frameworks to better protect against these growing challenges."

Among other findings 22 percent of businesses see managing and securing digital identities as the number one priority of their security program, up from 17 percent in 2023. Also 89 percent of organizations are concerned with employees using corporate credentials for social media.

That new privacy regulations will impact identity security is a concern for 89 percent of businesses, while 96 percent of respondents say that AI/ML will be beneficial in addressing identity-related challenges, with 71 percent citing the number one use case is identifying outlier behaviors. 81 percent of identity stakeholders see passwordless authentication as a solid technology for addressing identity issues.

The full 2024 Trends in Identity Security report is available from the IDSA site.

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