- SailPoint report shows UK businesses neglecting identity security
- 77% don’t deactivate former employee accounts, fueling credential abuse
- Outdated manual processes leave thousands of AI users and agents unmanaged
Businesses in the UK face many risks due to poor cyber hygiene and not paying enough attention to identity and access management. This is according to a new report from SailPoint, based on a survey of 333 IT decision makers at large organizations in the country.
The survey found that the vast majority of companies (77%) do not immediately deactivate the digital accounts of people who leave the organization. This creates a security gap that can be abused not only by former employees (who can steal sensitive files and transfer them to another company), but also by cybercriminals, since these accounts are unmonitored and therefore virtually invisible.
SailPoint says the problem is even worse than it seems, with a fifth (21%) of the entire UK workforce changing jobs last year. It also said that incidents arising from compromised credentials increased by 160% year over year, demonstrating how big the risk really is.
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Broad access and growing accounts
But the problems don’t start when employees leave. Research has shown that they start much earlier, with more than a third (34%) of companies surveyed admitting to having consciously given broader access to users.
At the same time, the number of user access points that organizations manage daily is increasing. In addition to new employees coming and going, there are also contractors, partners and suppliers that companies must monitor. Additionally, in more recent times, the rise of automation and agent AI complicates matters even further.
On average, organizations have almost 3,000 (2,754) new users on systems each month. More than a quarter (26%) add up to 250 new employees each month, while a tenth (12%) add up to 10,000 AI agents and machine identities at the same time.
Finally, the security processes in place today are very outdated, SailPoint says. More than a third (28%) still rely on spreadsheets and paperwork to validate employee accounts and responsibilities, and a fifth of AI agents (21%) are still managed manually.
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