Seven Best Practices for Seamless Identity Security

It’s the call no security leader wants to get. A company undergoing a major acquisition inherits a new set of applications — but not all follow the same security standards. During the transition, an attacker finds a weak link: a legacy system without MFA. A phishing attack compromises an employee, and with no MFA to stop them, the attacker moves laterally, eventually finding admin credentials stored in plain text — giving them full access to critical systems.

The root of the issue: tool and application sprawl

If this sounds all too familiar, you’re not alone. Identity isn’t confined to just user logins anymore — modern organizations must protect every system, from cloud applications to self-hosted. As breaches become a new norm, companies scramble to deploy more tools, each providing a unique answer for specific use cases. This often leads to what we call 'tool sprawl, where the number of tools in use can become unmanageable and lead to inefficiencies, not to mention an increased attack surface if you are not careful. Yet the real (and often hidden) culprit remains fragmented IAM and unchecked application sprawl — a lack of unified visibility, half-implemented controls, and overlooked basics, like using up-to-date protocols and ensuring no cleartext credentials ever see the light of day.

To move beyond these pitfalls, consider weaving an identity fabric: a coordinated, scalable approach that fortifies every identity touchpoint, automates essential guardrails, and — critically — prevents “tools and app sprawl.”

Fundamental Controls and Governance Practices

Below, we’ll explore how fundamental controls and governance practices can help you build a more resilient security foundation.

1. Centralize Your Identity Universe

It’s hard to protect what you don’t know exists. Enterprises often house hundreds (even thousands) of applications, both on-prem and in the cloud, many of which get lost in the shuffle. The first step is to assemble a single source of truth — a centralized view of your application estate.

This makes it far easier to:

• Enforce industry-standard protocols (e.g., OAuth2, OpenID Connect, and SAML) across the board.
• Monitor & Audit Authorization Attempts so you can quickly spot anomalies, like repeated failed logins or unusual access patterns.
• Integrate with your identity stack to ensure centralized policies, streamlined authentication, and unified access controls across all applications.

When everything is in one place, it becomes simpler to tie identity events together — especially if you integrate real-time alerts or dashboards that flag suspicious behavior before it spirals.

2. Eliminate Lingering Credentials

During a breach investigation, discovering a single script with a hardcoded username and password can feel like stepping on a Lego in the dark — painful and unexpected. But it’s more common than many teams realize. Whether it’s an overlooked configuration file or a developer’s quick fix that never got revisited (or something in an app you never knew existed), the presence of any hardcoded or cleartext credentials should immediately raise red flags. They should not remain anywhere in your environment; their proactive identification and elimination should be a top priority.

3. Move Beyond Passwords: MFA and Passwordless Strategies

Yes… we are still having this conversation. Passwords remain a weak link, especially when an organization’s policy is simply “use complex characters.” Employees often reuse them, write them down, or store them in easily accessible places.

If passwords still exist in your environment, make them more secure:

• Enforce Password Complexity & Rotation: Ensure teams use passphrases instead of short, convoluted combos.
• Implement Single Sign-On (SSO): Centralizes authentication and reduces reliance on multiple passwords.

But the real answer? Move beyond passwords altogether. Attackers can easily crack a single password, so your defenses should include:

• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Adding a second factor (biometrics, hardware keys, or app-based codes) dramatically reduces success rates for attackers.
• Phishing-Resistant MFA: Use hardware security keys (FIDO2) and adaptive MFA to counter modern attacks.
• Passwordless Authentication: Adopt modern approaches like passkeys and device-based authentication to remove passwords from the equation entirely.

As you reduce reliance on passwords alone, you’ll naturally tighten your security posture — without adding friction for everyday users.

4. Identity Governance: Enforce the Right Access For the Right People at the Right Time

When identities aren’t properly governed, access quickly spirals out of control. Employees, contractors, and service accounts accumulate excessive permissions, and worst of all, those permissions rarely get revoked when no longer needed.

A strong Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) strategy ensures access is always appropriate, reducing both risk and operational complexity.

• Automated Provisioning & Deprovisioning: Eliminate orphan accounts by automating user lifecycle management
• Access Reviews & Certification: Continuously audit and certify access rights, ensuring no one has permissions they shouldn’t.
• Role-Based & Just-in-Time Access: Move from static roles to dynamic, need-based access. No more standing privileges.
• Least Privilege Enforcement: Never give users or services broad privileges “just in case.” Grant only what’s needed, and revoke it immediately when no longer required.

When governance is embedded in your identity security strategy, you prevent security drift before it happens.

5. Adopt Zero-Trust and Enforce Access Controls Everywhere

Remember the days when security models once trusted everyone inside the corporate network by default?  In today’s world, that’s no longer an option.

Zero-trust means verifying every user and every device every time (and don't forget about governance please);

• Least Privilege Access: Never give users or services broad privileges “just in case.” Grant only the permissions needed and revoke them immediately when no longer required.
• Real-Time Policy Enforcement: Enforce who can access which resources under what conditions, applying consistent checks at each step.

When you enforce robust access control, you effectively lock every door in your organization — requiring authorized keys at every turn.

6. Treat Non-Human Identities as First-Class Citizens

The notion that only employees have identities is outdated. Modern environments rely on a multitude of automated tasks, bots, service accounts, and APIs. If you’re not applying the same rigorous rules — no hardcoded credentials, encryption in transit, MFA where applicable — you risk opening a backdoor.

By auditing login and authorization attempts for these non-human users (and limiting privileges through role-based access controls), you minimize the blast radius of a compromise. Plus, you gain visibility into which automated tasks are essential and which might be forgotten or misconfigured.

7. Turn Users into Allies, Not Liabilities

All the best technical controls in the world can fail when a single user falls for a well-crafted phishing email. Regular training and simulations can help employees spot suspicious links, requests for credentials, or bogus MFA push notifications.

When people understand how easily an identity can be compromised and why simple measures — like using SSO or never leaving passwords in sticky notes — matter, they’re more likely to stay vigilant.

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Final Thoughts

Security threats won’t wait for you to tidy up. Credentials left in a random script or a single unmonitored legacy app can spark a crisis overnight. By weaving a coherent identity fabric, based on sound identity fundamentals — one helps you enforce industry-standard protocols, uncover cleartext credentials, audit all access attempts, and streamline MFA and SSO — you’ll stay agile, reduce complexity, and keep attackers frustrated.

Of course, this is but a slice of the marvelous world of identity security. Identity security spans a galaxy far, far away—and we’ve barely escaped Tatooine. May the Force be with you as you venture into the outer rim of what’s still unexplored! But fear not, young Padawan! By starting with these core practices, you’re already taking your first step into a larger identity security galaxy — and with a little discipline (and perhaps a touch of the Force), you’ll stand strong against the dark side of cyber threats.