Building Your Identity Fabric: A CISO & CTO Guide to Connected Identity

According to Gartner, 62% of IAM functionality goes completely unused. Instead of making the most of their investment, many organizations today continue to operate with a complex web of tools and applications, often fragmented across departments and functions. This fragmentation not only creates security gaps but leads to operational nightmares and a frustrating user experience. Enter the Identity Fabric – a strategic approach to unify and interconnect your identity management, transforming security and operations.

To demystify this critical concept, I sat down with Brian Read, CTO at KeyData Cyber, to discuss how an Identity Fabric can streamline security and enhance organizational efficiency.

What is an Identity Fabric?

Introduced by KuppingerCole about 8 years ago, Brian explained that an identity fabric is “an approach to identity and access management (IAM) that encourages organizations to integrate their multiple IAM solutions into a unified, cohesive framework." 

An Identity Fabric isn’t a single product or a tool or product you can buy. Instead, you can think of it as an abstraction layer that connects the dots across your organization's diverse identity silos – access management, authentication, authorization, privileged access management, and identity governance – extending uniform controls across your on-prem and cloud environments.

Enhancing Security Beyond Traditional IAM

How does an Identity Fabric elevate security posture? Brian highlights several key areas:

• Eliminating Silos: "Traditional IAM is fragmented across environments (on-prem, cloud), creating gaps. An Identity Fabric integrates these systems, providing a cohesive, unified solution." He suggests using an IGA tool for uniform access reviews across all of your cloud and on-prem environments.
• Improving Measurable Security: Fragmented systems make it difficult to see the whole picture. "By using centralized uniform controls across dissimilar systems, you get a single pane of glass for the organization’s identity risks. This lowers your risk by ensuring that there aren’t any gaps in your controls coverage."
• Enhancing User Experience: User experience also plays a big role in the effectiveness of your security measures. Fewer logins and credentials improve usability and decrease the likelihood that users will employ workarounds “like weak or reused passwords, which are a major security risk."
• Boosting Scalability and Efficiency: Scalabililty and efficiency don’t have to be mutually exclusive. "An Identity Fabric approach leverages automation and simplifies processes, reducing the possibility of human error in the security configuration and operation process."

Connecting the Dots: Core Components

It’s all about connecting the dots. "The concept of an Identity Fabric is all about consolidating, simplifying, and thoroughly monitoring identity data. This dramatically reduces your attack surface, making it much harder for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities across your systems.” To clarify, Brian offers a common organizational scenario:

"Take a typical organization… They have 4 IDP’s – AD, Entra ID, AWS, Red hat directory server… all managed separately with separate provisioning and deprovisioning processes.” Within these siloes, “users have different accounts for different areas of the organizations that they are logging in to and different MFA solutions for all these different accounts.” And as these siloes proliferate, we see “extensive duplication of accounts, dormant accounts, service accounts that haven’t been used but everyone is afraid to delete. The organization has gotten to this state by years of simply layering on more controls on top of their security gaps for short term fixes."

As you see, even with the best intentions you can end up with a system that is rife with security gaps and vulnerabilities, with no clear path forward.

The Consequences of Siloed Identity Data

Even if you feel certain that your individual siloes are secure, major issues can arise when identity data is fragmented across the organization. Brian explains three major issues: 

• Poor Credential Hygiene: "Users aren’t properly offboarded, leaving accounts with unnecessary or excessive permissions, which can be a significant security risk.
• Gaps in MFA or Conditional Access Coverage: "Accounts on outdated Identity Providers may not have proper security measures like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) or conditional access, leaving them vulnerable.
• Security Incidents from User Workarounds: "Users sometimes bypass security controls, like setting up Shadow IT or sharing passwords, because they feel they can’t do their jobs otherwise.

Connecting the Dots for a Secure and Agile Future

The biggest challenge organizations face is recognizing the flaws in their current approach," Brian shared. "We help clients align their identity strategies with business objectives, ensuring a cohesive, scalable Identity Fabric that can adapt as their needs evolve.

What can you do to connect the dots? KeyData Cyber recommends a holistic review and initiatives such as:

• Consolidating IDPs
• Implementing SSO and advanced authentication
• Performing identity hygiene
• Introducing Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)
• Extending identity governance across all IDPs

Brian acknowledges that each of these tasks could require planning and resources, “but think of the benefits in risk reduction and cost reduction through efficiencies and consolidation.

As organizations move towards cloud-based solutions, KeyData Cyber’s Identity Security as a Service is a great option for organizations looking to connect the dots with a cohesive identity security strategy. With an expert team of engineers and practitioners at your side, you can finally reach your business goals and make the most of your security investment.

Contact us today to schedule an assessment.