This blog was originally published by Bravura Security here.
A stark reality faces modern enterprises: 94% of cyber attacks now specifically target identity systems, not traditional network defenses. As threats rapidly evolve, organizations struggling with fragmented identity and access management (IAM), privileged and access management (PAM), and password management architectures face increasing risk from sophisticated attack methods that specifically exploit gaps between disconnected security tools.
Modern perimeter defense is highly resilient. Attackers no longer try to breach the wall but rather walk through the door with a valid set of credentials. It starts with compromising identities with an aim toward escalating privileges. This fundamental change demands a new approach that eliminates the security gaps created by cloud-only and fragmented strategies that ignore critical infrastructure.
The Evolving Identity Threat Landscape
Modern identity-based attacks have evolved into sophisticated multi-vector campaigns that leverage compromised credentials as a critical attack pathway. This evolution represents a fundamental shift from traditional single-vector attacks to complex, orchestrated campaigns that exploit multiple vulnerabilities while using compromised identities as a force multiplier.
Ransomware Evolution:
- Identity-focused ransomware targeting privileged credentials
- Double-extortion tactics combining data theft with encryption
- Supply chain attacks leveraging compromised identities
Modern Phishing:
- AI-powered social engineering targeting identity systems
- Phishing across corporate and personal devices
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs):
- Long-term credential harvesting operations
- Lateral movement and privilege escalation through identity gaps
Emerging Technology Risks:
- AI-powered identity impersonation attacks
- IoT device credential compromise
- Machine identity exploitation across hybrid environments
The True Cost of Fragmented Identity Security
The impact of disconnected identity systems is staggering:
- Breach Recovery: Average $4M cost per breach (EMA 2024) including business disruption, legal fees, and customer remediation.
- Administrative Burden: Increased operational costs from managing multiple disparate systems, resulting in lost productivity and extended security response times.
- Security Gap Penalties: Substantial financial exposure from compliance violations, failed audits, and increased insurance premiums due to fragmented security controls.
Beyond Cloud-Only Identity Management: Why Comprehensive Coverage Matters
While some vendors push cloud-only transformation, modern enterprises require comprehensive protection across:
- Legacy on-premise systems: Mission-critical legacy systems housing sensitive data require robust identity protection due to migration constraints and regulatory requirements.
- Hybrid cloud environments: Enterprise hybrid infrastructures demand seamless identity management across on-premise and cloud domains to eliminate security gaps while maintaining operational efficiency.
- Modern cloud applications: SaaS adoption requires scalable identity controls that integrate with existing frameworks to ensure secure access while meeting compliance requirements.
- Privileged accounts in all environments: High-risk privileged accounts across all infrastructure types need comprehensive protection to prevent credential abuse and limit breach impact.
- Unified policy enforcement: A unified approach ensures consistent standards, reduces administrative burden, and simplifies compliance reporting across all environments.
- Seamless identity lifecycle management: Centralized identity lifecycle management reduces complexity, prevents orphaned accounts, and ensures timely access changes across multiple environments.
Transforming Business Through Comprehensive Identity Security Protection
Accelerating Security Operations
Rather than managing disparate security controls, unified identity security streamlines operations by eliminating gaps between systems.
Enabling Business Growth
Supporting hybrid and legacy environments alongside modern cloud applications means businesses can innovate without compromise. Organizations can confidently adopt new technologies while maintaining robust protection across their entire infrastructure – from mainframes to microservices.
Driving Measurable Business Value
A unified approach delivers quantifiable results:
- 40% reduction in identity-related security incidents
- 50% decrease in administrative overhead
- 30% improvement in compliance audit preparation time
- Significant cost savings through consolidated licensing and infrastructure
Empowering Team Performance
With complete visibility across all identity systems, teams gain unprecedented operational capabilities that transform security operations. Security teams can leverage comprehensive risk insights to make data-driven decisions while significantly reducing incident response times through automated workflows. This unified approach ensures continuous compliance through consistent policy enforcement across all environments. Perhaps most importantly, it frees teams from time-consuming manual administration tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives that drive business value. The result is a more efficient, proactive security operation that can adapt quickly to emerging threats while maintaining robust protection across the enterprise.
Unified Defense Against 2025’s Identity Security Storm
The Bravura Security Fabric addresses these challenges through three critical value pillars:
- Risk Mitigation Through Unified Architecture
- Eliminates security gaps between IAM, PAM and password management
- Enforces consistent policies across all identity systems
- Provides comprehensive compliance controls
- Operational Risk Reduction
- Automates manual identity governance processes
- Centralizes visibility and control
- Financial Risk Protection
- Prevents costly breaches by eliminating fragmentation
- Reduces TCO through platform consolidation
- Minimizes compliance violation exposure
“As identity-based attacks grow more sophisticated, organizations can no longer afford the security gaps created by fragmented solutions,” says Bart Allan, COO, Bravura Security. “A unified platform isn’t just more efficient – it’s essential for protecting against modern threats that specifically target these gaps.”
In an era of evolving identity-based threats, organizations must move beyond fragmented solutions that create exploitable security gaps. A unified platform approach delivers comprehensive protection while reducing complexity and costs, enabling effective defense against sophisticated attacks.
About the Author: John White serves as the VP of Customer Experience at Bravura Security, bringing over 15 years of IT, IAM, and broader cybersecurity expertise to the forefront of elevating customer engagement strategies. His journey, rooted in architectural and analytical skills, has evolved into a strategic leadership role, where he champions customer experience and enablement programs. With a passion for bridging the gap between technical solutions and business needs, John specializes in developing strategies that enhance field and sales enablement, operational excellence, and the overall customer journey. His approach is dedicated to fostering strong partnerships and ensuring that the engagement process—from presales evaluation, through initial consultation and design, to the post-implementation hand-off and beyond—lays the foundation for lasting relationships. John’s contributions extend beyond specific roles, reflecting his commitment to driving innovation and excellence in an ever-changing digital landscape.
About the Company: Bravura Security is an industry leader, delivering best-in-class identity, privileged access, password, and passwordless products. Bravura Security software has helped Fortune 500 companies around the world protect their companies over the last two decades against increasing cybersecurity threats. The Bravura Security Fabric is a fully integrated solution of best-in-class products that manage identities, security entitlements, and credentials for both business users and privileged accounts, on-premises and in the cloud. Bravura Security is well known for high scalability, fault tolerance, pragmatic design, and low total cost of ownership (TCO). Bravura Security is recognized by customers and analysts for industry-leading customer service.
