- SailPoint report shows UK businesses are neglecting identity security
- 77% fail to disable former employee accounts, fueling credential abuse
- Outdated manual processes leave thousands of users and AI agents unmanaged
Businesses in the UK are putting themselves at great risk thanks to poor cyber hygiene and not 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 from large organizations in the country.
The survey found that the vast majority of companies (77%) do not immediately deactivate digital accounts for people who leave the organization. This creates a security hole that can be exploited not only by former employees (who can steal sensitive files and transfer them to another company), but also by cybercriminals, as these accounts are unmonitored and thus virtually invisible.
SailPoint says the problem is even worse than it appears, as a fifth (21%) of the entire UK workforce changed jobs last year. It also said that incidents resulting from compromised credentials increased by 160% year-on-year, showing just how big the risk really is.
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Wide access and swelling accounts
But the problems don’t start when the employees leave. They are starting much earlier, research has shown, as more than a third (34%) of companies surveyed admitted to deliberately providing wider access to users.
At the same time, the number of user access points organizations manage on a daily basis is growing. In addition to new employees coming in and out, there are also contractors, business partners and suppliers that the companies have to monitor. Also in recent times, the rise of automation and agent AI further complicates things.
On average, organizations have nearly 3,000 (2,754) new users in systems each month. More than a quarter (26%) are deploying up to 250 new employees each month, while a tenth (12%) are adding as many as 10,000 AI agents and machine identities at the same time.
Finally, the security processes in place today are seriously outdated, SailPoint says.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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