The shift from network security to identity security

Shoppers of security are waking up to a stark truth: identity is the new perimeter. UK organisations increasingly face attacks that exploit legitimate credentials, so knowing who and what can access your systems matters more than ever. This guide explains the trends reshaping identity security and what firms should do to stay ahead.

Essential Takeaways

• Credential danger: Credential-based attacks cause most breaches, with stolen credentials often the root cause and a quick lateral spread.

• Least privilege wins: Limiting permissions and using just-in-time access shrinks the blast radius when accounts are compromised.

• Machine identities multiply: There are far more non-human identities than people, and unmanaged keys and tokens are a growing breach vector.

• Authentication must be continuous: MFA helps, but behavioural and continuous methods catch session-based abuse better.

• Visibility is critical: Discover every human, service and device identity and monitor them in real time to meet security and regulatory demands.

Why credentials are the prime target , and it feels personal

Attackers no longer punch through the network so much as walk in with stolen passes, and that feels particularly invasive , like someone borrowing your office key and pretending to be you. According to industry research, credential-based attacks now account for the majority of initial breaches and frequently underpin escalations. Organisations used to rely on hard perimeters; those are gone in a cloud-and-remote-work world, so identity becomes the single control point across systems. Practically, that means security teams must treat every account as a potential entry and assume compromise rather than hope detection alone will save the day.

Cutting privileges, not corners , how least privilege limits damage

Speedy detection still matters, but resilience is measured by how much harm a single compromised account can cause. Limiting privileges and adopting just-in-time access are straightforward ways to reduce blast radius when attackers gain a foothold. Gartner and breach case studies show lateral movement can happen in under half an hour, so restricting token scopes and regularly reviewing permissions isn’t optional anymore , it’s front-line defence. For IT teams, make privilege reviews frequent, automate entitlement checks where possible, and enforce minimal scopes on API tokens and service accounts.

Machines everywhere , managing identities that aren’t people

You probably have dozens of machine identities for each human in your estate: microservices, APIs, IoT devices, CI/CD pipelines and AI agents all need credentials. Traditional privileged access tools were built for long-lived human accounts and struggle with ephemeral keys that exist only briefly in cloud-native stacks. That mismatch creates blind spots: half of organisations report breaches tied to machine identities. The practical step is comprehensive discovery that treats non-human identities as first-class citizens, rotating short-lived credentials and instrumenting CI/CD and cloud platforms so every token is visible and auditable.

Authentication needs to be continuous, not a single hurdle

Multi-factor authentication is now a baseline for most UK firms, but threat actors have adapted with phishing, session hijacks and prompt-bombing techniques. That exposes the weakness of a one-time authentication checkpoint. Behavioural and continuous authentication adds a second layer of reality checking , analysing device signals, typing rhythms, access patterns and transaction behaviour during a session. When something looks off, systems can step up verification or limit access. For businesses handling personal data, this approach also helps demonstrate proportional technical measures to regulators when incidents occur.

AI and shadow tools: the new identity risk on your network

Employees increasingly use AI tools at work, sometimes without IT approval, and those tools can act like identities that authenticate with user credentials while remaining invisible to directories and logs. That creates compliance and leakage risks, especially under data protection rules that demand careful control of personal data. Organisations need to inventory AI usages, control APIs and browser extensions, and include AI agents in identity discovery and monitoring. In short: treat AI-driven processes like any other identity and ensure they follow the same least-privilege and auditing rules.

Where to start: practical steps for UK organisations

Visibility is the immediate priority. Most organisations don’t actually know how many identities exist or what access those identities have across systems. Begin with a full discovery across cloud, on-prem and third-party services, then instrument continuous monitoring rather than quarterly reviews. Integrate identity tools , PAM, IAM, ITDR and data security , so they can share signals and coordinate automated responses. Prioritise rotating and minimising token scopes, enforce least privilege, and bring machine identities under lifecycle management. Doing these things not only improves security but also helps demonstrate compliance to regulators when incidents occur.

It’s a small change in approach that can make every access decision safer and far less costly in the long run.

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