Identity & Access Risk
How user identities, authentication methods, and permissions are used to access systems and data.
Indicators
An observed identity demonstrates misuse of privileged accounts or admin rights, often bypassing normal approval channels. Such activity creates opportunities for unauthorized system changes, exposure of sensitive information, or establishment of covert control within high-value systems.
An observed identity initiates privileged actions that fall outside approved workflows or organizational policy. These deviations weaken governance, obscure accountability, and may signal intentional circumvention of controls to perform prohibited tasks.
An observed identity employs malware, dumping utilities, or other unauthorized methods to capture authentication secrets. These techniques are commonly associated with endpoint compromise and often enable large-scale lateral movement or credential replay attacks.
An observed identity attempts logins or resource access from geographic regions not aligned with their normal activity patterns. Such anomalies are strong indicators of credential theft, account takeover, or remote access through adversary infrastructure.
An observed identity relies on credential injection techniques that bypass normal login processes. This behavior suggests advanced exploitation methods designed to evade detection and establish stealthy persistence inside enterprise environments.
An observed identity tampers with security enforcement or monitoring features, such as conditional access policies or audit logs. By weakening these safeguards, the identity reduces defender visibility and increases the likelihood that malicious operations remain undetected.
An observed identity alters trust relationships between identity providers or modifies federation bindings. Such manipulation undermines cross-domain authentication integrity and can open avenues for unauthorized access via unapproved or compromised directories.
An observed identity establishes techniques—such as scheduled tasks, services, or endpoint configuration changes—that ensure continued access over time. These methods often indicate attempts to maintain a long-term foothold within critical systems.
An observed identity leverages authentication artifacts sourced from memory, endpoints, or theft to impersonate valid users. These activities bypass normal login scrutiny and expose the enterprise to prolonged account misuse and data exfiltration.
An observed identity depends on weak, short-lived, or otherwise insecure credentials to continue accessing systems. This practice undermines authentication integrity and elevates the risk of replay attacks or unauthorized reuse by external adversaries.
An observed identity establishes contact with infrastructure or accounts linked to known malicious groups. Such communications often represent command-and-control activity, collusion, or preparation for exfiltration of sensitive data.
An observed identity performs actions beyond their defined responsibilities or outside expected behavioral baselines. These deviations may signal account compromise, insider threat, or unauthorized escalation of privileges.
An observed identity alters policies governing accounts, privileges, or access boundaries. These changes dismantle key protections, expand entitlements, and create opportunities for long-term abuse of sensitive systems.
An observed identity interacts with repositories of sensitive credentials or keys in unexpected patterns. Such activity may indicate an insider seeking privileged material or an external attacker exploiting compromised accounts to harvest secrets.
An observed identity interferes with security telemetry by suppressing logs, disabling monitoring agents, or otherwise obscuring activity. This concealment reduces incident visibility, enabling adversaries to operate covertly within enterprise systems.
An observed identity exploits fallback methods, reuses passwords, or bypasses MFA requirements to authenticate. These weaknesses degrade assurance of identity validation and increase susceptibility to credential-based attacks.
An observed identity generates abnormally high or repetitive access requests against sensitive systems. Such patterns are consistent with automated data harvesting, brute-force reconnaissance, or malicious scripting.
Relevance
Identity and access patterns reveal whether security fundamentals like MFA, password hygiene, and least-privilege access are consistently applied. They are often the difference between contained risk and widespread compromise.
Why this matters
This matters because identity is the new perimeter. A single compromised account can grant attackers broad access if controls are weak. Proactive monitoring ensures stronger defenses against credential theft and privilege abuse.
Consequences of neglect
Unmanaged identity risks lead to unauthorized access, privilege escalation, and potential insider threats, putting critical systems and data at risk of breach or manipulation.