Organizations lagging in identity security take note: here are three factors that will drive the growth of machine-identity threats in 2025
The year 2024 has been marked by a significant uptick in cybersecurity regulations globally, particularly targeting generative AI (GenAI) and third-party risks.
As the region continues to ramp up on digital investments, new security challenges have arisen. Yet, many organizations are grappling with the pace of change, operating without a strategic security framework and lacking holistic visibility into the identities within their infrastructure.
Based on this lag, here are SailPoint’s predictions for the cyber landscape in 2025:
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GenAI will fuel a machine identity boom
The rapid advancements in GenAI are propelling a wave of automation across diverse industries, reshaping how tasks are handled, and accelerating the integration of machines into workflows. AI-powered assistants are empowering employees to navigate complex documents and data, while AI-driven tools are streamlining the way developers work with code. With automation becoming increasingly prevalent, more organizations will have to manage more machine identities than human ones. At the heart of automation lies trust. The trust placed in these machine accounts, while essential for their functionality, also places greater emphasis on security, compliance, and the assurance that these machines will perform as expected without compromising sensitive information. Next year, expect to see more instances of organizations granting inappropriate access to machine identities, presenting a potent threat vector ready to be exploited.
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Machine identities will be a major blind spot
While organizations are getting better at detecting and intercepting impersonation, phishing, and social engineering attacks, cybercriminals have shifted their focus to machine identities made ubiquitous by the growth of AI and automation. Their rapid proliferation will exacerbate the challenge of managing and securing them. Many organizations still do not have real-time visibility into active machine identities, representing a significant security gap. Furthermore, machine identities are not limited by identity security controls. Many attackers will exploit this vulnerability next year, manipulating machine identities into performing actions or revealing information they normally would not. Once inside a network, an attacker can further deceive machine identities to obtain additional credentials or privileges, enabling lateral movement across systems and widening their attack.
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Identity security will need a major relook
As AI investments in APAC surge in the years ahead, cyberattackers can be expected to leverage it to launch even more complex and sophisticated threats. For instance, AI-enabled deepfakes, capable of impersonating C-suite executives, are already being used to perpetrate corporate fraud, spread misinformation, and automate phishing campaigns. With an ever-increasing number of identities to manage, it is clear that human-driven identity management is no longer sufficient. While identity management needs have evolved, the adoption of advanced identity security tools by organizations has not followed suit. Looking ahead, the next generation of identity security will be about unification. Organizations will need to achieve full visibility into their identity landscape and eliminate the complexities associated with disparate systems.
Through a unified identity approach that delivers policy-based, just-in-time access to critical resources, organizations can leverage automation and AI to effectively manage and secure all types of enterprise identities (employees, non-employees, non-human), as well as data across various locations and at scale.
