Identity and access security in critical industries is shifting to AI

At a glance

What this is: Imprivata argues that 2026 will be shaped by passwordless access, identity-first workflow control, and tighter governance of privileged and third-party access in critical industries.

Why it matters: This matters because IAM teams now have to design for mobile work, AI-enabled workflows, and elevated external access without increasing friction or weakening control.

By the numbers:

• 80% of identity breaches involved compromised non-human identities such as service accounts and API keys.
• Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts.
• 92% of organisations expose NHIs to third parties, raising concerns about supply chain security.

👉 Read Imprivata's 2026 predictions on identity, access, and intelligent automation

Context

Identity and access management is becoming the control plane for critical industries because work is now distributed across people, devices, vendors, and AI-enabled workflows. Imprivata’s premise is that legacy access models fail when the environment is mobile, time-sensitive, and operationally complex, especially where frontline work cannot tolerate slow or brittle authentication.

The article frames 2026 as a year in which passwordless access, identity-driven security, and workflow intelligence converge. The governance question is not whether organisations will modernize, but whether they can do it without creating new blind spots in privileged access, third-party access, and accountable automation.

Key questions

Q: How should security teams modernize access for mobile critical-industry workforces?

A: They should reduce dependency on reusable credentials, prefer device-bound or phishing-resistant authentication, and align access decisions to the actual workflow. The goal is not just stronger login security. It is fewer resets, less credential reuse, and access that works in frontline conditions without creating new exceptions or bypass paths.

Q: Why do third-party and privileged accounts create outsized IAM risk?

A: They combine elevated access with weaker lifecycle oversight, which means they can persist longer, be reviewed less often, and reach more sensitive systems than ordinary user accounts. If offboarding, scoping, and monitoring are inconsistent, those identities become durable attack paths rather than controlled exceptions.

Q: How do organisations know if identity-driven workflow security is working?

A: They should look for fewer password resets, fewer access exceptions, faster detection of anomalous access, and fewer cases where users need to bypass controls to get work done. If security improves while operational friction falls, the identity model is supporting the workflow instead of fighting it.

Q: Who is accountable when privileged third-party access is not revoked on time?

A: Accountability should sit with the business owner, the IAM programme, and the operational system owner together, because delayed revocation is usually a governance failure, not just a technical one. If no one owns timely offboarding, elevated access will outlive the relationship that justified it.

Technical breakdown

Why passwords break down in mobile, high-risk workflows

Passwords fail in critical industries because they are reusable, phishable, and operationally expensive to support at scale. In a mobile workforce, every reset, shared credential, or fallback path increases both friction and attack surface. Passwordless authentication shifts trust toward device-bound passkeys, biometrics, and cryptographic factors that are harder to steal or replay. The security value comes not just from removing the password, but from reducing the number of places where human memory and shared secrets are part of the access path.

Practical implication: replace password-dependent workflows first where shared devices, frontline access, or high reset volumes create the most risk.

How identity becomes the control plane for workflow intelligence

An identity control plane connects authentication, context, role, and workflow so access decisions follow the work rather than forcing users into one-size-fits-all systems. That matters in healthcare, manufacturing, and public safety because task context changes quickly and generic platforms often ignore those differences. When identity data is also fed into threat detection and response, security teams can spot anomalous access and react faster. The architectural shift is from static login events to continuous, context-aware access governance.

Practical implication: align IAM, ITDR, and workflow owners so access policy reflects real operational context instead of generic role templates.

Why third-party and privileged access need tighter lifecycle governance

Third-party and privileged access remain high-value targets because they combine elevated rights with weaker oversight. Contractors, vendors, and service partners often sit outside the organisation’s normal user lifecycle, which creates gaps in verification, entitlement scope, and revocation. In practical terms, the problem is not only who can get in, but how long access persists and whether monitoring keeps pace with business change. Granular permissions and continuous monitoring are only effective when offboarding and review are disciplined.

Practical implication: treat external and elevated identities as lifecycle-managed access paths, not exceptions to the identity model.

Threat narrative

Attacker objective: The attacker wants to move through trusted identity paths to reach sensitive systems, elevated functions, or downstream operational disruption.

1. Entry begins through credential theft, phishing, or AI-assisted impersonation that targets reusable authentication methods and trusted access paths.
2. Escalation follows when attackers exploit over-privileged third-party or privileged accounts that were not governed with enough lifecycle scrutiny.
3. Impact occurs through unauthorized access, workflow disruption, or supply-chain reach into critical systems where identity is the real control plane.

Breaches seen in the wild

• LiteLLM PyPI package breach — LiteLLM PyPI supply chain attack, credentials stolen from users.
• Shai Hulud npm malware campaign — Shai Hulud campaign: npm malware exposed secrets on GitHub.

Read our 52 NHI Breaches Analysis report for a comprehensive view of breaches impacting Non-Human Identities including AI Agents.

NHI Mgmt Group analysis

Passwordless adoption is no longer just an authentication choice, it is a control-plane decision. The article is right to connect passwords with operational drag and elevated risk in mobile environments, but the deeper issue is that shared, reusable credentials no longer match how critical work is performed. When access must be fast, contextual, and resilient, passwords become the weakest part of the workflow design. Practitioners should treat password removal as a governance redesign, not a cosmetic login upgrade.

Third-party and privileged access remain the most fragile parts of the identity estate because accountability ends before access often does. Imprivata’s emphasis on external and elevated users reflects a familiar failure pattern in NHI and IAM programmes: the account is provisioned faster than it is reviewed, and revoked later than it should be. That creates a durable attack surface across vendors, contractors, and service partners. The practical conclusion is that lifecycle control, not access approval alone, is what determines exposure.

Identity-driven workflow intelligence is becoming the test of whether IAM can keep up with operational reality. The article points toward a future where access decisions are informed by context, role, and threat signals rather than static entitlements. That matters because the same access mechanism must now support frontline productivity and security response at the same time. Programmes that keep identity separate from workflow telemetry will struggle to enforce context-aware controls at the speed the business now demands.

Purpose-built identity architecture is replacing generic platform thinking in critical industries. The article’s strongest signal is not a product preference, but a structural one: healthcare, manufacturing, and public safety do not operate like generic office environments. Their identity controls need to reflect task urgency, device constraints, vendor access, and real-time response needs. Organisations should stop trying to force uniform access models onto uneven operational reality.

From our research:

• 92% of organisations expose NHIs to third parties, raising concerns about supply chain security, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
• 71% of NHIs are not rotated within recommended time frames, increasing the risk of compromise over time.
• For the broader control model, see 52 NHI Breaches Analysis for recurring patterns in credential exposure, privilege abuse, and delayed revocation.

What this signals

Identity-first operations will become the practical test of modernization. Critical industries do not need more access layers that slow work down. They need access controls that adapt to task urgency, device context, and vendor involvement while still producing clean audit evidence. The more the workforce becomes mobile, the less tolerance there is for identity systems that only work in ideal conditions.

The next governance gap is not authentication alone, it is the continuity between access and accountability. When access is granted in one system, consumed in another, and reviewed in a third, organisations lose the ability to explain who had what, when, and why. That gap is especially visible in third-party and elevated access, where lifecycle discipline often lags operational reality.

With 92% of organisations exposing NHIs to third parties, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs, the same lifecycle logic that governs service accounts now needs to extend across vendors, frontline apps, and AI-enabled workflows. The programmes that win will treat identity telemetry as an operational signal, not just a security log.

For practitioners

• Prioritise passwordless rollout where reuse risk is highest Start with user groups that depend on shared devices, high-volume access, or frequent resets. Use device-bound passkeys or other cryptographic factors for paths where phishing and credential replay are the dominant threats.
• Re-map identity policy to workflow context Review whether access decisions still depend on static roles when the work itself is time-sensitive and location-aware. Bring IAM, security, and operational owners together so policy reflects task, device, and environment.
• Tighten privileged and third-party lifecycles Apply the same verification, entitlement scoping, and revocation discipline to contractors and vendors that you apply to internal staff. Make offboarding and periodic review explicit control points rather than informal follow-up steps.
• Feed identity telemetry into threat response Connect authentication and access events to detection workflows so anomalous behaviour can be acted on quickly. This is especially important when access is adaptive and users move across multiple systems in a single workflow.

Key takeaways

• The article’s core message is that critical-industry security now depends on making identity the control plane for work, not just the login gate.
• The clearest risk is third-party and privileged access that remains powerful after its business purpose has changed.
• Teams should pair passwordless adoption with lifecycle governance and telemetry-driven response so productivity gains do not widen the attack surface.

Key terms

• Passwordless Authentication: Passwordless authentication uses cryptographic, device-bound, or biometric factors instead of reusable passwords. In identity programmes, it reduces phishing and reset pressure, but only works when recovery, device trust, and lifecycle controls are designed as part of the access path.
• Identity Control Plane: An identity control plane is the layer that connects authentication, context, entitlements, and workflow decisions. It gives security teams a way to govern access dynamically across people, devices, vendors, and applications instead of relying on disconnected point controls.
• Privileged Access Lifecycle: Privileged access lifecycle management covers how elevated access is approved, scoped, monitored, reviewed, and revoked. It matters because privileged accounts often persist beyond the business need that created them, which turns temporary access into durable exposure.
• Third-Party Identity Governance: Third-party identity governance is the discipline of managing external users, vendors, and partners with the same lifecycle rigor used for internal identities. It focuses on verification, entitlement scope, monitoring, and timely revocation when business relationships change.

Deepen your knowledge

NHI governance, machine identity security, and secrets management are core topics in our NHI Foundation Level course, the industry's only accredited NHI security programme. If you are building or maturing an identity security programme, it is worth exploring.

This post draws on content published by Imprivata: Critical industries are reaching a technological inflection point. Read the original.