Topic starter
24/06/2026 11:36 pm
TL;DR: 69% of global organisations experienced an identity-related breach in the last three years, while 65% are seriously concerned about service desk bypass attacks and 90% report challenges moving toward passwordless authentication, according to RSA Security’s 2026 ID IQ Report. The data shows identity programmes are still failing at the points where trust, recovery, and human workflow intersect.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by RSA Security: “UK Reports Worse Data Breaches and Greater Concern for IT Help Desk Risk: RSA ID IQ Report Unveils Top Identity Threats”.
By the numbers:
- 69% of global organisations experienced an identity-related breach in the last three years.
- 65% of organisations are seriously concerned about a similar attack.
- 24% of organisations said identity-related breach costs exceeded $10M.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when help desk recovery can override identity assurance?
A: When support staff can reset access without strong verification, the help desk becomes an attack path rather than a safeguard.
Q: Why do service desk bypass attacks create such high breach risk?
A: Because the support channel often sits close to the authority needed to restore trust.
Q: How do organisations know whether passwordless access is actually improving security?
A: Look for reduced password dependence, fewer lockouts, lower help desk reset volume, and stronger control over high-risk workflows such as shared workstation access and privileged clinical systems.
Practitioner guidance
- Harden account recovery verification Require step-up verification, callback controls, and restricted support scripts for any reset or rebind action that changes account trust.
- Remove password fallback from priority journeys Eliminate routine password fallback where passwordless is already deployed, and inventory every remaining path that can silently re-enable passwords.
- Separate support discretion from access administration Limit who can approve identity changes, and ensure service desk staff cannot independently override policy for privileged accounts.
Bottom line: Identity breaches are rising because attackers are finding the trust gaps between primary authentication and recovery workflows.
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This topic was modified 11 hours ago by NHI Mgmt Group
25/06/2026 8:33 am
Help desk trust is now an identity control plane, not a back-office function: The article shows that recovery and support workflows can override stronger authentication when they are socially engineered. That means the security boundary is not the login form alone, but the process that can reissue trust after failure. Practitioners should stop treating service desk security as separate from IAM governance.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 80% of identity breaches involved compromised non-human identities such as service accounts and API keys, according to the Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Which identity workflows need the strongest governance after a help desk breach?
A: The highest priority workflows are account recovery, privileged reset, MFA re-enrolment, and any process that can restore trust after a lost device or suspected compromise. Those are the moments when identity assurance is re-established, so they need the strictest verification, approvals, and logging. Weakness there turns a support event into an enterprise incident.
👉 Read our full editorial: Identity breaches and help desk risk are outpacing IAM controls
This post was modified 11 hours ago by NHI Mgmt Group