Notifications
Clear all
Topic starter
07/06/2026 8:46 pm
TL;DR: Zero Trust only works when identity decisions are continuously verified, and the source article argues that identity governance supplies the visibility, least-privilege enforcement, and automated reviews needed to make that practical across cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments, according to SecurEnds. The governance gap is not conceptual, it is operational: without access inventory, review cadence, and lifecycle control, Zero Trust remains a slogan rather than a control model.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by SecurEnds: Identity Governance for Zero Trust Security
By the numbers:
- One global enterprise that adopted SecurEnds saw a 60 percent reduction in excessive access within months.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams implement identity governance for Zero Trust environments?
A: Start by building a complete entitlement inventory across users, service accounts, bots, and connected applications.
Q: Why do non-human identities complicate Zero Trust programmes?
A: Non-human identities complicate Zero Trust because they are often created quickly, granted broad rights, and left in place after the task changes.
Q: How do teams know if identity governance is actually supporting Zero Trust?
A: Look for reduced excess access, shorter time-to-removal after role changes, higher review completion rates, and better visibility into who or what holds privileged access.
Practitioner guidance
- Map every access path before tightening policy Inventory users, service accounts, bots, and connected applications in one entitlement map so you can see where access is granted, inherited, or forgotten.
- Automate review triggers around lifecycle changes Tie access reviews to role changes, project completion, inactivity, and offboarding events instead of relying only on calendar-based recertification.
- Connect identity governance to detection and response Send entitlement changes and anomalous access findings into SIEM, SOAR, and PAM workflows so a suspicious session can be reviewed or contained quickly.
What's in the full article
SecurEnds' full guide covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Step-by-step guidance for connecting identity governance with cloud, SaaS, and on-prem access flows
- Configuration detail for automated access review workflows, including reminders, approvals, and exception handling
- Implementation notes for integrating identity data into IAM, PAM, SIEM, and SOAR environments
- Example reporting language for compliance teams tracking access certification and privilege reduction
👉 Read SecurEnds' guide on identity governance for Zero Trust →
Identity governance and Zero Trust: what IAM teams need to fix?
Explore further
08/06/2026 8:27 am
Identity governance is the control plane that makes Zero Trust real. Zero Trust is not sustained by perimeter hardening; it is sustained by reliable decisions about identity, entitlement, and review. Once access is distributed across cloud, SaaS, service accounts, and automation, the programme needs a governance layer that can keep those decisions current. Practitioners should treat identity governance as the operational backbone of Zero Trust, not as a side project.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 85% of organisations lack full visibility into third-party vendors connected via OAuth apps, according to the State of Non-Human Identity Security.
- A separate finding from the 2024 ESG Report: Managing Non-Human Identities shows that two-thirds of enterprises have endured a successful cyberattack resulting from compromised non-human identities.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What should organisations prioritise first: access reviews or privilege reduction?
A: Prioritise privilege reduction first when you already know there is excess access, then use reviews to keep it from coming back. Reviews verify the current state, but they do not eliminate broad entitlements on their own. If the environment is heavily over-permissioned, reducing standing access creates the biggest immediate risk drop.
👉 Read our full editorial: Identity governance is the missing control layer for Zero Trust
