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11/07/2026 8:48 pm
TL;DR: Identity access management has shifted from login administration to the control plane for security, compliance, and productivity as enterprises face remote work, SaaS sprawl, third-party access, and credential-led attacks, according to eMudhra. The strategic failure is assuming perimeter tools can compensate for unmanaged identities.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by eMudhra: Identity access management solutions and the enterprise control plane for trust
By the numbers:
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them.
- 96% of organisations store secrets outside of secrets managers in vulnerable locations including code, config files, and CI/CD tools.
- 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams handle identity management when perimeter security is no longer enough?
A: They should treat identity as the primary enforcement point for access, then apply MFA, least privilege, PAM, and contextual policies to every sensitive path.
Q: Why do unmanaged identities create more risk than traditional network threats?
A: Because attackers often bypass firewalls entirely by using valid credentials, tokens, or overprivileged accounts.
Q: What do identity teams get wrong about audit readiness?
A: They often treat audit readiness as documentation quality instead of control effectiveness.
Practitioner guidance
- Rebuild access policy around subject, context, and privilege scope Inventory which systems still rely on perimeter assumptions and map them to identity-enforced access decisions, including MFA, PAM, and conditional access where appropriate.
- Automate joiner, mover, and leaver workflows from authoritative sources Connect HR, contractor management, and service-account lifecycle events so entitlements are removed when the business relationship ends, not after manual review.
- Separate audit evidence from governance decisions Use logs and compliance dashboards to prove what happened, then review whether the access should have existed under least-privilege policy.
What's in the full article
eMudhra's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Specific IAM capability descriptions for certificate-based authentication, MFA, and behavioural analytics.
- Product-level detail on PAM, JIT access, and session recording for regulated environments.
- Compliance mapping language for GDPR, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, SOC 2, UAE PDPL, and Kenya DPA.
- The vendor's own explanation of how IAM, PKI, and digital signatures are combined in its platform.
👉 Read eMudhra's article on identity access management solutions and digital trust →
Identity management and IAM control planes: what teams need now?
Explore further
11/07/2026 9:14 pm
Identity has become the enforcement point because perimeter security no longer matches how access is actually consumed. The article reflects a broader market truth: workloads, third parties, and users now reach data through identity checks, not through fixed network boundaries. That makes IAM, PAM, and NHI governance the practical control layer for the modern enterprise. Practitioners should treat identity policy as core infrastructure, not as an administrative back office function.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- 91.6% of secrets remain valid five days after the targeted organisation is notified, showing a critical gap in remediation procedures.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How should teams govern non-human identities in AI-heavy environments?
A: Teams should govern non-human identities the same way they govern other privileged assets: assign ownership, minimise scope, rotate credentials regularly, and monitor for abnormal use. The key difference is speed. AI-driven workflows can exploit exposed access quickly, so detection and revocation must be automated and tied to lifecycle controls.
👉 Read our full editorial: Identity management is now the enterprise control plane for trust
