Topic starter
08/07/2026 7:08 pm
TL;DR: Cyber resilience in 2026 depends on continuous privileged access control, because 2025 brought a 53% rise in ransomware victims on leak sites, 4,352 weekly attacks on education organisations, and 46% of compromised systems with corporate logins on unmanaged devices, according to Fudo Security. Project-based security is no longer enough when dormant accounts, leaked secrets, and broad access make recovery harder than prevention.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Fudo Security: “Fudo Security”.
By the numbers:
- The number of victims shamed on double-extortion leak sites surged to over 7,960 in 2025, a 53% year-over-year increase, according to Fudo Security.
- Educational institutions faced an average of 4,352 attacks per organisation weekly, representing a 22% increase, according to Fudo Security.
- The median time to remediate exposed secrets was 94 days, according to Fudo Security.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when privileged access is not continuously governed?
A: When privileged access is not continuously governed, standing privilege persists, dormant accounts remain usable, and the attack surface expands across human and machine identities.
Q: Why do unmanaged devices increase the risk of token theft?
A: Unmanaged devices often lack the security controls needed to stop cookie theft, malware, or session replay.
Q: What are the first privileged access controls teams should strengthen?
A: Start with the controls that shrink standing exposure the fastest: offboard dormant accounts, inventory privileged credentials, and remove permanent access where task-based elevation is enough.
Practitioner guidance
- Audit standing privileged access Identify every account that can administer, modify, or disable critical systems and remove standing access where the business task does not require permanent privilege.
- Tighten offboarding for all identity types Require a verified owner and a revocation step for employee, contractor, third-party, and service accounts so dormant credentials do not survive role changes or supplier exits.
- Reduce exposure from unmanaged devices Block privileged sign-in from devices that are not enrolled, monitored, or policy-compliant, especially where corporate logins are used outside managed endpoints.
Bottom line: The article frames cyber resilience as a control problem centred on privileged access, not a one-time security project.
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08/07/2026 7:33 pm
Continuous privileged access control is now a resilience requirement, not a narrow PAM concern. The article’s numbers show that attack volume, credential theft, and delayed remediation are converging on the same failure point: standing access that remains useful after it should have been removed. Resilience programmes that do not continuously govern privileged paths will keep funding recovery while leaving the breach route intact.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How do organisations know whether PAM is actually improving resilience?
A: Organisations should measure how fast privileged access can be identified, suspended, and audited during an incident. If emergency access is difficult to trace, or revocation depends on manual coordination across systems, PAM is not yet functioning as a resilience control. The key signal is containment speed under pressure.
👉 Read our full editorial: Cyber resilience in 2026 depends on controlling privileged access