Privileged access governance: is your identity stack keeping up?

TL;DR: Privileged credentials still sit at the center of breach and compliance risk, with the source article arguing that fragmented identity tools cannot deliver continuous governance, audit evidence, or policy enforcement across ERP, cloud, and ITSM systems. That makes privileged access governance a control-plane problem, not a point-tool problem.

NHIMG editorial — based on content published by SafePaaS: privileged identity governance and continuous controls monitoring

By the numbers:

• More than 80% of security breaches involve compromised privileged credentials, according to the source article.

Questions worth separating out

Q: How should security teams govern privileged access across ERP, cloud, and ITSM systems?

A: They should govern privileged access through one policy and evidence layer, not separate approvals in each platform.

Q: Why do manual access reviews fail for privileged identities?

A: Manual reviews fail because privileged access changes faster than review cycles can capture.

Q: What breaks when segregation of duties is tracked in spreadsheets?

A: SoD breaks when incompatible duties cannot be evaluated in real time across systems.

Practitioner guidance

• Consolidate privileged governance into one control plane Normalise ERP, cloud, ITSM, and service account entitlements into a single governance layer so approvals, policy checks, and audit evidence are consistent.
• Encode segregation of duties as policy Replace spreadsheet-based SoD checks with machine-readable rules that can evaluate role combinations, transaction paths, and exception handling automatically.
• Shift recertification to event-triggered review Tie access review workflows to role changes, privilege exceptions, and high-risk activity instead of relying on fixed annual review cycles.

What's in the full article

SafePaaS's full article covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:

• How SafePaaS maps privileged identity governance across ERP, cloud, and ITSM control domains
• Examples of automation for segregation of duties analysis and continuous certification workflows
• Vendor-described control monitoring and audit evidence flows for compliance teams
• Implementation framing for unified privileged access management across connected enterprise systems

👉 Read SafePaaS's analysis of privileged identity governance and continuous control →

Privileged access governance: is your identity stack keeping up?

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