The Hidden Dangers of Unmanaged Identities — and How to Regain Control

Read full article from Delinea here: https://delinea.com/blog/uncovering-risks-unmanaged-identities/?utm_source=nhimg

In today’s digital-first enterprises, identity is the new perimeter. Yet a silent threat continues to expand beneath the surface, unmanaged identities. These are user or machine identities that fall outside traditional governance controls, often created unintentionally through automation, cloud workloads, or shadow IT. Without visibility, oversight, or lifecycle management, unmanaged identities have become one of the fastest-growing risk vectors for modern organizations.

What Are Unmanaged Identities?

Unmanaged identities refer to any human or non-human identity (NHI) that isn’t tracked, governed, or protected by identity management systems. They often emerge when security processes fail to deprovision accounts, when developers or business units bypass IAM workflows, or when AI and machine accounts multiply without centralized oversight. These identities exist across IT admin, workforce, developer, and machine categories — each introducing unique risks if left unmonitored.

For example, IT admin accounts with lingering privileges can create invisible backdoors for attackers, while workforce identities are vulnerable to human error, orphaned accounts, and privilege creep. Developers often operate in high-speed environments, where access shortcuts can bypass standard controls, and machine identities — including those tied to automation or AI, can be exploited to infiltrate sensitive systems.

The Rise of Agentic AI and New Identity Complexity

The next frontier of unmanaged identity risk lies within Agentic AI — autonomous AI systems capable of making decisions, spawning new agents, and interacting across hybrid environments without direct human input. These agents operate independently, often beyond the visibility of IT teams. Their ability to create, modify, and connect with other systems introduces a new class of identity sprawl, where traditional IAM and PAM solutions struggle to keep pace. As organizations scale their AI initiatives, unmanaged agentic identities are fast becoming a high-priority concern for CISOs.

The Risks of Unmanaged Identities

Unmanaged identities create a trifecta of risks — security, compliance, and operational disruption.

• Security Risks: Forgotten or over-permissioned accounts expand the attack surface, making credential theft, lateral movement, and privilege escalation far more likely. Many high-profile breaches can be traced back to an unmanaged or orphaned identity that granted attackers undetected access.
• Compliance and Regulatory Risks: Frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX require comprehensive identity oversight. Unmanaged accounts can result in incomplete audit trails, compliance gaps, and substantial penalties if they lead to data exposure.
• Operational Risks: A lack of identity visibility adds complexity and inefficiency to IT operations. Unauthorized or abandoned accounts can disrupt business continuity, increase administrative overhead, and erode customer trust after security incidents.

Why Controlling Unmanaged Identities Is So Difficult

Several structural challenges make unmanaged identities particularly hard to contain. Lack of centralized visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud environments leaves organizations blind to where identities exist. Siloed IT and security teams lead to inconsistent processes, while rapid DevOps and cloud adoption outpace traditional IAM capabilities. Incomplete offboarding, combined with shadow IT initiatives, continues to spawn new identities outside formal management.

Best Practices for Managing Unmanaged Identities

Forward-thinking organizations are shifting from reactive cleanup to proactive identity hygiene. Key practices include:

• Continuous Identity Discovery and Inventory: Ongoing visibility across human, machine, and AI entities in all environments.
• Automated Provisioning and Deprovisioning: Lifecycle automation to eliminate dormant or abandoned accounts.
• Least Privilege and Just-in-Time (JIT) Access: Dynamic access enforcement to limit exposure windows.
• Regular Audits and Access Reviews: Continuous compliance validation and anomaly detection.
• Advanced IAM and PAM Integration: Deploying modern identity solutions that unify governance across complex IT ecosystems.

The Role of Modern Identity Security Solutions

Technologies such as Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), and Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) are proving essential in tackling unmanaged identity sprawl. These solutions deliver visibility, control, and automated remediation across human, machine, and agentic identities. When integrated, they enable security teams to enforce consistent policies, detect orphaned credentials, and reduce attack surfaces across cloud and hybrid infrastructures.

The Bottom Line

Unmanaged identities are no longer a hidden problem—they are a strategic risk that touches every layer of an organization’s digital ecosystem. Without continuous discovery, governance, and automation, even mature IAM programs can fall short. By adopting identity-centric security practices and leveraging next-generation IAM and PAM tools, enterprises can regain visibility, strengthen compliance, and future-proof themselves against the growing complexity of identity sprawl.

In the age of digital transformation and AI-driven automation, identity visibility and governance are non-negotiable. Building an enterprise-wide culture of identity accountability will define the next phase of cyber resilience.