Separation of Duties: Your First Line of Defense Against Insider Risk

You have probably seen this in the news: another whistleblower, another organisation in Asia-Pacific in trouble.

I am not here to talk about the scandal. What caught my attention was the real red flag, a complete lack of Separation of Duties (SoD).

And honestly, that’s not surprising. Too often, SoD gets treated like a boring compliance checkbox. But in reality? It’s one of the most important guardrails an organisation can put in place.

It’s Not Just About Fraud. It’s About Control

SoD is simple: no single person should have control over multiple critical systems in a process. It creates checks and balances that prevent both mistakes and malicious actions.

Think about it, if someone in finance can create a vendor, submit invoices, and approve payments, they don’t need bad intentions for things to go sideways. One slip-up or one exploited vulnerability is enough to cause major damage.

Same story in IT. If an admin can create user accounts and approve access to sensitive data, that’s basically handing them the keys to the kingdom.

SoD is not just a compliance issue, it’s a security issue. It’s about protecting your business, your customers, and your reputation.

At Saviynt, We See SoD Violations Every Day

We have been talking to a lot of customers across Australia and Asia-Pacific. And these are not outliers, almost every organisation has some form of identity debt. Legacy roles, outdated access models, people with too much access because no one had time to fix it.

Let me give you a few real examples (you can read more on our customer page):

Origin was going through a massive digital transformation. The team discovered that identity debt had crept in, employees had access they did not need anymore, and roles had not been reviewed in years. Cleaning that up helped them fix SoD risks across apps. 

When ENGIE modernised their IT stack, they realised they did not have a clean way to validate who had access to what. Saviynt helped them get real visibility, and make sure no one had too many hats. 

First Solar is operating in a heavily regulated industry, they needed to make sure engineers did not have access to financial systems. Sounds simple, but when legacy permissions pile up, even that can get messy. Saviynt helped them build that clean separation. 

Why SoD Is Hard, And How to Fix It

Here’s the truth: SoD gets messy fast. Especially in complex environments where finance, HR, and IT all use different systems. In today’s organizations that are already navigating growing complexity, violations can slip through the cracks, sometimes across multiple apps, leaving them blind to risk.

That’s where Saviynt Identity Cloud changes the game:

Detective and preventive controls: Catch SoD violations before access is granted, and flag existing risks for remediation.

Cross application risk analysis: Because conflicting permissions often span more than one system.

Out-of-the-box rulesets: SAP, Oracle, Workday, Salesforce—you name it, we’ve got pre-built controls.

SOD workbench and insights: Security teams get a clear view of violations and risks, not just raw data.

Think of it as moving from “check the box” compliance to real-time guardrails that keep your organisation safe.

Why Separation of Duties Matters Now

Every time stories like this hit the headlines, I can’t help but wonder how different it could have been with strong SoD controls in place.

This is not about fear, it’s about reality. Without SoD, you are leaving the door wide open for fraud, errors, and compliance failures. With it, you are protecting not just systems, but trust, reputations, and careers.

So next time someone says, “SoD is not a priority right now…”—remind them that the organisations making headlines probably thought the same thing.

At the end of the day, SoD is more than an audit requirement, it’s your first line of defense against insider risk. And with Saviynt, you can build it into the fabric of your organisation, detecting, preventing, and remediating violations before they turn into stories you never want to see in the news.

If your organisation is also thinking about modernising identity governance, we would love to discuss how the Saviynt Identity Cloud can help you achieve the right balance between tradition and transformation, with separation of duties built in from the start.

Keep asking the tough questions. To learn more, request a demo today.