Unveiling Our Top 8 Identity & Security Trends and Predictions for 2023

Expert Insights and Advice to Inform Your Cybersecurity Strategy

Whether it’s shifting regulation and workforce dynamics, intensifying board scrutiny, extortion-based threats, sprawling IoT landscapes, or all of the above, security leaders contend with new challenges on a daily basis.

How can long-term planning happen in an environment like this? In our new eBook, Identity & Security Trends and Predictions: 2023 and Beyond, we’ve researched and gathered insights from cybersecurity leaders, consulting and systems integration experts, and technology providers. As you build your strategy for the coming year, we share actionable steps surrounding each trend to fortify your security posture.

Here’s a quick summary of the eight trends we think will define cybersecurity in 2023 and questions that we answer in our eBook:

Trend No. 1: The New CISO Leadership Mandate 

It’s now common for CISOs to be board members and regularly engage in C-level business discussions. But the technical background of a CISO can become a barrier to communication in this environment. Not surprisingly, disconnects emerge that affect the critical flow of resources and information. To maximize impact, CISOs must evolve their communication style to bridge gaps, improve performance, and even limit professional liability. Rather than framing issues in terms of cybersecurity, a focus on the business outcomes of cybersecurity is what C-Suite and Board Members want to see. We show you how to make the shift.  

Trend No. 2: Rapid Uptake of Cyber Insurance 

With an increase in frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks, damage to organizations can be enormous. Cyber insurance is gaining momentum as a means of protecting against this risk. However, vulnerable enterprises are noticing challenges with respect to insurance including cost, limited availability, and more stringent security expectations from insurers to policyholders. How is this affecting the ways companies approach identity and security? Can a strong IAM program offset the increasing cost of cyber insurance premiums?

Trend No. 3: Machine Identities and an All-Out Assault on APIs 

Cyber criminals have quickly exploited the explosive growth of machine identities. Cyber attacks that misuse machine identities increased by 1,600% over the last five years. In particular, API insecurities abound and often represent the most exposed component of a network. To keep the progress toward Zero Trust moving forward, we share what needs to be done to address machine identity compromise.

Trend No. 4: Filling Identity Security Gaps with IDR 

Identity Detection and Response (IDR) describes a new enterprise cybersecurity method that can protect an organization’s identity infrastructure and other IT systems. IDR uses identity-based risk to identify potentially malicious behavior occurring within an enterprise and restrict or terminate the identities exhibiting that behavior. IDR will provide the necessary identity risk context, access patterns, and behavior analysis in identifying a threat with high fidelity. By including identity-based risk signals, enterprises may boost discovery, inspection, analysis, incident management, and threat remediation capabilities. 

Trend No. 5: Advancing Permission Management with Policy-Based Access Controls 

Policy-based access techniques such as RBAC and ABAC have been in use for years, but trends toward centralized policy management and governance expose the need to orchestrate policies within diverse tools. We highlight marketplace movement and emerging frameworks designed to address how policies and controls cascade into enforcement points.

Trend No. 6: Planning for a Post-Quantum Cryptography Future

As quantum computing algorithms advance, encryption methods once considered unbreakable find themselves vulnerable. However, the new compute capabilities may also deliver promising benefits. What should enterprises do to prepare for this new paradigm of cybersecurity?

Trend No. 7: (Shift) to the Left, to the Left

Enterprises are quickly realizing the necessity of “shifting left” and introducing security measures earlier within the software supply chain, particularly as varied code, open-source software, data sets, and cloud-infrastructure get put to use. Additional emphasis from the White House and other governments has moved this security philosophy further into the mainstream, forcing security leaders to reflect more proactive (vs. reactive) security responses. How will this affect software supply chains in the future? Only time will tell.

Trend No. 8: Breakthroughs to Normalize and Unify Threat Data

Companies and organizations all collect risk and threat data in different ways, making data and threat intelligence sharing complicated. Have we finally entered an age of organized, coordinated, collective defense with just the right amount of regulatory push? Or is this still years in the future?

From expanding threat landscapes to innovative new technologies that will keep organizations safer, one thing is sure: the job of security leadership will only intensify in 2023. The unknowns will be a source of stress, but within the high-stakes work is an opportunity to make a meaningful difference.

Strengthen Your Security Posture with Saviynt

While we contemplate the future of enterprise identity security, CISO leadership tactics, machine identity security, coordinated security data sharing, and needed responses, the point isn’t whether we agree or disagree about eventual outcomes. Instead, we’ve provided you with discussions of our top trends, along with actions on how to respond to each one. Food for thought as you assess your organization’s readiness.

Keep in mind that Saviynt is here for you. Our team of experts can help you put Saviynt’s industry-leading cloud solutions to work so you can govern every identity with precision.

By considering industry trends and their implications, you can weigh your company’s responsiveness, resilience, and agility – critical characteristics no matter what eventually comes. Keep in mind the saying, “The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” 

Read the full report to learn our top strategies and recommendations for the year ahead.