A new report reveals that 89% of businesses are somewhat or very concerned that new privacy regulations will impact identity security at their organization.

The Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) recently released its 2023 Trends in Identity Security report, based on an online survey of more than 500 identity and security professionals. This report provides insight into the progress organizations are making in defending against the rapid increase in cyberattacks and the approaches large companies are taking toward security and identity.

Identity-related incidents continue to plague organizations with 90% reporting one in the last 12 months, a 6% increase from last year's report. As identities continue to significantly grow, identity stakeholders are faced with an increasing number of barriers without the needed support from leadership. This is shown with 49% reporting their leadership teams understand identity and security risks and proactively invest in protection before suffering an incident, while 29% only engage and support after an incident.

Protecting digital identities is crucial as cyberattacks increase in sophistication and volume. Organizations need to ensure only the right people have access to the right data, networks and systems and that they use technologies effective at preventing malicious actors from gaining access to sensitive information. The research finds that as the number of identities increases, more businesses are suffering identity-related incidents and are prioritizing securing them as a critical priority. Securing these identities remains a challenge for most organizations.

Other key report highlights

• Top two barriers for security teams are identity frameworks being complicated by multiple vendors and different architectures (40%) and complex technology environments (39%)
• Respondents also identified insufficient budget (30%), a lack of expertise (29%), standards (26%), people (25%) and governance (23%) as barriers
• Only 49% of identity stakeholders said their leadership teams understand identity and security risks and proactively invest in protection prior to an incident
• 55% report that the adoption of more cloud applications is the main reason for an increase in the number of identities
• Other critical factors driving identity growth were identified as the rises in remote work (50%), mobile device usage (44%) and third- party relationships (41%)
• 86% of respondents say managing and securing identity is one of the top five priorities of their security program