Building the Foundation of Digital Trust: Why Identity Security Remains Undervalued

Identity Security is one of the most underestimated foundations of cybersecurity. Behind the routine request to “give a person access” lies a company’s decision to trust an individual with its information and to allow work with specific documents and systems. This requires understanding what the person must do, which data they need, and when their permissions should end.

Significant investments in protection tools can still leave a dismissed employee with access to confidential documents while a new hire waits for access to a critical system. The topic clearly shows how deeply IT and information security functions intersect. The same directory services, sign-on mechanisms, and access management tools both enable applications and protect company information.

Price of Errors in Access Management

The 2026 Identity Conf presented research by Indid and the Identity Club. The survey covered 200 organizations with at least 100 employees that already use at least one Identity Security solution. 43.5% of respondents reported errors in manual rights assignment that temporarily gave outsiders access to confidential data. 33.5% noted access remaining for dismissed employees. These figures reflect the participants’ own organizations and cannot be extrapolated to the entire Russian market, yet they illustrate where problems arise: personnel changes do not always reach information-system settings.

The reverse side of the problem is equally costly. Before IdM implementation, account creation at Lamoda Tech could take three days. Warehouse staff need access on the morning of their first working day. Such delays affect core business processes and helped justify investment in Identity Security.

Designing Protection Together with Business Processes

In August 2026 NIST introduced the Human-Centered Cybersecurity concept. The authors recommend considering people’s needs, capabilities, and limitations when developing policies, processes, and technologies. For Identity Security this approach should cover the entire path from the decision on permissions to task execution. A manager asked to review an employee’s rights may see only obscure technical role names; the request format must therefore provide clear business explanations.

Economics of the Project Across the Full Lifecycle

Project evaluation must distinguish waiting time from labor costs. Three days until access is granted does not equal three days of continuous administrator work. The freed time of an employee does not automatically become an economic benefit; the actual change in their work must be measured. Separate evaluation of operational improvement and risk reduction is advised. Measurable indicators include task completion time and labor costs, while expected losses are assessed through scenarios and documented assumptions.

What to consider in the project:

• Data to verify: implementation and maintenance costs, labor for surveys, integrations, support, rights reviews, and audit evidence preparation.
• Load on business processes: access waiting time, task execution, login and recovery success rates, approval errors, support tickets, and manual exceptions.
• Residual business risk: unacceptable action scenarios, potential damage, and actual ability to detect and terminate dangerous access.

From Human Trust to System Permissions

Determining who needs access begins with relationships between people. Employment or contractor agreements define the work, conditions, and responsibilities. These legally formalized relations must serve as the basis for granting information and system access. Architectural frameworks such as TOGAF help describe business functions, yet the model must accurately reflect each employee’s and external contractor’s real working tasks. Contract, position, and instructions alone do not explain which data require access; commercial secrets, medical confidentiality, attorney-client privilege, and personal data rules must be mapped to concrete actions and resources.

Keeping Permissions Aligned with Company Changes

After initial configuration, business tasks change, contracts end, and new applications appear. Identity Security is therefore a set of processes forming a managed lifecycle with feedback at three levels: rapid restriction of dangerous access, periodic review of actual permissions, and revision of system-wide rules. These processes align with NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 controls AC-2, AC-6(7), AU-6, and IR-4, as well as NIST SP 800-137 for continuous monitoring. Russian FSTEC Order No. 117 (points 48 and 49) and GOST R 59547-2021 provide additional reference points for commercial organizations.

Linking Business Permissions to Application Rights

Centralized access management requires that decisions on permissions are correctly executed in every application. Failed integration attempts have shown that attributes and detailed rights configured only inside an application cannot be managed through API. Pre-project surveys must therefore trace the path from agreed business actions to their execution in each specific application. IGA combines organizational governance with system administration, while IdM links HR data to accounts, assigns and revokes rights, and reconciles results against approved permissions. RBAC and ABAC models, described in GOST R 59383-2021, translate business roles into technical permissions. Integrations must be maintained as the landscape evolves; implementation in a mid-sized company typically takes 10–12 months according to Solar estimates.

Assembling a Trust Environment from Domestic Solutions

The Russian market already offers mature domestic products covering IdM, Credential Management, Access Management (including SSO and PAM), and governance functions. The FICAM reference model from GSA illustrates how identity management, electronic credentials, and access control integrate with overall governance and information resources. Organizations can adapt this model to their own infrastructure and regulatory requirements.