Security
Cloud identity sprawl: What it is and how to prevent it
Cloud identity sprawl happens when an organization’s digital identities — user accounts, service accounts, roles, and permissions — get out of control across their cloud environments.
This happens mostly due to the lack of a dedicated team and rapid cloud adoption. As a result, different teams quickly create new cloud resources and identities without a central management strategy. It’s like having a house with too many keys, and you’re not sure who has access to what.
Risks associated with cloud identity sprawl
It’s important for any organization in the cloud to understand and address the risks associated with cloud identity sprawl. Failing to take care of this problem can expose your business to a range of serious threats. Let’s look at a few examples:
1. Security breaches
A developer forgets to remove an over-privileged service account information and push it to a version control system. Later on, the repository is made public and automated scanners pick this up faster than a speeding bullet. Next thing you know, your cloud environment now belongs to a crypto-mining group. Sounds scary? This will not only cost your organization but also bring its operations to a halt, make them non-compliant, and potentially cause it to shut down.
2. Insider threats
An employee, angry they are being let go due to poor performance, finds a way to gain extra privileges due to the lack of cloud IAM monitoring. They end up downloading and selling sensitive customer data without you knowing. Six months later, you discover the issue, but by then, auditors are already asking for an explanation, and a hefty fine might be coming your way.
3. Auditing challenges
The time has come for your organization to comply with regulations since the bigger your customers are, the more compliance they demand. You are looking at a long list of items related to IAM, but you have no idea how to audit your posture. No one told you to keep track of identities. What do you do? It’s not like there is an “IAM cleaning service” hotline.
These are just some of the security risks that come with cloud identity sprawl. But, unfortunately, there are secondary operational risks, such as management overhead due to a high number of identities, compliance challenges that we touched upon earlier and loss of customer trust. And finally, if not managed well, cloud identity sprawl can cause an increase in costs, financial penalties due to non-compliance, and a loss of revenue from missed opportunities.
There are many more to talk about, but I think these risks are enough to give you goosebumps.
Mitigation strategies for cloud identity sprawl
Thankfully, cloud identity sprawl is a manageable problem. By implementing the right strategies, you can effectively minimize risks and make sure your cloud resources are secure.
One of those strategies is implementing the principle of least privilege. By granting only the necessary permissions to users and services, you can greatly reduce the blast radius of a potential leak.
For more advanced use cases where your organization needs to manage a large number of identities, you need to start thinking about automation and centralization. If you use the right tools to simplify processes like user provisioning, de-provisioning, and access reviews, you can really reduce the inconsistencies in how you manage IAM.
How Revolgy can help
Navigating the complexities of cloud identity management is a challenge. But you don’t have to walk this path alone. Our IAM experts will help your organization establish a secure and efficient IAM framework. We will work with you on every step of the process, from analyzing your current IAM landscape to establishing least privilege access and streamlining identity lifecycles.
Revolgy can help you improve your IAM security and make sure your cloud environment follows best practices. This will give you more time to focus on your main business goals!
Beyond the initial review and optimization, we can also implement privileged access management (PAM), help you deploy Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) tooling, and provide your team with the knowledge and skills necessary to manage your organization’s cloud IAM effectively through dedicated training sessions.
Don’t have a team? You can also get continuous access to Revolgy IAM expertise that will proactively find and fix potential risks so your assets are always protected. Contact us today to find out more!
Read next: Solve your problem with IT sprawl (ebook)