Security Posture

January 06, 2025

What is Security Posture, and Why Does Identity Matter?

Security posture is an organization’s ability to protect itself against potential cyber threats. It includes everything from policies and processes to technology and people. Security posture isn’t just having tools in place; it’s how well you manage these elements to protect your assets and ensure business continuity.

Identity plays a central role here. Each digital identity—be it a user or app—becomes a potential gateway for access. Mismanaged identities or weak access controls can lead to data breaches, unauthorized access, and compliance issues. Effective security posture now requires understanding and managing identities as the cornerstone of defense. Key identity components like Identity Access Management (IAM), Single Sign-On (SSO), and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) help ensure that the right people, and only the right people, have access to sensitive resources.

How Identity Impacts Security Posture

A comprehensive security posture cannot be achieved without complete visibility into identities across your SaaS landscape. Let’s break down the major ways identity affects your organization’s security posture.

Visibility of Identities Across SaaS

The first step in identity-driven security is to know where all identities reside. SaaS adoption has made it challenging for organizations to track users, applications, and data. Every user and app in your network should be accounted for—whether they’re managed centrally or accessed through Shadow IT. Savvy’s technology, for instance, helps uncover both managed and unmanaged apps, bringing shadow identities into view.

Strength of Identity Hygiene

Identity hygiene involves maintaining secure credentials, strong passwords, and regularly rotating them to reduce risks. Weak credentials are a key vulnerability for cyber threats like password spraying, credential stuffing, and account takeover attacks. Organizations mitigate these risks by enforcing practices like MFA, secure passwords, and regular credential audits. Savvy’s solutions identify reused or compromised passwords and enforce identity hygiene across SaaS applications, strengthening your overall security posture.

Automated Identity Remediation

Not all identity risks are equal. Certain risk combinations, such as a lack of MFA or compromised credentials, demand immediate attention. Automated remediation steps allow organizations to act swiftly on high-risk identities. Savvy’s Zero-Touch Integrations (ZTI) automates key processes like MFA implementation and credential resets, reducing the chance for human error and alleviating IT workload.

Steps to Strengthen Security Posture Through Identity Management

To create an effective security posture, businesses must follow proactive steps, beginning with identity management. Here’s how.

Discover All Identities: Start by creating a map of all identities across your SaaS ecosystem. The challenge is ensuring that all user identities, including those created via Shadow IT, are identified. Solutions like Savvy’s SaaS discovery uncover all identities, even those outside traditional controls. Organizations can pinpoint unmanaged risks by mapping out all user identities, assess each app’s security, and create a holistic view of their identity landscape.

Prioritize Identity Risks with Automated Analysis: Not every identity issue is urgent, so prioritize them. Identity risk prioritization uses automated analysis to surface the most concerning risks, allowing security teams to focus on critical threats. Toxic combinations of risk factors—like lack of MFA in high-risk apps or credentials found on the dark web—can be addressed faster with automated insights. Savvy’s platform identifies these high-risk identity combinations and enables real-time remediation.

Implement Just-in-Time Guardrails: Protecting user identities requires controls at key moments of decision. Just-in-time guardrails guide users in real-time, prompting them to verify security-sensitive actions. Whether it’s signing into a SaaS app or approving new access, these guardrails help prevent insecure actions. Savvy’s browser-based guardrails engage users directly, making it easy for them to choose secure behaviors without impacting productivity.

Automate Offboarding and Lifecycle Management: Managing identities isn’t just about granting access—it’s also about knowing when and how to revoke it. Without effective offboarding, former employees may retain access to sensitive systems, leading to security risks. Savvy’s automated offboarding workflows remove this challenge by ensuring accounts are deactivated and access is revoked in real-time. From onboarding to offboarding, automating identity management keeps organizations safe and compliant.

Best Practices for Identity-Driven Security Posture

Strengthening your security posture through identity doesn’t have to be complex. Organizations can improve their defenses by following these best practices while empowering employees.

Centralize Access Control: A fragmented identity approach leaves gaps in security. By centralizing access with IAM tools like Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), organizations create consistent access rules across their SaaS environment. Centralized access reduces password fatigue and limits identity sprawl, which commonly leads to security gaps.

Regularly Audit Identity Hygiene: Conduct regular identity audits to ensure credentials remain secure, accounts stay relevant, and outdated access is revoked. Identity hygiene audits uncover risky behaviors, like password reuse or inactive accounts, and help maintain a clean identity inventory. Solutions like Savvy enable ongoing identity assessments, making detecting potential risks easy and reinforcing identity hygiene.

Encourage Employee Engagement: Building a strong security posture requires more than just tools. Employees must understand and participate in security practices. Just-in-time guardrails, for example, serve as in-the-moment reminders, nudging employees toward safer behaviors. By engaging users directly, organizations foster a culture where security becomes second nature.

The Business Case for Identity-First Security Posture

A strong, identity-focused security posture delivers clear advantages to organizations, particularly those operating in SaaS-heavy environments.

Reduced Risk and Compliance Assurance

By placing identity at the center of security posture, organizations reduce their exposure to data breaches, compliance fines, and other regulatory risks. An identity-first approach ensures comprehensive control over sensitive information, strengthening compliance readiness.

Operational Efficiency through Automation

Automated identity management reduces the manual burden on IT and security teams, allowing for smoother access processes. Automation also means faster responses to identity risks, ultimately minimizing downtime and preventing potential breaches.

Cost Savings

Poor identity management and manual processes lead to inefficiencies and heightened costs. With automation and identity-first strategies, organizations avoid costs related to security incidents, downtime, and compliance penalties. Savvy’s solutions eliminate manual offboarding and identity monitoring, saving time and financial resources while securing critical assets.

Building a Resilient Security Posture Through Identity

Identity is no longer an afterthought in security posture—it’s the foundation. With a proactive, identity-driven approach, organizations gain visibility, control, and protection over all identities in their SaaS environment. Strong identity practices—like secure credentials, automated remediation, and user engagement—fortify defenses, making it possible for businesses to focus on growth and innovation with confidence.

Is your organization ready to strengthen its security posture? Contact Savvy for a free assessment to evaluate your identity-driven security measures and learn how to protect your business against identity-related risks.