As dependence on digital identity for access, governance, and automation continues to grow, it becomes more and more important to ensure that identities are managed appropriately and backed up by other forms of authentication to establish trust. However, gaps in identity security are widening, putting organizations at increasing risk of cybersecurity incidents occurring through identity-related vectors. In the 2026 RSA ID IQ Report, the data shows a 27-point increase in identity-related breaches year-over-year, demonstrating the clear inadequacy of modern identity security.
The Cost of a Compromised Identity
Attacks leveraging identity compromise are increasing not only in volume, but in cost to targets as well. In the report, nearly half of the organizations cited identity breaches that turned out to be costlier than the industry average breach. One in four of these breaches now exceeds $10 million in damages, showing identity’s direct link to financial exposure and business continuity.
The growing cost of these attacks is indicative of trends in attacker tactics and goals. “We are living in an age where identity compromise is becoming so common that only the most significant losses are worth reporting,” says James Maude, Field CTO at BeyondTrust. “Threat actors have mirrored the legitimate business world and instead of attempting to complete every stage of an attack, from social engineering to identity compromise to stealing or encrypting data, and then having to monetize, they have begun to specialize.”
The Human Weak Link: IT Help Desk and Social Engineering
Recent high-profile cyberattacks breaching major organizations like MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and Marks & Spencer demonstrate the vital importance of securing support desk and third-party support infrastructure and relationships. Attackers use phishing tactics to target support staff, exploiting service desk trust channels in order to escalate privileges or reset credentials.
In the RSA report, 51% of respondents rank social engineering attacks on IT help desks or service desks as their most significant organizational risk. This is second only to the 53% of respondents citing phishing as their primary concern, followed by insider threats (46%), attacks on Active Directory (41%), and shadow IT and unauthorized apps (40%).
Passwordless: The Promise That Keeps Stalling
Passwordless authentication can offer a wide range of benefits in enterprise environments, security-related and otherwise, but still has yet to reach truly widespread adoption. Agnidipta Sarkar, Chief Evangelist at ColorTokens, notes that “it is essential to authenticate partners and vendors through digital certificate-based passwordless authentication. This measure would prevent opportunities for credential misuse, particularly in situations where established trust boundaries have been compromised.”
While there is widespread recognition among security experts that passwordless authentication is a step forward, 90% of respondents in the report cite barriers to deploying passwordless solutions. The three major challenges organizations face in this endeavor are security concerns, concerns about user experience, and the lack of complete platform support. Behavioral inertia and cost hurdles slow progress toward passwordless solutions: the effort and resources required to adopt new technologies and protocols can be prohibitive, especially when compared to the custom and comfort of continuing to use old ones.
AI: Cybersecurity’s Double-Edged Sword
While optimism surrounding AI capabilities is high, with 83% of respondents believing that AI adoption will favor defenders, the arms race is far from settled. The use of AI can offer a number of advantages to organizations, making operations more efficient and effective. However, it also introduces new and increased risks to enterprise environments while simultaneously being increasingly leveraged by attackers.
Organizations can benefit from emerging AI uses like identity verification, anomaly detection, and fraud prevention, but they must also account for the potential misuse of AI technology for credential phishing and impersonation. It is crucial to understand and manage the risks of AI tools and agents before implementing new technology that can access sensitive data and carry out critical operations.
Where Identity Security Goes Next
Looking ahead, it is likely that the landscape will lead to a convergence of autonomous identity governance, AI-driven verification, and continuous risk scoring. Handling the issues endemic to the ongoing identity crisis will require incorporating new approaches. With identity-based attacks on the rise and identity management evolving, identity resilience will soon define organizational resilience itself.
