The problem with legacy thinking around identity security

You’ve probably heard the phrase “identity is the new perimeter.” It’s repeated often in security circles, and for good reason. In most companies, identity has long been considered a supporting function. It’s treated as a gateway to systems, a set of policies to manage access, and a line item on the security checklist. 

But the landscape has shifted, and fast.

Identity sits at the center of how people, devices, and systems connect. It’s also the first place attackers look when trying to infiltrate enterprise systems. If your security model still treats identity as a back-end process, it’s out of step with the way threats operate now.

With the rise of remote work, growing cloud environments, and an explosion of SaaS applications, the surface area for identity-related attacks has expanded dramatically. Credential theft, session hijacking, and phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) bypasses have become routine tactics. At the same time, traditional identity systems, designed for a centralized, perimeter-based model, are showing their limits.

In this article, we’ll look at how legacy thinking about identity Security puts organizations at risk, why those risks are becoming harder to detect, and what companies need to change to regain control.

The legacy approach to identity security

Let’s take a step back and look at how identity systems were built initially.

Most traditional identity and Access Management (IAM) tools were designed for a centralized environment. Think VPNs, on-premises applications, managed devices, and users working from the office. In that context, identity was mainly about access control, meaning who could get in and when.

Authentication methods were fairly limited. Passwords were the norm; maybe you had one-time passcodes or tokens in place for added security. MFA and single sign-on were often optional and not required. They were seen as features that improved convenience, not essential security measures.

That thinking stuck around longer than it should have. As organizations moved into the cloud, identity systems didn’t evolve fast enough. Many stayed siloed from the rest of the security stack. Provisioning and de-provisioning were handled manually, and access was managed app by app. 

Visibility was limited, automation was minimal, and context around user activity was often missing. And while the landscape has changed, many organizations haven’t. This outdated model is still in place in environments that are now far more complex, and that’s exactly what’s getting exploited.

Today, attackers aren’t going through the network perimeter. They’re targeting identity directly. And when identity is treated like a checkpoint instead of a critical layer of defense, those gaps are easy to exploit.

Identity is the new attack surface

This shift in how identity is used (and exploited) has significant implications. Attackers learned they didn’t need to brute-force their way through hardened infrastructure anymore. It’s often easier to exploit overlooked identity controls or slip through weak authentication methods. Once inside, they can move laterally with little resistance, especially if identity is treated as a passive checkpoint instead of an active security layer.

At the same time, identity-based threats are becoming more common and increasingly complex. Session hijacking, token theft, and MFA bypasses are no longer rare techniques; they’re routine. Sophisticated campaigns are targeting authentication flows and post-authentication access. And with AI and automation in play, these attacks are scaling faster than ever.

The numbers speak for themselves. According to the 2024 Verizon Data Breach Report, in which Okta participated, over 80% of security breaches involve a compromised identity. In 2023, attackers stole over 1.9 billion session cookies from Fortune 1000 employees. Identity-related attacks increased by 180% year over year. And on average, it still takes organizations 272 days to detect and contain a breach.

These aren’t edge cases but clear signs that the traditional tools and playbooks aren’t enough anymore. If your identity security approach can’t reduce risk across users, service accounts, devices, and cloud apps in real time, you’re working with blind spots that attackers know how to find.

How fragmentation creates blind spots in the stack

So, where are these blind spots coming from? It starts with fragmentation. Modern enterprise environments are built from a mix of cloud services, SaaS tools, legacy systems, and third-party integrations. It may be a fast, flexible, and scalable way, but it’s also chaotic. Each new app, service, or platform adds another layer of complexity to your identity infrastructure.

The challenge isn’t just scale. It’s the lack of connection between those layers. Too often, identities are managed in isolation. Different teams handle access for different systems. Authentication policies vary from one app to the next. And identity-related data, like login history or user behavior, lives in silos, spread across disconnected platforms.

This makes it nearly impossible to maintain consistent access controls or apply security policies uniformly. MFA may be enforced in some areas and overlooked in others. De-provisioning might happen for employees but not for contractors or service accounts. And because there’s no centralized view, these gaps are hard to see until it’s too late.

For attackers, this is an ideal setup. Fragmentation slows down response time, makes misconfigurations easier to miss, and gives threat actors more ways to move unnoticed. A modern identity strategy needs to account for the reality of today’s stacks. Without a connected view and real-time insight, security teams are operating with partial information, and that’s exactly how breaches happen.

Why traditional IAM can’t keep up

By now, it should be clear that traditional IAM solutions aren’t built for today’s environments. Though they have the best intentions, many security teams are still working with identity systems built for a different era. These tools were designed for static environments, where access needs changed slowly and identities lived inside the corporate perimeter.

That’s not the world we’re operating in anymore. Today’s environments are far more dynamic, and identities are constantly added, changed, and removed. Contractors spin up for a few days of access. New SaaS tools are integrated on the fly. Users connect from unmanaged devices, across time zones, from anywhere. Unfortunately, most legacy IAM systems simply can’t keep up with that pace.

They don’t provide real-time visibility into who has access to what or adapt quickly to risk signals or context. They rely heavily on manual processes to provision users, revoke access, or audit permissions — tasks that become unmanageable as the number of identities grows.

All this creates friction, for security teams and across the business. Threat response slows down, policies become inconsistent, and misconfigurations slip through. The longer those gaps stay open, the more likely they’ll be exploited.

If you want to reduce risk and support secure access across users, apps, and services, you can’t manage identity in isolation. It needs to be connected to the rest of your security stack and operate at the speed of everything else in your environment.

The cost of delaying a modern identity strategy

It’s one thing to recognize the limitations of legacy tools. Acting on that recognition is another story. For many organizations, modernizing identity feels like a long-term project, something to get to once more urgent fires are out. But in reality, waiting only increases the risk. The longer identity stays disconnected from the rest of your security stack, the more those minor missteps and outdated processes compound.

Missed de-provisioning, inconsistent MFA, and a service account that no one’s tracked in months are all the kinds of gaps attackers look for, and are easy to miss when identity is still being managed through static policies and manual reviews.

That said, the cost isn’t limited to the risk of a breach. It’s also reflected in slower processes, inefficient workflows, and the lack of visibility that keeps security teams stuck in reactive mode, unable to prioritize long-term improvements or drive broader security outcomes.

A modern identity strategy gives organizations a way to turn identity into a strategic advantage. It delivers system-wide visibility, supports real-time decisions, and helps prevent risk before it escalates. The longer organizations wait to modernize, the more those hidden gaps turn into consequences, impacting security teams, the business, and the people they’re meant to protect.

Secure identity. Secure everything.

As identity becomes the primary attack surface, it holds the key to a more unified, resilient security strategy. Our eBook — Secure Identity. Secure Everything. — outlines a practical strategy for building identity into the core of your security architecture. It covers the real risks facing today’s environments, the gaps legacy systems leave behind, and the three principles driving the next generation of identity security.

If you're working to modernize your infrastructure, strengthen access controls, and reduce risk across complex systems, this guide offers the strategic direction and technical foundation to support that transformation. Download the eBook to get the strategy, frameworks, and benchmarks you need to move forward with confidence.