A practical identity security guide covering dormant accounts, excessive privilege, access reviews, service identities and SaaS access risk.
Dormant does not mean harmless
Accounts that are no longer actively used may still retain access to applications, cloud platforms or sensitive data. If credentials are compromised, dormant accounts can provide attackers with access that is less likely to be noticed by the legitimate owner.
Privilege tends to accumulate
Employees change roles, join projects and receive temporary permissions that are not always removed. Periodic reviews should compare current business responsibilities with actual access rather than simply asking managers to approve a long list of existing permissions.
Service identities need ownership
Automation accounts, API keys and workload identities often have broad permissions and weak ownership. Maintain an inventory, assign an accountable team, rotate credentials appropriately and review whether the privilege level still matches the workload's function.
SaaS expands the identity perimeter
Business teams can adopt SaaS applications quickly, creating access paths outside traditional infrastructure controls. Visibility into connected applications, user accounts, OAuth grants and privileged roles is essential for understanding the real identity attack surface.
Prioritize access by impact
Not every access finding has equal risk. Focus first on administrative permissions, externally reachable systems, sensitive data, financial workflows and identities that can create further privilege escalation.
What to do next
Use these principles as a starting point, then validate them against your own architecture, users, business workflows and threat exposure. Security priorities become more useful when they are tied to the systems and outcomes the business actually depends on.