Nearly all (94%) businesses surveyed have experienced an identity-related security breach. Of those, 79% have suffered one in the past two years, a new identity security report indicates.

Researchers with the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA), an organization comprised of identity and security vendors, polled 502 security and identity professionals to learn more about the challenges and progress related to adopting an identity-centric security approach. The majority (70%) said they are "somewhat confident" in their company's ability to manage and secure all types of identities, 26% are "very confident," and 4% report no confidence at all.

This confidence shifted when researchers took a closer look at specific types of identities. Half of respondents said they are very confident in their ability to secure and manage privileged users, and 49% said the same about securing employees. Their confidence declined when asked about protecting the identities of applications, partners and third parties, and machines/IoT devices.

The top cause of identity-related breaches was phishing, as cited by 66% of respondents. Stolen credentials (32%) was another popular technique. Others included poorly managed privileges (28%), brute-force attacks (24%), and socially engineered passwords (23%). Human identities were more commonly compromised – 75% of respondents disclosed compromised employee identities – followed by privileged users (34%) and partners and other third parties (27%). Non-human identities, such as service accounts (25%) and applications (28%), are less affected.

Read more details and access the full report here.

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