- SailPoint report shows UK businesses neglect identity security
- 77% fail to deactivate former employee accounts, fueling credential abuse
- Outdated manual processes leave thousands of users and AI agents unmanaged
UK businesses are exposed to many risks due to poor cyber hygiene and a lack of attention to identity and access management. That’s according to a new report from SailPoint, based on a survey of 333 IT decision-makers at large organizations nationwide.
The survey reveals that the vast majority of companies (77%) do not immediately deactivate the digital accounts of people who leave the organization. This creates a security hole that can be exploited not only by former employees (who can steal sensitive files and transfer them to another company), but also by cybercriminals, since these accounts are unmonitored and therefore virtually invisible.
SailPoint says the problem is even worse than it seems, with a fifth (21%) of the entire UK workforce changing jobs in the last year. It also reported that incidents resulting from compromised credentials increased by 160% year over year, showing how real the risk is.
Article continues below
Wide access and inflated accounts
But the problems don’t start when employees leave. They start much earlier, according to one study, with more than a third (34%) of companies surveyed admitting to knowingly granting wider access to users.
At the same time, the number of user access points that organizations manage daily is increasing. In addition to new employees coming in and out, there are also contractors, partners, and suppliers that companies need to monitor. Additionally, more recently, the emergence of automation and agentic AI further complicates matters.
On average, organizations add nearly 3,000 (2,754) new users to their systems each month. More than a quarter (26%) are onboarding up to 250 new employees each month, while a tenth (12%) are adding up to 10,000 AI agents and machine identities at the same time.
Finally, the security processes in place today are very outdated, SailPoint says. More than a third (28%) still rely on spreadsheets and documents to validate employee accounts and responsibilities, and a fifth of AI agents (21%) are still managed manually.
The best antivirus for every budget
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can too follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp Also.
