51 Identity & Access Management Statistics You Need To Know for 2024

Identity and access management is the foundation of a secure and productive IT environment. IAM provides users with the resources they need while restricting access to sensitive data. The importance of governing user accounts and access rights is difficult to put into words. So let’s look at some numbers instead: These identity and access management statistics highlight the rising threat of identity-based attacks, as well as the security and productivity benefits of IAM solutions.

IAM Statistics for 2024

From record-breaking ransomware attacks to shutdowns of critical infrastructure, cybersecurity seems to produce new shocking headlines every week. In fact, there are so many news stories about cyberattacks, data breaches and zero day vulnerabilities that it can be hard to keep track. But good news: We did that work for you!

In order to give you a big picture view of the role of identity and access management in the current threat and security landscape, we combed through more than 50 reports, surveys and studies to pull out the most important facts and figures and compile them in one place. Below, you will find our full list of identity and access management statistics for the coming year, each with a link to the original source if you want to download the report for yourself. But first, lets look at some of the highlights.

Essential IAM Statistics: The Most Important Figures

  • 1

    80% of cyberattacks use identity-based attack methods. (CrowdStrike)

  • 2

    99% of security decision makers believe they will face an identity-related compromise in the next year. (CyberArk)

  • 3

    4.45 million dollars is the average cost of a data breach. (IBM)

  • 4

    3 out of 4 CISOs say collaboration tools pose significant new security risks, with 94% considering the built-in security tools of Microsoft 365 insufficient. (Mimecast)

  • 5

    80% say that better identity and access management would have prevented some or all attacks on their organization. (One Identity)

General Cybersecurity Statistics

  • 1

    48% of organizations see ransomware as their biggest concern for the coming year, with 42% reporting that they suffered a ransomware attack in the past year. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 2

    In another survey, 89% of organizations stated that they were targeted by ransomware in the past year. (CyberArk)

  • 3

    Among 1,700 IT professionals, 97% say they were targeted by phishing emails in the past year. (Mimecast)

  • 4

    Three out of four say they have experienced an increase in email-based threats, with 59% noting that cyberattacks are becoming more sophisticated. (Mimecast)

  • 5

    80% of cyberattacks leverage identity-based techniques. (CrowdStrike)

  • 6

    Phishing (16%) and compromised credentials (15%) are the two most common initial attack vectors for data breaches. (IBM)

  • 7

    In tracking business email compromise over the span of a year, Microsoft observed an average of 156,000 daily attempts. (Microsoft)

  • 8

    Password-based attacks increased as much as ten times compared to the previous year. (Microsoft)

  • 9

    Breaches caused by compromised credentials or insider threats take the longest to resolve, with a mean time to identify and resolve of 328 days and 308 days respectively. (IBM)

  • 10

    In a survey of 2,300 security decision makers, 99% of respondents believe they will face an identity-related compromise in the next year. (CyberArk)

  • 11

    The total number of identities in an organization (humans and machines) is expected to grow by 240% over the next 12 months. (CyberArk)

Cybercrime Financial Impact Statistics

  • 1

    The total cost of cybercrime has been estimated at 8 trillion dollars for the year 2023. (Cybersecurity Ventures)

  • 2

    The median ransom demand following a ransomware attack was $500,000. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 3

    The average total cost of a data breach among 553 surveyed organizations was 4.45 million dollars. (IBM)

  • 4

    Identity and access management reduces the total cost of a data breach by $180,000 on average. (IBM)

  • 5

    57% of IT directors say they are expecting their cybersecurity budget to increase. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 6

    79% of those with cyber insurance reported premiums going up in the past year, most commonly in the range of 50 to 100 percent. (Delinea)

  • 7

    Relatedly, identity and access management was named most frequently as a required control to qualify for cyber insurance policies. (Delinea)

Access Governance Statistics

  • 1

    63% of IT decision makers admitted that high-sensivity access in their organization is not adequately secured. (CyberArk)

  • 2

    74 percent are concerned about the loss of confidential information through employees, ex-employees or third-party vendors. (CyberArk)

  • 3

    In the same survey, 58% reported instances of exiting users attempting to hold on to confidential work documents. (CyberArk)

  • 4

    Over 70 percent of companies admit to instances of employees receiving inappropriate access to sensitive data or retaining access after leaving the organization. (SailPoint)

  • 5

    51% reported instances of non-employees retaining access to business data after a project was completed. (SailPoint)

  • 6

    In our own survey, only 6% of participants were confident that no one has access to data they do not need in their organization. (tenfold)

  • 7

    Eight out of ten IT professionals believe their organization is at risk of inadvertent data leaks due to negligent employees. (Mimecast)

  • 8

    62% of security teams name limited visibility across their IT environment as a challenge impacting their work. (CyberArk)

  • 9

    42% of organizations plan to implement identity governance measures, making it the most frequent response. (Netwrix)

  • 10

    87% of organizations are working towards zero trust access or have already put it in place, based on a survey of 398 IT and cybersecurity professionals. (Fortra)

  • 11

    However, 42% of security teams are not or only somewhat confident in their ability to achieve zero trust security. (Fortra)

  • 12

    80% say that better identity management solutions/practices would have prevented some or all of the attacks on their organization. (One Identity)

  • 13

    While identity management helps protect sensitive data, 3 out of 4 IT decision makers named improving efficiency in the IT department as the driving factor for implementing IAM software. (tenfold)

  • 14

    However, governance solutions come with their own challenges. Lack of specialized staff (37%), lengthy setups (32%), difficult maintenance (31%), the inability to integrate systems (29%) and the need for extensive programming knowledge (29%) are the most common stumbling blocks for IAM projects. (tenfold)

Cloud Data Security Statistics

  • 1

    73% of organizations use a hybrid environment, only 19% are exclusively using on-premises systems based on a survey of 1,610 IT professionals. (Netwrix)

  • 2

    98% of monitored cloud-tenants were targeted by a brute-force or precision attack in the past year. (Proofpoint)

  • 3

    53% of IT Directors plan to upgrade their cloud security in 2024, making it the leading security investment among respondents. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 4

    Only 38% of organizations believe they are effectively securing their cloud resources, with 26% seeing this as one of their biggest weaknesses. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 5

    Speaking of cloud security, of the 701 IT directors surveyed for this report, 45% see data confidentiality as the biggest issue and their primary objective for the upcoming calendar year. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 6

    Cloud security (53%) and security automation (36%) were the top priorities named by 1,520 IT security leaders. (Splunk)

  • 7

    In a survey of 1,700 CISOs and IT professionals, 94% say they need stronger protections than those that come with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace apps. (Mimecast)

  • 8

    3 out of 4 say that collaboration tools pose significant new security risks, with 72% predicting to be harmed by a collaboration-tool-based attack in the future. (Mimecast)

  • 9

    Office 365 emails were the most frequently imitated message type in phishing attempts in the past year. (Proofpoint)

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IT Security Workforce Statistics

  • 1

    The demand for cybersecurity experts has increased by 35% compared to the previous year. (Microsoft)

  • 2

    68% of organizations named staffing as the primary issue holding back their security efforts. 56% said they would need five or more additional full-time members for their IT staff. (Arctic Wolf)

  • 3

    In a survey of 2,178 information security managers, 59 percent of organizations reported being somewhat to significantly understaffed. (ISACA)

  • 4

    49% named identity and access management as one of the top five security skills needed in their organization, the highest share among available responses. (ISACA)

  • 5

    The global cybersecurity workforce gap is estimated at roughly 4 million people. (ISC2)

  • 6

    67% of respondents said their cybersecurity staff is not big enough to prevent and resolve security issues. (ISC2)

  • 7

    Cloud computing security (35%) and zero trust implementation (29%) were among the most common areas in which companies face skill gaps. (ISC2)

  • 8

    The biggest issues negatively affecting cybersecurity professionals job satisfaction are overwork (30%) and too many emails/tasks (31%). (ISC2)

  • 9

    60% of businesses say they had difficulties retaining qualified cybersecurity staff. (Sosafe)

  • 10

    Similarly, 68% of businesses expect layoffs and staff turnover to create new security issues. (CyberArk)

IAM Statistics: What Are the Takeaways?

Looking through the research done by so many cybersecurity experts, the data shows some clear trends and throughlines even across different reports. First, cybercrime continues to increase, with identity-based attacks like phishing, social engineering and account takeover being at the forefront of this growing threat.

Second, the number of identities organizations need to manage is rising as well. Enterprises rely on more and more SaaS services and IoT devices, which leads to a surge in cloud, service and device accounts that need to be administered and controlled.

At the same time, skill and workforce gaps make it difficult to hire and retain qualified cybersecurity professionals. Because of these staffing issues, it is more important than ever to use your available IT staff wisely.

In summary: organizations need to defend more identities against a growing number of attacks with limited staff and resources. In other words, they need help in the form of automated identity and access management solutions.

tenfold No-Code IAM: Boost Identity Security with Minimal Effort

While identity and access management software was originally targeted at huge enterprises, the combination of increased attacks, stricter regulations and complex, hybrid environments makes IAM a growing need for smaller and mid-sized organizations.

But there’s a problem: Most IAM solutions are still designed for an enterprise environment. These platforms are too complicated and labor-intensive for midmarket companies. It takes months to years of groundwork to integrate them with your existing IT and write the custom scripts and workflows needed to get them to run.

Don’t waste your time and money on endless setups! There’s a faster and easier way to achieve secure, automated access management. Our revolutionary no-code IAM solution tenfold comes with out-of-the-box support for key services like Active Directory, Entra ID and a wide range of business applications.

All settings, workflows and integrations can be configured through tenfold‘s no-code UI, allowing you to make full use of the platform without a single script or custom line of code. Thanks to this approach, tenfold is up and running in just a few weeks! You benefit from everything from automated user lifecycles to detailed permission reporting and regular access reviews, all in record time. See for yourself by watching our video demo or signing up for a free trial below.

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About the Author: Joe Kรถller

Joe Kรถller is tenfoldโ€™s Content Manager and responsible for the IAM Blog, where he dives deep into topics like compliance, cybersecurity and digital identities. From security regulations to IT best practices, his goal is to make challenging subjects approachable for the average reader. Before joining tenfold, Joe covered games and digital media for many years.