Privileged identity management has become the need of the hour for enterprises. One compromised privileged account can trigger a chain reaction: operational paralysis, data exfiltration, regulatory fines, and shareholder backlash. Privileged credentials are involved in nearly three-quarters (74%) of all security breaches, according to Centrify research, yet most enterprises still rely on manual provisioning and inconsistent offboarding.
The financial exposure to this challenge is exponential. In IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach report, the average breach cost in the industrial sector hit USD 5.56 million, an 18 % increase year-on-year. Financial-services organizations reported even higher figures, USD 6.08 million per breach, 22 % above the global average. The average organization takes 292 days to identify and contain a breach. In incidents tied to compromised privileged accounts, it remains unchecked for up to 320 days, giving attackers nearly a full year of unchecked access.
This blog explores how failures in Privileged Identity Management (PIM) lead directly to such disasters. Read on to find out how integrating a workforce-lifecycle automation solution like Hire2Retire can help close these gaps at enterprise scale.
According to Verizon’s 2024 DBIR, 67% of breaches stem from stolen credentials or social engineering. In Q1 2025, 56% of compromises occurred in environments without MFA. Cloud workloads saw 52% of privilege escalations traced to compromised machine identities.
Post-incident, organizations spend an average of 19 weeks remediating identity infrastructure. 41% report delayed or cancelled projects due to access lockdowns and recovery work. Public companies lose an average of 2.7% share value in the first week, extending to 5% by quarter’s end.
Case: The Target breach originated from compromised credentials of a third-party HVAC vendor. Attackers used that access to pivot into POS networks, exposing 40 million credit cards and costing the company over USD 292 million in settlements and remediation.
Lesson: Vendor accounts often outlive contracts. Without automated expiry and monitoring, they become persistent attack vectors.
Case: The Uber breach exposed 57 million records after attackers found AWS keys in a GitHub repository. The subsequent regulatory settlements exceeded USD 148 million, making it one of the costliest examples of privilege exposure through code repositories.
Lesson: Embedding credentials in repositories equates to publishing your keys. Automation, vaulting and scanning must be policy, not suggestion.
Case: The Verkada incident revealed how a single compromised super-admin account exposed live camera feeds across 150 000 endpoints. The attacker didn’t break encryption; they simply logged in with admin credentials.
Lesson: Broad, shared super-admin accounts nullify the concept of least privilege and destroy accountability.
Case: The MGM Resorts cyber-attack exploited social engineering at the IT service desk to reset privileged credentials. The impact halted digital key systems, slot machines and booking platforms, costing the company USD 100 million in lost revenue within days.
Lesson: Any function that can issue or reset privileged credentials must itself be treated as a privileged function, with automated verification and multi-factor checks.
Observation: Centralized identity is efficient, until it fails. Multiple 2024 incidents show attackers targeting identity providers (SSO, Entra ID, Okta) to escalate domain-wide access.
Lesson: Over-reliance on a single identity system without just-in-time elevation or session controls creates systemic risk.
Automate HR → Identity → Privilege changes – Every hire, transfer or termination should automatically trigger access provisioning or removal.
Apply least privilege – Privilege should expire by default; permanent admin access should be exceptional.
Monitor and record all privileges – Correlate behavioral analytics to detect anomalies in real time.
Secure the service desk – Multi-step verification and automation reduce human error and social-engineering risk
Institutionalize measurement – Board-level dashboards should track orphaned accounts, time-to-revocation, vendor-account expiry and privilege creep metrics.
One of the biggest root causes of privilege sprawl is the disconnect between HR events and IT systems. An employee’s termination or role change in HR often takes days, sometimes weeks, to reflect in identity systems, leaving live privileged credentials behind.
Hire2Retire eliminates that gap through near-real-time workforce-lifecycle automation. It connects HR systems (ADP, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, etc.) directly with identity providers (Active Directory, Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace) and privileged-access platforms. With Hire2Retire, enterprises can:
For enterprise leadership, this translates into measurable risk reduction and demonstrable compliance improvement, key performance indicators that can be tracked in quarterly risk reviews.
Cyber-attackers don’t target systems at random; they target privilege. Every data point shows that compromised privileged credentials remain the costliest and most persistent breach vector. For senior management, this is not about security tooling, it’s about governance, automation, and accountability. Privileged identity management is no more the next thing on agenda, it is the need of the hour.
Privileged identity management is invisible to the end user but invaluable to the business. If done wrong, it’s a line item that can erase millions, and trust overnight.
The top causes include stolen or weak credentials, lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA), unmonitored vendor accounts, secrets stored in code repositories, and manual offboarding delays. Nearly 74% of breaches involve privileged access misuse or compromise.
Traditional IAM solutions handle user access but often lack automation and context awareness. They rarely integrate directly with HR systems, leaving gaps when employees are hired, transferred, or terminated, gaps that attackers exploit.
By connecting HR systems directly to identity providers and privileged-access tools, workforce-lifecycle automation ensures every HR event (hire, role change, exit) instantly updates user privileges. This eliminates lag time and reduces orphaned or over-privileged accounts.
Hire2Retire automates the full identity lifecycle, from onboarding to offboarding, by syncing HR systems with identity platforms . It enforces policy-based provisioning, just-in-time privilege change, and immediate deprovisioning.
Operational disruption, data theft, regulatory fines, delayed recovery, reputational damage, and share-value loss.
Abhishek Surtanya is a Marketing Manager at RoboMQ with 6+ years of experience. He is a B2B and SaaS content strategist specializing in content writing that drives engagement, lead generation, and SEO growth. He specializes in data-driven, conversion-focused content that establishes thought leadership and enhances brand visibility.
Abhishek Surtanya is a Marketing Manager at RoboMQ with 6+ years of experience. He is a B2B and SaaS content strategist specializing in content writing that drives engagement, lead generation, and SEO growth. He specializes in data-driven, conversion-focused content that establishes thought leadership and enhances brand visibility.
