Why identity governance demands executive attention

Publisher excerpt From CSO Online

The identity landscape you’re responsible for looks nothing like it did just a few years ago. Employees and contractors now share the enterprise with service accounts, machine identities, and a fast-growing population of AI agents — all accessing business systems and data. Every one of those identities represents an access decision, and every access decision is now a potential point of accountability that lands on your desk. Regulators and boards want proof. They expect security leaders to show who, or what, has access to critical systems and how that access is being governed. But when human and nonhuman identities (NHIs) change faster than manual processes can keep up, proof becomes much harder to produce. Foundry research ranks identity security among the top cybersecurity priorities for 2026, reflecting a shift in how leadership views risk: Identity has evolved from operational detail to executive concern. “The last 15 years of digital transformation has resulted in credential sprawl across the tech stack of every organization,” says Bryan Kelley, AVP, Agentic Technology Specialists at SailPoint. “Whether it’s your own trusted agents or another organization’s rogue agent, they will find and abuse these exposed credentials, API keys, tokens, and secrets to carry out their given goals.” When accountability becomes personal Security leaders must demonstrate that identity governance is working, not simply that policies exist. They need a real-time view of each identity…

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