What if you could stop Identity-based attacks before they even begin? Today’s cyberthreats move fast, targeting on-premises infrastructure, cloud services, SaaS applications, and non-human identities. Security teams need an Identity-centric approach that doesn’t just react to attacks but actively reduces risk. That means having the right tools to:

• Help identify and address vulnerabilities before they’re exploited
• Respond instantly to active threats
• Automate manual, repetitive, and error-prone security tasks

Recent cybersecurity trends indicate that AI-driven attacks have shortened the time between reconnaissance and attack execution. Advanced Identity posture management, threat protection, and automation are essential tools to help organizations stay ahead of sophisticated adversaries.

Okta, the world’s Identity company, continues to evolve and expand its capabilities to help organizations secure their digital identities at every stage: before, during, and after authentication. By combining advanced Identity Security solutions with automation, the Okta platform empowers organizations to detect threats, enforce controls, and respond dynamically to evolving risks.

Addressing Identity Security before authentication

Addressing risks in existing accounts is an important starting point in Identity Security. Vulnerabilities like abandoned accounts or overprivileged access can become attack vectors.

Okta’s platform secures both human and non-human identities. Non-human identities exist in service accounts, tokens, API keys, and secrets. Managing digital identities when they’re siloed in the organization across different Identity providers, SaaS, and on-premises apps is challenging.

Organizations that achieve full visibility into the management, security status, and vulnerabilities of human and non-human identities can proactively address risks before they become attack vectors.

Common vulnerabilities include:

• Abandoned or unused accounts
• Privileged accounts without multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Accounts using old passwords 
• Service accounts with console access

These all put the organization at risk of unauthorized access, infiltration, lateral movement, and exfiltration of sensitive data. Automating these fixes strengthens security, reduces manual errors, saves time for IT teams, and provides a consistent approach to risk management across the organization. 

Okta Identity Security Posture Management connects Identity providers, SaaS apps, threat intelligence, and compliance frameworks. It breaks through fragmented Identity systems and provides a unified view of an organization’s Identity security posture. It identifies and prioritizes risks, recommending remediations to help mitigate misuse and attacks from vulnerable accounts. 

After implementing Okta Identity Security Posture Management, Xactly identified and resolved over 200 critical security vulnerabilities and reduced routine de-provisioning tasks by 83%.

Protecting Identity during authentication

While securing identities before authentication lays a strong foundation, organizations must also protect users and devices during the login process. Okta supports single sign-on, adaptive MFA, and advanced authentication methods, such as passwordless authentication, to protect users and organizations during authentication. 

Okta provides Hitachi with MFA, device trust, and Identity governance enabling enhanced security, streamlined M&A integrations, and automated Identity management for 480,000 users.

HubSpot implemented Okta’s phishing-resistant MFA and device trust capabilities, helping protect 100% of logins against credential phishing attacks across all platforms. 

While authentication provides a secure starting point for a user session, what happens after a user authenticates is just as critical for maintaining a secure environment. 

Monitoring and responding to threats after authentication

Even if a user or machine is authenticated, their session isn’t automatically secure. Real-time session monitoring plays a critical role in identifying and addressing risks appearing after a user logs in. Here are a few examples: 

• A user who logs in from a high-threat IP address and initiates a password change: Automated “universal logout” for all sessions associated with that account can help reduce the risk of further misuse. 
• A remote worker who goes to a coffee shop and switches to an untrusted network mid-session prompts a biometric MFA challenge to verify their identity.
• A cloud application that expands its capacity during peak usage and alters its network or geographic profile can trigger an automated alert for monitoring by IT and Security teams. 

To address evolving risks, Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI provides continuous monitoring and automated responses to secure active sessions. Identity Threat Protection enables real-time threat detection and response throughout the user journey, detecting and mitigating threats, including:

• Session hijacking 
• User-reported anomalous behavior
• MFA brute-force attacks
• Attempts to escalate privileges from high-risk IP addresses
• Harvesting application session cookies to impersonate users 
• Lateral movement within the network 

ITP helps detect threats and can trigger workflows, such as flagging accounts for investigation or quarantining suspicious accounts for further review. This dynamic approach adapts to real-time changes and can help protect hybrid workers and cloud-native environments while minimizing disruptions to productivity.

Sign In Solutions leveraged Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI to improve threat monitoring and reduce reliance on its 24-hour security operations center. The company now continuously monitors user behavior, detects anomalies, and proactively mitigates risks. 

Identity Threat Protection uses AI-driven continuous risk and policy evaluations to deliver Sign-In Solutions real-time alerts for suspicious login attempts, account takeovers, and other security incidents. This allows the IT team to investigate and mitigate risks promptly. They used Okta Workflows to design automated responses, such as locking out accounts or resetting passwords for suspicious login attempts.

All of the customer results mentioned above are based on specific use cases and implementations of Okta solutions. Results and performance improvements may vary depending on each organization’s unique infrastructure, deployment, and security needs. 

Automating comprehensive identity defenses 

Integrating Identity Security Posture Management attack surface detections and Identity Threat Protection’s real-time threat detection with Okta Workflows enables organizations to act quickly on insights. Workflows is a no-code automation platform that allows anyone to build Identity-centric business processes with basic “if-this-then-that” logic, allowing faster, more consistent responses to Identity threats. It can be used with nearly any API to extend what Okta already does out of the box. It can call out to other systems, create tickets, move users into groups, or send notifications on events. 

Security and IT teams should carefully test automation to prevent unintended consequences. They should:

• Review signals and map out the remediation steps. 
• Start with low-risk tasks to test automations.
• Use a phased approach, beginning with automated alerts for IT teams to investigate before fully automating workflows.
• Continuously monitor automation performance, refine workflows based on outcomes, and adapt them to evolving needs and security challenges.

Workflows can transform insights from Identity Security Posture Management and Identity Threat Protection into immediate action. Organizations can disable compromised accounts without writing code, enforce compliance checks, and escalate incidents to security teams. Workflows can also automate tasks like updating credentials, terminating risky sessions, or quarantining devices — tasks that otherwise require manual IT effort and are prone to inconsistency and error. 

For instance, Sonos used Okta Workflows to secure privileged accounts by creating unique, anonymized usernames. It automated MFA resets in accounts for users temporarily bypassing MFA when their devices were lost, stolen, or replaced. Sonos also simplified its workforce onboarding process using Workflows, saving time and reducing security risks by providing users with the correct access. Traditionally manual efforts, like updating credentials, terminating risky sessions, or quarantining devices, are now automated and scalable with Workflows. 

Organizations can adopt a unified approach to Identity Security by combining the powerful automation capabilities available in Workflows with proactive protection and real-time monitoring. Okta Identity Security Posture Management identifies and recommends remediations to existing Identity vulnerabilities. Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI detects and responds to threats found in active sessions. Okta Workflows automates key processes like disabling risky accounts, resetting credentials, or quarantining devices. 

By addressing vulnerabilities before authentication, protecting users during login, and monitoring activity after authentication, organizations can help create a unified, Identity-first security strategy that helps them address vulnerabilities, enhance operational efficiency, and respond to evolving threats. 

To learn how Okta Workflows, Identity Security Posture Management, and Identity Threat Protection work together to protect identities at every stage — from provisioning to authentication to active sessions — download our whitepaper on Identity Security automation.

Key takeaways:

1. Using Identity Security Posture Management to manage vulnerabilities proactively can help reduce the risk of account misuse.
2. Identity Threat Protection supports the detection of and response to mid-session threats in real time.
3. When implemented and monitored with care, Workflows, as demonstrated by Sign In Solutions, can help reduce errors and improve efficiency.
4. When applied effectively, Workflows can streamline Identity management tasks, as demonstrated by Sonos, by supporting the security of privileged accounts and enabling timely and more efficient onboarding and offboarding processes.

Resources:

• Read the Identity Security with Okta Workflows paper to learn how automation transforms Identity-first security.
• Read the whitepaper, Simplifying Identity Risk Management with Automation to learn how Identity Security Posture Management and Okta Workflows can help eliminate security blind spots and strengthen your Identity Security posture.
• Get an introduction to Workflows to learn how Okta Workflows simplifies security with no-code automation.
• Read the Identity Security Posture Management Datasheet to learn how to gain visibility into your organization’s Identity posture and provide actionable insights for remediation.

Read the Identity Threat Protection with Okta AI Datasheet to explore real-time, mid-session AI-powered defenses.