Attackers don’t break in — they log in. That shift has made identification the brand new perimeter of contemporary cybersecurity.
Each enterprise wrestles with the identical problem: a always altering identification setting that’s laborious to observe and even more durable to safe. Sophos isn’t any exception. With hundreds of customers and tons of of functions related by Microsoft Entra ID (previously Azure AD), our company identification panorama evolves day by day.
“It’s a residing, respiratory animal,” mentioned Rajeev Kapur, Vice President of IT Infrastructure at Sophos. “Each change, each new integration, each replace introduces potential danger — even when your safety posture is already sturdy.”
Conventional structure evaluations gave the group periodic snapshots, however they couldn’t hold tempo with a cloud-first setting in fixed movement. Sophos wanted steady visibility — not simply confidence as soon as 1 / 4.
When Kapur’s group switched on Sophos Identification Menace Detection and Response (ITDR), they anticipated gradual insights. As a substitute, they discovered outcomes virtually instantly.
“From logging in and connecting to Entra ID to seeing our first actionable findings — it took lower than 45 minutes,” Kapur mentioned. “That brief time-to-value was unimaginable.”
Throughout the first hour, ITDR revealed two refined however essential dangers that years of audits hadn’t caught:
- Over-permissive third-party app entry: a number of integrations had broader permissions than needed, increasing potential supply-chain danger.
- Untrusted machine entry loopholes: underneath sure circumstances, an unmanaged machine may attain a administration portal.
“These weren’t evident vulnerabilities,” Kapur mentioned. “They have been nuanced configuration points you’d by no means see with out steady monitoring.”
The hidden complexity of cloud identification
As we speak’s attackers hardly ever break within the laborious approach. They log in, utilizing stolen or leaked credentials.
As organizations transfer to the cloud, identification techniques have grow to be the brand new perimeter — they usually’re always in movement. Each new app, new person, or coverage change introduces potential danger.
Sophos’ personal company setting, like many enterprises, runs on a world scale: hundreds of customers, tons of of related functions, and a gradual stream of updates and permissions requests.
Even with common audits and professional oversight, it’s tough — usually unimaginable — to keep up full visibility. For years, the group relied on periodic assessments. Specialists would conduct configuration evaluations, ship findings, and make sure remediation steps. However these evaluations supplied solely a snapshot in time. As quickly as a brand new integration went reside or an admin made a small change, these outcomes grew to become outdated.
What Sophos ITDR delivered to the desk was one thing essentially completely different: steady assurance. Slightly than ready for a brand new evaluation, the system scans, analyzes, and flags identification anomalies across the clock.
Steady confidence, not periodic certainty
Sophos’ inside expertise displays what many organizations face as we speak. Cloud identification techniques provide unmatched flexibility — however that flexibility comes with fragility. Not like conventional defenses, identification dangers usually stem from weaknesses in safety posture, not malware. And people dangers are more durable to identify with out steady visibility. A missed MFA coverage right here, an over-permissive app there — these small cracks can add as much as main publicity.
What makes Sophos ITDR completely different is how rapidly it gives readability.
In lower than an hour, Kapur says his group went from activating the answer to discovering potential points that had beforehand gone unnoticed.
And that pace issues. In a world the place attackers transfer sooner than ever, the flexibility to see and repair issues earlier than they’re exploited can imply the distinction between routine remediation and a full-blown breach.
The brand new frontier of cyber protection
For Sophos, testing new applied sciences internally is a core a part of our secure-by-design philosophy. Utilizing our personal merchandise in reside enterprise circumstances validates effectiveness, accelerates enchancment, and ensures each buyer profit is grounded in real-world efficiency.
Sophos ITDR is now an integral layer of that ecosystem — connecting identification insights with endpoint, community, and cloud telemetry by the Sophos Central platform and information lake.
“Even for those who’re simply on the lookout for a strategy to validate your Entra ID configuration,” Kapur mentioned. “Sophos ITDR is a unbelievable software. It’s quick to deploy, delivers instantaneous worth, and simply works.”
