‹ Identity series: An executive perspective on eliminating standing privilege
The hidden risks of privileged access in the cloud
Cloud privileged access management doesn’t fail loudly. It fails quietly—one unused account, one forgotten role, one exception that never gets revisited.
As organizations expand across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, OCI and SaaS platforms, identity sprawl has become one of the biggest challenges in modern cybersecurity. Human and machine identities multiply, each carrying standing privileges that persist long after the work is done, expanding the cloud attack surface. Zero Trust exists to eliminate implicit trust, and standing privilege is implicit trust. That’s why security leaders now ask ‘does this access even need to exist?’ and why Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP), access created when work requires it and automatically eliminated when it ends, is what makes Zero Trust achievable.
This Britive Identity Series explores practical strategies for finding standing privilege, automatically eliminating it at runtime to deliver zero standing access across every cloud, without slowing your teams down.
ConRes Insights
Get new insights as they publish
Identity assessment
See where standing privilege is hiding in your cloud.
Share
Permanent access. Permanent risk.
For CISOs, the instinct is to ask: Are our credentials secure? The harder question, and the more important one, is: does this access even need to exist? In nearly every cloud environment ConRes assesses, we find the same pattern. A team needs elevated access to migrate workloads. Access is granted quickly to get the job done. The project is complete. The team moves on. And years later, those accounts, roles and permissions are still active; unused, unreviewed and completely forgotten.
Learn more about the root causes and what to do.
Limited-time offer
Take the free assessment —
get Ray-Ban Meta glasses.
See exactly where standing privilege is piling up across your cloud. Complete a complimentary ConRes + Britive identity assessment and we’ll send you a pair of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
Your cloud has more admins than you think.
Privileged access doesn’t start as a problem. It grows into one—silently accumulating across accounts, projects, teams and clouds. In AWS alone, that means admin roles, service roles, forgotten access from temporary projects and unused access keys quietly stacking up. In Azure: subscription owners, contributor roles, service principals, temporary resources and inactive accounts. In Google Cloud: project owners, IAM custom roles, service accounts, ephemeral projects and legacy access.
Each entitlement may look reasonable on its own. Collectively, they expand the attack surface, weaken governance and, on average, grow the number of cloud identities with admin access by 2.5x year over year.
Reduce your attack surface by eliminating standing privileges
Most organizations have privileged accounts. Far fewer know how many remain active long after they’re needed.
Standing privileges often accumulate over time as administrators, developers and third-party vendors receive elevated access that is rarely reviewed or removed. Every unnecessary privileged account becomes another opportunity for attackers to move laterally, escalate privileges or access critical systems.
Instead of leaving elevated permissions available 24/7, organizations are adopting Just-in-Time (JIT) access, granting privileged access only when it’s needed and automatically removing it when the task is complete.
Why standing privileges matter
Permanently assigned privileged access can:
- Expand your attack surface
- Increase the impact of compromised accounts
- Make privilege reviews more difficult
- Create compliance challenges
- Slow Zero Trust initiatives
What modern organizations are doing
Leading organizations are replacing standing privileges with modern privileged access strategies that:
- Grant elevated access only when required
- Automatically remove privileges after work is complete
- Improve visibility into privileged activity
- Reduce unnecessary identity exposure
- Support Zero Trust security initiatives
Why work with ConRes?
Identity security is more than implementing another security tool. ConRes helps organizations evaluate privileged access across cloud and hybrid environments, identify opportunities to reduce standing privileges and develop strategies that align identity security with business objectives. Whether you’re beginning your Zero Trust journey or looking to modernize privileged access management, our specialists can help you reduce risk while maintaining operational efficiency.
Is old access creating new security risks?
Access changes every day. Employees change jobs. Contractors leave. Applications are retired. New systems are added. Unfortunately, permissions don’t always keep up.
Over time, users can collect access they no longer need. Those extra permissions may seem harmless, but they can increase security risk and make it more difficult to manage your environment.
The longer unnecessary permissions remain in place, the harder they become to identify and remove.
Common signs of permission sprawl
- Employees still have access after changing roles
- Contractors keep access after projects end
- Admin permissions are rarely reviewed
- Nobody knows who has access to certain systems
- Access reviews take too long to complete
Why it matters
Cleaning up permissions helps your organization:
- Reduce unnecessary risk
- Improve identity governance
- Support Zero Trust initiatives
- Simplify audits and compliance
- Give users only the access they need
Why work with ConRes?
Knowing that unused permissions exist is one thing. Knowing where they are is another. ConRes helps organizations review privileged access, identify unnecessary permissions and improve identity governance across cloud and hybrid environments. Whether you’re beginning a least privilege initiative or improving an existing program, we can help you build a practical plan that fits your environment.