TL;DR
You don’t need a twelve-month program to stop the most common identity breaches. In 30 days, you can close the biggest gaps:
- Purge orphaned accounts
- Process leavers the same day
- Rotate & vault NHI (non-human identity) passwords/keys
- Enforce MFA everywhere; phishing-resistant for admins
- Disable legacy/basic auth + app passwords
- Kill standing admin; adopt least privilege + JIT elevation
- Put critical apps behind SSO; disable local logins
- Run a high-risk access review sprint
- Establish a Conditional Access baseline (device/risk/location)
- Turn on identity logging & alerts; harden break-glass
Below is a day-by-day plan with owners, acceptance criteria, checkpoints, and metrics. Ship fast, measure weekly, and harden continuously.
Why a 30-Day Plan?
Attackers exploit simple, fixable weaknesses: stale identities, weak or legacy authentication, standing administrative privileges, unmanaged service accounts, and apps that bypass the IdP. These ten fixes deliver high risk reduction per hour and create the substrate for your longer-term IAM roadmap (IGA at scale, policy-as-code, and identity threat detection). You’ll also cut audit noise and set clear operating norms for IT, security, and the business.
Before You Start (Day 0 Setup)
- Executive sponsor: Confirm top-cover from CIO/CISO to make changes stick.
- Change window: Announce the 30-day sprint and what it will change.
- Channels: Create a “#iam-hardening” chat, a shared tracker (Jira/Asana/Sheets), and a daily 10-minute stand-up.
- Break-glass sanity check: Two emergency accounts, hardware keys enrolled, location of secrets in a vault, and monitoring in place.
- Source of truth: HRIS (e.g., Workday) + IdP (Okta/Entra) + AD + Top SaaS. Confirm matching keys (UPN, employeeID).
The 30-Day Plan at a Glance
Week 1 (Days 1–7): Stop the Bleeding
- Orphaned account purge; same-day leavers runbook
- MFA everywhere; phishing-resistant MFA for admins
- Legacy/basic auth to report-only → enforce
- NHI password/key rotation kicked off in a vault
Week 2 (Days 8–14): Strip Standing Risk
- Remove standing admin; enable JIT/PIM/PAM
- Critical apps to SSO; disable local logins (wave 1)
- Conditional Access baseline in report-only
Week 3 (Days 15–21): Verify and Tighten
- Enforce Conditional Access baseline; require compliant devices for admin portals
- High-risk access review sprint (business-owned)
- Expand SSO and SCIM provisioning (wave 2)
Week 4 (Days 22–30): Instrument, Prove, and Lock-In
- Centralize identity logs and alerts (SIEM/XDR)
- Break-glass test + tabletop
- Metrics review; close gaps; publish steady state + 90-day roadmap
Week 1 — Stop the Bleeding (Days 1–7)
Day 1: Orphaned Account Cleanup (Phase 1) & Same-Day Leavers
Owner: IAM + HR + IT Ops
Actions
- Export all users from IdP, AD/LDAP, and top SaaS.
- Join to HRIS; flag no-match and terminated.
- Disable immediately; stage deletion after 30 days pending manager/data-owner sign-off.
- Publish a same-day leaver runbook: HR ticket → IAM disables IdP, revokes sessions, blocks devices, and deprovisions Tier-0/1 apps.
- After-hours path for urgent terminations.
Acceptance Criteria
- 100% of no-match accounts disabled within 24–48 hours.
- Leaver SLA: ≤60 minutes from HR signal to disable (with evidence in the ticket).
Comms
- “We are aligning identity to HR. Orphaned accounts will be disabled; request reinstatement via ticket if needed.”
Day 2: MFA Everywhere; Admins on Phishing-Resistant MFA
Owner: IAM + Help Desk
Actions
- Enforce tenant-wide MFA (24–72h grace).
- For admins: FIDO2/WebAuthn required; block SMS/push-only.
- Clear stale factors; help desk script for quick enroll.
Acceptance Criteria
99% user MFA enrollment; 100% admin on FIDO2/WebAuthn.
Pitfalls
- Breaking non-human identities (NHIs). Exempt non-interactive accounts and handle them via Day 3.
Day 3: NHI Passwords/Keys Rotated & Vaulted (Wave 1)
Owner: IAM + App Owners + DevOps
Actions
- Inventory NHIs: service accounts, API keys, robot users, integration users.
- Move secrets to a vault (CyberArk/Conjur, HashiCorp Vault, cloud KMS).
- Rotate now for Tier-0/1 systems; put a 30–90 day rotation cadence on the rest.
- Replace embedded credentials with managed/workload identities where supported.
- Enable pre-commit secret scanning on repos; add commit hooks.
Acceptance Criteria
- 100% of Tier-0/1 NHIs vaulted and rotated at least once.
- No plaintext secrets in active repos (scanning on).
Day 4: Legacy/Basic Auth — Report-Only
Owner: IAM + Messaging/Infra
Actions
- Turn on report-only block for IMAP/POP/SMTP AUTH, basic OAuth grants, NTLMv1/WS-Trust, and app passwords.
- Review impact logs; migrate stragglers (copiers/scanners → SMTP relay/API).
Acceptance Criteria
- Legacy sign-ins trending to zero within 48 hours.
Day 5–6: Enforce Legacy Auth Block; Prepare for JIT
Owner: IAM + SOC + App Teams
Actions
- Enforce legacy block (Day 6).
- Export all role assignments; identify standing admins and “shadow admins” in SaaS.
- Design JIT/PIM/PAM flow (approval, justification, time-bound elevation).
- Draft comms and playbooks.
Acceptance Criteria
- 0 legacy sign-ins after enforcement (allow 24h to mop up edge cases).
Day 7: Week 1 Review & Rollback Plan
Owner: IAM Lead + Sponsor
Actions
- Confirm metrics: orphaned disabled %, leaver SLA, MFA coverage, legacy sign-ins, NHI vault coverage.
- Capture customer/team impact; tune help desk scripts.
- Approve Week 2 changes.
Week 2 — Strip Standing Risk (Days 8–14)
Day 8–9: Kill Standing Admin; Turn On JIT/PIM/PAM
Owner: IAM + SecEng + App Owners
Actions
- Remove Global/Super Admin from daily drivers.
- Enable time-bound JIT elevation (15–120 minutes) with approval and justification.
- All elevations logged to SIEM and notified to SOC.
- Break-glass: two accounts, hardware keys enrolled, strong monitoring, tested quarterly.
Acceptance Criteria
- 0 standing Global/Super Admins (except break-glass).
- Every elevation requires a ticket or approval trail.
Day 10–11: Critical Apps Behind SSO; Disable Local Logins (Wave 1)
Owner: IAM + App Owners + Vendor PMs
Actions
- Prioritize Tier-0/1: HR, Finance, CI/CD, Source Control, Data Warehouse, EDR/XDR, PAM.
- Enforce SSO + MFA; disable local app logins or restrict to break-glass.
- Set up SCIM/API for lifecycle provisioning and deprovisioning.
- Validate IdP session revocation end-to-end.
Acceptance Criteria
- 100% of Tier-0/1 apps on SSO with local auth off.
- HRIS → IdP → App deprovision < 15 minutes.
Day 12–13: Conditional Access Baseline (Report-Only)
Owner: IAM + Endpoint + SOC
Baseline Rules
- Require MFA for all users.
- Require compliant/registered devices for admin portals.
- Block sign-ins from high-risk countries and enforce step-up on medium/high risk.
- Enforce impossible travel detection and session re-auth for sensitive apps.
Acceptance Criteria
- Report-only shows <2% of legitimate traffic would be blocked or stepped up.
Day 14: Week 2 Review
Owner: IAM Lead
Actions
- Validate: standing admin = 0, SSO coverage for Tier-0/1, baseline policy findings.
- Approve Week 3 enforcement plan.
Week 3 — Verify and Tighten (Days 15–21)
Day 15–16: Enforce Conditional Access Baseline
Owner: IAM + Endpoint + SOC
Actions
- Move baseline from report-only to enforced.
- Require compliant devices for admin portals; prompt re-auth for risk.
- Create exceptions with explicit expiry dates and compensating controls.
Acceptance Criteria
- 100% users covered; 100% admins require compliant device + phishing-resistant MFA.
- Help desk ready with exception/appeal workflows.
Day 17–19: High-Risk Access Review Sprint
Owner: IGA/IAM + Business Owners + Internal Audit
Scope
- Domain/Global Admins; Production DB access; Finance approvers; VPN “allow all”; GitHub/GitLab org owners; broad SaaS “Super Admin.”
Actions
- Present entitlement lists with last-used data.
- Decision per user: keep / remove / modify (least privilege).
- Remove immediately; document exceptions with expiry and justification.
Acceptance Criteria
- 100% of in-scope groups reviewed in 3 days.
- ≥15–30% entitlement reduction on first pass.
Day 20–21: SSO & SCIM Expansion (Wave 2)
Owner: IAM + App Owners
Actions
- Bring Tier-2 apps to SSO; push SCIM/API lifecycle where feasible.
- Disable local logins once SSO is verified.
Acceptance Criteria
- 70%+ of Tier-2 apps behind SSO; local logins disabled for those apps.
Week 4 — Instrument, Prove, Lock-In (Days 22–30)
Day 22–24: Identity Logging & Alerts
Owner: SOC + IAM + SIEM Team
Actions
- Ship IdP/AD/PAM/VPN/SaaS sign-in and audit logs to SIEM/XDR.
- Create precise detections: impossible-travel spikes, MFA re-registration bursts, mass group changes, consent-grant spikes, privileged role changes, session token anomalies.
- Route high-severity alerts to on-call with playbooks.
Acceptance Criteria
- Mean-time-to-detect for identity anomalies <15 minutes; MTTR ≤60 minutes.
Day 25–26: Break-Glass Test & Tabletop
Owner: IAM + SOC + IT Ops
Actions
- Simulate IdP outage or lockout; exercise break-glass.
- Validate: hardware keys, vault retrieval, policy bypass scope, audit trail, and prompt restoration.
- Capture lessons learned; adjust runbooks and monitoring.
Acceptance Criteria
- Successful end-to-end break-glass with complete evidence pack.
Day 27–28: Metrics Review & Hardening
Owner: IAM PM + Sponsor
Actions
- Review KPIs (below). Triage regressions; close gaps.
- Finalize exception lists with expiry dates; publish owner names.
- Lock in weekly identity hygiene windows (30–60 min) for orphan cleanup, NHI rotations, admin role audits, and alert tuning.
Day 29–30: Publish the New Steady State & Next Steps
Owner: IAM Lead + Comms
Actions
- Share a one-page before/after dashboard and the new operating norms (MFA, JIT, SSO-only, CA baseline).
- Publish a 90-day roadmap: automated JML at scale, recurring IGA certifications, policy-as-code, deeper identity threat detection, NHI modernization (workload identities, DPoP/mTLS where supported).
The Top 10 Fixes — Quick Reference
- Orphaned Account Cleanup — tie all accounts to HR; disable no-match; stage deletion; target orphan rate <0.5%.
- Leavers Same-Day — ticketed runbook; SLA ≤60 minutes; session revocation + device block; rotate shared/NHI secrets the leaver could access.
- NHI Secret Rotation & Vaulting — inventory, vault, rotate Tier-0/1 now; adopt workload identities; enable secret scanning.
- MFA Everywhere; Phishing-Resistant for Admins — FIDO2/WebAuthn for admins; avoid SMS for privileged roles; clean stale factors.
- Disable Legacy/Basic Auth & App Passwords — report-only → enforce; migrate edge clients; end app passwords.
- No Standing Admin; JIT Elevation — approvals, justifications, time-bound; two break-glass accounts with extra controls and monitoring.
- SSO-Only for Critical Apps — local logins off; SCIM/API lifecycle; verify token/session revocation.
- High-Risk Access Review Sprint — business owner attestation; ≥15–30% entitlement reduction on first pass; expiry on all exceptions.
- Conditional Access Baseline — MFA, device/risk/location guards; enforce after report-only review; stage exceptions with expiries.
- Identity Logging & Alerts; Break-Glass Hardened — ship logs to SIEM; actionable detections; quarterly break-glass test.
KPIs That Prove You Succeeded
- Orphaned account rate < 0.5%
- Leaver SLA: 100% within 60 minutes of HR signal
- Admin MFA posture: 100% FIDO2/WebAuthn
- Legacy sign-ins: 0 in last 7 days
- Standing Global/Super Admins: 0 (except break-glass)
- SSO coverage: 100% of Tier-0/1; 70%+ Tier-2 by Day 30
- Access review reductions: ≥15–30% on in-scope sets
- Conditional Access coverage: 100% users; 100% admins require compliant devices
- MTTD identity anomalies: <15 minutes; MTTR ≤60 minutes
- NHI vault coverage: 100% Tier-0/1; rotation policy active
Playbooks & Templates (Copy/Paste)
Help Desk Script (MFA Pushback)
“We’ve enabled MFA for everyone to protect your account and the company. Admins use hardware keys for extra protection. Let’s get you enrolled now—it takes about two minutes.”
Leaver Closure Checklist
- Disable IdP; revoke sessions; block devices
- Deprovision Tier-0/1 apps and VPN
- Rotate shared/NHI secrets the user could access
- Archive mailbox and transfer ownership of shared assets
JIT Elevation Acceptance Criteria
- Time-bound ≤60 minutes (renewable with approval)
- Ticket + justification required
- All elevations logged and exported to SIEM
Conditional Access Baseline (Example)
- Grant: Require MFA for all users
- Device: Require compliant/registered devices for admin portals
- Risk & Location: Block high-risk countries; step-up at risk = medium/high; detect impossible travel
- Session: Sign-in frequency 8–12 hours for sensitive apps
Common Blockers & How to Navigate Them
- Legacy dependencies: Treat as temporary exceptions with expiry; add compensating controls and a retirement plan.
- “We’ll lose productivity”: Use report-only + staged enforcement; publish clear help paths and business-friendly timelines.
- Admin resistance to JIT: Demonstrate 30-second elevation flows; show audit and insurance benefits; highlight blast-radius reduction.
- NHI rotation fear: Pilot in non-prod; dual-secret cutovers; schedule rotations during maintenance windows.
- Vendor SSO drag: Make SSO a contractual requirement at renewal; leverage SCIM where possible.
Resources & Next Steps
- Point managers and end users to your “Be Safe” checklists for passwords, devices, web, social, and finance to boost adoption.
- Create a standing Weekly Identity Hygiene window (30–60 minutes): orphan cleanup, NHI rotation review, admin role audit, alert tuning.
- After stabilization, move to automated JML, recurring IGA certifications, and policy-as-code for identity.
References
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 — Govern/Identify/Protect/Detect/Respond/Recover reference model.
- NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 — Security & privacy controls (e.g., access control, identification & authentication, auditing).
- CISA: Implementing Phishing-Resistant MFA — Guidance on FIDO2/WebAuthn and when push/SMS are insufficient.
- Microsoft Entra Conditional Access — Baseline policies, report-only → enforce, device compliance requirements.
- Microsoft: Deprecation of Basic Authentication in Exchange Online — Rationale and supported modern auth methods.
- Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) — JIT elevation with approvals, MFA to activate, justification & audit trail.
- Microsoft: Emergency (Break-Glass) Access Accounts — Recommended architecture and controls.
- Microsoft Sentinel / SIEM connectors for Entra ID — Exporting sign-in/audit/provisioning logs for detection.
- Okta Identity Engine — Phishing-resistant authentication (FIDO2/WebAuthn, FastPass) patterns.
- Okta Log Streaming — Near real-time export of System Log events to SIEM platforms.
- GitHub Secret Scanning — Prevent and detect plaintext secrets in repos (push protection & historical scans).
- CIS Critical Security Controls v8 — Account management, privilege control, and periodic access reviews.
✅ Accuracy Badge
Recommendations reflect broadly accepted IAM best practices (MFA, CA baselines, SSO, JIT/PAM, orphan cleanup, leaver SLAs, NHI vaulting/rotation, SIEM alerts). Implementation specifics vary by platform and environment, but the controls and outcomes are stable and widely validated.