IAM Deep Dive

I built an agentic workflow (Open Claw) with Inigo Montoya. Here's the identity-first guardrail stack—least privilege, HITL gates, tool scoping, auditability, and prompt-injection defenses—that makes autonomy usable without becoming a social-engineering liability.

A comprehensive analysis of what changes and breaks when IAM systems must serve tens or hundreds of thousands of users. Drawing from LinkedIn's 1B+ user identity infrastructure, performance benchmarking data, and enterprise migration case studies, this post covers database sharding, caching architectures, session management at scale, directory synchronization, authentication latency optimization, and the shift from monolithic to distributed IAM.

An in-depth examination of identity data quality challenges including orphaned accounts, duplicate identities, incomplete attributes, and cross-system reconciliation. Drawing from Gartner's finding that 30% of access certifications fail due to poor data quality, this post covers data quality metrics, golden record creation, fuzzy matching, automated reconciliation, and continuous hygiene practices.

A comprehensive architectural guide for designing IAM controls that satisfy multiple regulatory frameworks simultaneously. Drawing from actual audit findings, SOC 2 Type II report analysis, HIPAA security rule technical safeguards mapping, and PCI-DSS requirement 7 & 8 implementation patterns, this post covers segregation of duties enforcement, audit trail requirements, evidence collection automation, access certification for compliance, multi-framework control mapping, and strategies for satisfying auditors while maintaining operational efficiency.

A critical examination of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in access governance, separating vendor marketing from practical reality. Drawing from actual ML implementations in major IGA platforms (SailPoint, Saviynt, One Identity), peer-reviewed studies on ML effectiveness, and failure case studies, this post covers access pattern analysis, role mining algorithms, anomalous privilege detection, policy recommendation engines, limitations of current ML approaches, training data requirements, model accuracy, explainability challenges, and when NOT to use ML.

A comprehensive guide to building and tuning User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) systems for identity security. Drawing from Gartner's 2024 Market Guide, ML model analysis from commercial platforms, and case studies of successful UEBA implementations detecting insider threats, this post covers baseline establishment, anomaly detection algorithms, peer group analysis, risk scoring models, alert fatigue mitigation, and SIEM/SOAR integration.

A detailed exploration of OAuth 2.0 consent flows, delegated permissions, admin vs user consent, and scope management across enterprise SaaS ecosystems. Drawing from Microsoft's 2024 OAuth compromise data, 2023 consent phishing attacks, and IETF OAuth Security BCP, this post covers incremental consent, just-in-time permissions, consent grant auditing, overprivileged app detection, and automated scope governance.

Discover how identity analytics reveal the 1,158 cloud apps your employees use—97% unsanctioned. Learn OAuth monitoring, risk scoring, and automated governance.

A comprehensive examination of complex federation scenarios including M&A integrations, B2B partner trusts, multi-forest Active Directory, and hybrid cloud federations. Research from Gartner's 2024 IAM Magic Quadrant, Golden Ticket attack analysis, and Fortune 500 M&A case studies.

An in-depth exploration of non-human identity management, covering service accounts, workload identities, API keys, and machine-to-machine authentication. Research from CyberArk's 2024 report showing 45:1 ratio, CircleCI breach analysis, and comprehensive secrets management strategies.

A comprehensive deep dive into Identity Threat Detection & Response (ITDR), exploring how organizations detect compromised accounts, lateral movement, and identity-driven attacks. Includes analysis of the 2023 Verizon DBIR, Microsoft's 2024 Digital Defense Report, and case studies from SolarWinds and Okta breaches.

A guide to moving beyond broken annual reviews to a modern, continuous, and event-driven recertification model that actually reduces risk.