GigaOm Key Criteria for Evaluating Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) Solutionsv1.0

1. Executive Summary

Identity management is an essential part of any organization’s IT infrastructure because it serves as the means to control access to applications and data that hold its most critical business information.

Identity and associated credentials, whether human or machine, are the tickets to access and privileges, so gaining control of them is a priority for cyberattackers. Not surprisingly, attempts to steal them are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and trying to detect and stop sophisticated attacks is ever more difficult. This challenge has intensified in the cloud era; with more potential platforms to attack and gain access to, the attacker’s job has become easier, while the defender’s is more complex.

The complexity and frequency of attacks mean that a more proactive approach is required; one that can detect and mitigate potential threats autonomously, accurately, and more quickly than human security teams could. This need has led to the development of identity threat detection and response solutions (ITDR). These systems use broad telemetry, large-scale analytics, and intelligence to identify threats and automate the response to them to quickly and accurately reduce risk.

ITDR solutions use a combination of security tools, processes, and best practices to effectively detect and respond to identity-related threats, such as credential theft, privilege misuse, data breaches, and fraudulent activity. This capability can be a major component in significantly reducing the threat posed by identity security attacks. Any tool that improves identity security should be evaluated as a priority because identity breaches present attackers with the opportunity to engineer attempts to cause disruption and steal data, cash, or both, with obviously negative impacts on any business.

Business Imperative
Identity is a high-value target for the modern cyberattacker, and a breached identity has the potential to significantly impact a business, so finding ways to be effective in identifying threats and quickly reducing the risk they pose must be a priority in any diligent IT security leader’s cybersecurity strategy.

Dealing with the challenge has become more difficult as the sophistication and accuracy of identity threats have increased. As attackers begin to use tools such as generative AI and large learning models (LLMs) to develop even more sophisticated attack approaches, the risk grows.

A solution will require financial investment, and deployment and adoption will take time and may require an organization to rethink the way it manages identity, but the benefit of more secure identities is significant. Those who fail to address the challenge run a high risk of identity compromise, a significant breach, and business disruption.

Sector Adoption Score
To help executives and decision-makers assess the potential impact and value of an ITDR solution deployment to the business, this GigaOm Key Criteria report provides a structured assessment of the sector across five factors: benefit, maturity, urgency, impact, and effort. By scoring each factor based on how strongly it compels or deters adoption of an ITDR solution, we provide an overall Sector Adoption Score (Figure 1) of 3.6 out of 5, with 5 indicating the strongest possible recommendation to adopt. This indicates that an ITDR solution is a credible candidate for deployment and worthy of thoughtful consideration.

The factors contributing to the Sector Adoption Score for ITDR are explained in more detail in the Sector Brief section that follows.

Figure 1. Sector Adoption Score for ITDR

This is the first year that GigaOm has reported on the ITDR space in the context of our Key Criteria and Radar reports. This GigaOm Key Criteria report highlights the capabilities (table stakes, key features, and emerging features) and nonfunctional requirements (business criteria) for selecting an effective ITDR solution. The companion GigaOm Radar report identifies vendors and products that excel in those capabilities and metrics. Together, these reports provide an overview of the category and its underlying technology, identify leading ITDR offerings, and help decision-makers evaluate these solutions so they can make a more informed investment decision.