Security powerhouse CrowdStrike made headlines this week with a major acquisition in the identity space with their purchase of SGNL for a reported $740 million. If you’re wondering why did CrowdStrike buy SGNL, you’re asking the right question. And you’re probably not alone.

Over the past year, we’ve watched some of the largest security platforms in the world spend real money acquiring identity security companies. 

From the outside, it might look like platforms buying solutions in a standard consolidation story. From the inside, it looks more like preparation. Specifically, preparation for a future in which identity becomes the most critical control plane for securing cloud environments and the AI systems now operating within them.

At Apono, we see this acquisition as something to celebrate. Not because a competitor was acquired, but because it validates a reality we’ve been living in for years. Identity security has reached a scale and complexity that legacy approaches simply cannot handle. And with AI entering the picture, that gap is becoming impossible to ignore.

Consolidation of Privileged Access Is a Sign of Challenges to Come

CrowdStrike’s acquisition of SGNL is part of a much broader pattern. Over the last 18 months, security vendors have been moving aggressively to close gaps in identity, access, and cloud authorization.

A few examples stand out:

• Palo Alto Networks acquiring CyberArk $25B
• Okta acquiring Axiom for roughly $100M
• BeyondTrust acquiring Entitle for around $150M

Just to name a few.

Now the latest news to break was today’s announcement of Delinea’s acquisition of StrongDM, doubling down on the fact that the big players in the security industry are working hard to ensure that they’re not left flat-footed on identity for Agentic like they were with the advent of the cloud. 

And that’s the backdrop for why did CrowdStrike buy SGNL? It’s a recognition that Identity isn’t a feature anymore. Managing privileged access is simply foundational. But how did we get here?

Why Identity Has Become the Limiting Factor for AI

The pressure around identity and access did not appear overnight. It built up in layers as environments changed faster than access models could adapt.

Before the cloud, access management lived in a very different world:

• Infrastructure was static and long-lived, changing infrequently and predictably
  
• Identities were almost entirely human and relatively easy to enumerate
  
• Permissions were coarse-grained, often all-or-nothing access to a system
  
• Roles were created once and reused for years with minimal adjustment
  
• Access reviews happened periodically and were simply approved, causing access creep.
  
• Manual approvals and standing access were inefficient but manageable
  

In that environment, static roles and slow processes were imperfect, but they mostly worked. The problem is that the world they were built for no longer exists.

It started with the move to the cloud:

• Infrastructure adoption accelerated faster than most security programs anticipated
  
• Resources multiplied, permissions became far more granular, and change shifted from quarterly to daily
  
• Even with only human identities, static roles and periodic access reviews quickly stopped scaling
  

Then came the explosion of non-human identities:

• Service accounts, workload identities, API tokens, CI/CD pipelines, and automation spread everywhere
  
• These identities are predictable in function but exist at a massive scale
  
• The ratio of non-human identities to humans is now estimated at roughly 150:1
  
• Most sit outside traditional IdPs, with fragmented visibility, weak lifecycle controls, and permissions left overly broad to avoid breaking production
  

Now we are entering the Agentic AI era, and earlier cracks are widening:

• Agentic AI combines human-like autonomy with machine speed and scale
  
• These systems decide what to access, when to act, and how to proceed, often without direct human oversight
  
• They ingest untrusted inputs, interact across systems, and operate continuously
  

If non-human identities were already a scaling problem, Agentic AI is a multiplier.

As it stands, AI vendors will manage their models, just as cloud providers manage infrastructure. But organizations still own access. They remain responsible for what identities can reach, what actions they can perform, and where guardrails exist when things go wrong.

And this is where many organizations are running into a hard truth: they do not yet have their identities under control, human or otherwise. AI does not introduce new access failures. It accelerates the ones that already exist.

As Den Jones of 909Cyber put it in a recent Forbes article by Tony Bradley, “Most companies don’t struggle with AI because the models are bad. They struggle because their systems, identities, and data aren’t ready for it.”

This realization that they need to get their privileged access in order has led both customer organizations and big security vendors to seek out Privileged Access Management tools to reduce their access risk.

Why Dynamic Authorization Is the Real Shift

What SGNL got right, and what we have been building toward at Apono, is that access decisions cannot be static. They need to be continuous, contextual, and risk-driven. That applies equally to human users, non-human identities, and now AI-driven ones.

This is exactly what CrowdStrike’s President Michael Sentonas pointed to in his announcement blog. Managing access across all identity types requires decisions that adapt in real time, not policies that are frozen at creation and cleaned up later.

What we see from Sentonas’ post is that the real value of managing access in the cloud is not in turning access on and off. It is about continuously aligning access decisions with risk as identities, resources, and usage patterns change.

That is what dynamic authorization actually means, and why we believe that Apono is well placed to lead the identity security industry into the Agentic AI age. 

How We Think About This at Apono

At Apono, we start from a simple position: access decisions cannot be static in constantly changing environments. In the cloud, defining access once and reviewing it later is disconnected from how work actually happens.

Resources change, teams shift, and usage patterns evolve continuously. Access controls have to keep pace with that reality.

Our approach is built around a few core principles:

• Access decisions should be driven by risk and real-time context, not pre-defined roles
  
• Privileges should exist only for the duration and scope of a specific task
  
• The same governance model must apply across humans, non-human identities, and AI
  

Instead of managing large catalogs of static roles, we provide tightly scoped permissions on demand and remove them automatically when the task is complete. This eliminates standing access, reduces privilege sprawl, and keeps least privilege aligned with how systems are actually used.

Because our Just-in-Time model is based on context and risk rather than identity type, it extends naturally to Agentic AI without introducing a separate control framework.

Why This Acquisition Validates the Direction

If you don’t have human and machine identities under control today, you won’t be ready for AI tomorrow. Period.

The SGNL acquisition, followed closely by StrongDM’s announcement, reinforces the same message. Security platforms are racing to catch up to the reality that identity is now the control plane for everything else.

And they are racing to catch up.

What Comes Next

Our prediction is simple. We will continue to see consolidation in the privileged access sector, heating up alongside the general AI space. 

For security leaders, the takeaway is not about vendors. It’s about readiness. Identity security is no longer about quarterly reviews or static roles. It’s about continuous enforcement at scale.

And that’s why this moment matters.If you’re interested in how this looks in practice, you can explore Apono’s approach to Just-in-Time, Just-Enough access and see how identity can become an enabler rather than a blocker as AI becomes part of everyday operations.

As cloud environments sprawl and engineering teams scale, the number of identities you manage has exploded. It’s no longer just employees and contractors; CI/CD pipelines, service accounts, API tokens, and AI-powered agents are all asking for access to production systems and sensitive data. 

It’s no shock that identity has become a top-line priority for security and platform leaders. 78% of organizations plan to ramp up spending on identity and access management tools to ease concerns over identity-based attacks that lead to phishing and lateral movement. The challenge in choosing an IAM tool is finding one with the capability to scale with your cloud footprint. 

What are identity and access management tools?

Identity and access management (IAM) tools help you answer two core questions: Who is this?” and “What are they allowed to do?”

IAM tools verify identities through authentication methods such as SSO and MFA, then enforce fine-grained permissions across your cloud providers, infrastructure, and SaaS applications. Rather than letting each system manage its own users and permissions, IAM tools centralize all identity data and access workflows, allowing DevOps and security teams to apply consistent, least-privilege controls.

When people say “identity and access management tools,” they’re usually talking about a whole stack. Not just classic IAM platforms, but also privileged access management (PAM), Just-in-Time (JIT) access orchestration, and secret scanning tools. JIT in particular has become a critical extension of modern IAM strategies.

Cloud-native environments are flooded with non-human identities (NHIs) like service accounts, workloads, and bots, each tied to secrets such as API keys and certificates.

This proliferation means IAM tools now need to govern both human and non-human access with the same rigor to avoid silent, large-scale over-permissioning. A recent State of Secrets Sprawl analysis highlighted that as NHIs multiply, so do the secrets tied to them. Traditional, reactive secrets management simply isn’t enough in automated, cloud-native environments.

Types of Identity and Access Management Tools

Modern IAM spans several categories, and many solutions overlap. Here are the core types engineering and security teams rely on:

• Cloud-native IAM (AWS, Azure, GCP): The built-in controls you use to manage roles, policies, and permissions directly in your cloud accounts.
• JIT and time-bound access platforms: Hand out temporary, scoped access only when it’s needed, so you can actually enforce least privilege across infra and SaaS.
• Machine identity & secrets management: Systems that keep API keys, tokens, certificates, and other credentials for human and non-human identities safe.
• PAM: Platforms that control and log elevated access, increasingly leaning on JIT so admins don’t carry standing privileges.
• Authentication tools (SSO, MFA, passwordless): Services that prove who someone is but don’t decide what that identity can do after they’re signed in.
• Access governance & authorization platforms: Tools that give you visibility and control over entitlements so you can right-size permissions and reduce continuous threat exposure.

Benefits of Identity and Access Management Tools

Reduced Risk Through Least Privilege

By centralizing roles, policies, and entitlements, IAM tools eliminate excessive permissions, especially among NHIs that accumulate broad access over time. This approach turns Zero Trust from a slideware concept into something your engineers feel day-to-day.

Stronger Protection Against Identity-Based Attacks

When attackers compromise a human or machine identity, they typically exploit misconfigured roles and standing privileges. IAM platforms strengthen defenses with features like real-time access controls that make identity-based intrusions significantly harder to execute.

Improved Operational Efficiency for Engineering Teams

Instead of relying on ad hoc approvals or ticket queues, teams can automate access flows, freeing up DevOps and platform engineers to focus on higher-impact work.

Better Compliance and Audit Readiness

IAM tools offer automated logging and entitlement reviews to reduce audit fatigue and eliminate spreadsheet-driven processes, similar to how efficient laboratory management practices emphasize traceable, well-documented workflows and data integrity.

Scalable Access Management for Cloud-Native Environments

IAM solutions scale policy enforcement and support dynamic access models, such as JIT, ensuring security remains consistent even as you adopt multi-account cloud structures and AI-driven automation. 

Key Features to Look For in an Identity and Access Management Tool

• Least-privilege automation: Look for IAM platforms that automate dynamic roles and fine-grained policies, rather than relying on one-off cleanup projects. 
• JIT and time-bound access control:  Prioritize tools that support time-bound, scoped access and auto-expiring permissions so engineers don’t keep privileges “just in case.”
• NHI security: Features that can discover, right-size, and continuously govern NHIs and their secrets are essential. 
• Compliance and audit readiness: Strong options provide centralized logs, reporting features, and access review workflows for repeatable auditing.
• Cloud-native integrations: API-driven, cloud-native solutions embed access control directly into developer workflows (e.g., Slack, Teams, CLI) and manage policies as code as your environment scales.

10 Top Identity and Access Management Tools

1. Omada Identity Cloud 

Omada Identity Cloud is a SaaS-delivered Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) platform focused on lifecycle management and access governance. It delivers policy-based controls and offers no-code configuration.

Main Features:

• Risk analytics and AI-driven recommendations to identify anomalous access
• SaaS delivery with standardized implementation program 
• Access governance with policy- and role-based controls

Price: By inquiry.

Best for: Deep identity governance and lifecycle management. 

Review: “I love the clean interface, simplicity of features and controls, and how quick it is to edit user permissions.”

2. Apono

Apono is a cloud-native access management and privileged access platform that automates JIT and Just-Enough-Privilege (JEP) access across your entire stack. Instead of managing static roles or manual tickets, DevOps and platform teams define dynamic access flows that grant granular, time-bound permissions only when needed, then revoke them automatically. Apono is designed to eliminate risky standing permissions for both human and non-human identities without slowing down engineers.

Main Features:

• Enforces automated JIT access policies across cloud providers, databases, and internal tools, drastically reducing standing privileges
• Engineers request granular access directly from Slack, Microsoft Teams, or CLI, with policy-driven approvals
• Pre-configured emergency and on-call access patterns speed up incident response
• Centralized view of who can access what (including NHIs), with automated reports to support compliance audits

Price: Contact the Apono team for a tailored quote.

Best for: Cloud-native engineering and DevOps organizations that need to eliminate standing permissions and automate JIT and JEP access.

Review: “Quick and easy config to integrate access control with a myriad of service providers and data stores. For the admin, it’s pretty straightforward to define and implement access flows. For the requester, all they have to do is ask for it via slack and they get what they need within seconds.”

3. Securden Unified PAM

Securden Unified PAM focuses on securing high-risk accounts and keys across servers, databases, network devices, and SaaS. The platform supports on-prem and cloud deployments, making it flexible for hybrid environments.

Main Features:

• Centralized vault for privileged account passwords and application credentials
• Session management with monitoring and recording 
• Integrations with common IdPs (e.g., Entra ID, Okta)

Price: Quote-based pricing depending on your deployment option.

Best for: Traditional Privileged Access Management. 

Review: “PAM got our own passwords safe and gave us a single, centralized way to manage customers’ passwords and remote access through a single interface.”

4. Segura

Next up is Segura, an identity security platform that evolved from a PAM solution into a broader identity and access management stack. It provides centralized control over privileged accounts, session recording, and access workflows while also covering general identity and access use cases.

Main Features:

• Built-in integrations to record all privileged sessions for forensic analysis
• Governance over both privileged and non-privileged identities through a unified platform
• JIT elevation and detailed session recording for admins and service accounts

Price: By inquiry.

Best for: All-in-one PAM and identity security platform.

Review: “I would especially highlight the simplicity and speed of use combined with the breadth of functionalities in a single, highly integrated platform.”

5. Doppler

As a secrets and configuration management platform, Doppler centralizes API keys and environment variables for engineering teams. Instead of scattering secrets across CI/CD pipelines and cloud services, Doppler syncs them automatically to apps and infrastructure. 

Main Features:

• Audit logs, secret health analytics, and alerts via Slack and Teams
• Dynamic secrets and automatic rotation capabilities 
• Centralized secrets store with automatic syncing into CI/CD and runtime environments

Price: Free Developer plan for up to 3 users; Team plan starting around $21/user/month; Enterprise tier is quote-based.

Best for: Centralized secrets and configuration management.

Review: “I really appreciate both the command-line interface and the user interface for managing secrets and keeping them in sync.”

6. Seamfix iAM

Seamfix iAM is a workforce and citizen identity platform focused on centralized identity lifecycle management and MFA. It provides a unified console to manage user accounts, roles, and application access, helping teams replace manual access management with policy-based automation.

Main Features:

• Strong authentication with MFA and support for biometric login
• Role-based access control and centralized policy management 
• Pre-built integrations with common enterprise and SaaS applications 

Price: By inquiry.

Best for: Centralized workforce or citizen identity management and MFA.

Review: Not available.

7. Akeyless

Akeyless is a cloud-native secrets management and modern PAM platform delivered as SaaS. Its “vaultless” architecture is designed to reduce traditional vault complexity while still providing enterprise-grade security and performance.

Main Features:

• Vaultless secrets management to centralize and secure all secret types
• Certificate lifecycle management and “bring your own vault” connectors
• SaaS delivery with high availability and integrations into CI/CD pipelines

Price: By inquiry.

Best for: Consolidating secrets management and modern PAM.

Review: “Akeyless is a one-stop shop for everything—storing secrets, identity services, connecting to third-party tools, encryption, and more.”

8. WSO2 Identity Server

As an open-source, API-driven IAM platform, WSO2 Identity Server supports SSO and MFA use cases. With its extensible architecture, WSO2 is well-suited to organizations that want to deeply customize identity flows. 

Main Features:

• High extensibility and API-first design, allowing custom authenticators and integrations
• Support for modern cryptographic standards, including emerging post-quantum-ready capabilities
• Standards-based SSO and identity federation 

Price: Free open-source version. Enterprise support is quote-based.

Best for: Customizable, open-source IAM/CIAM platform.

Review: “What I appreciate most about WSO2 Identity Server is its comprehensive support for identity federation and single sign-on (SSO).”

9. FusionAuth

FusionAuth is a developer-focused CIAM platform that can run self-hosted or as a managed cloud service. It provides authentication, SSO, MFA, social login, and user management for consumer-facing applications.

Main Features:

• Flexible deployment: self-host via Docker/Kubernetes or use FusionAuth Cloud
• Advanced features like WebAuthn/passkeys and breached password detection
• SDKs and integration options designed for developer control

Price: The Community option is free. Then, prices rise from $125/month for Starter to $3,300/month for Enterprise.

Best for: Customer-facing authentication and CIAM workflows.

Review: “Their documentation is professionally written and well organized; that, along with their “Ask AI” feature, has made it possible to accomplish some sophisticated configurations.”

10. Infisical

Infisical is an open-source secrets management platform that centralizes application configuration and secrets. It brings secrets, IAM-style access controls, and auditability into a single, Git-integrated workflow.

Main Features:

• Wide integration coverage: GitHub, GitLab, Kubernetes, Docker, major cloud secret managers, etc.
• Temporary access and automated secret rotation tied to expiration
• Enterprise-grade governance via audit logs.

Price: Free open-source version, and enterprise is quote-based.                                                                 

Best for: Modern, open-source secrets management platform with strong RBAC.

Review: “It is very easy to set up and use – even for some very complex infrastructure environments.”

Table 1: IAM Solution Summary

Tool	Category	Key Focus / Strengths	Deployment Model
Omada Identity Cloud	IGA / Enterprise IAM	Identity lifecycle, access governance, certification campaigns, compliance	SaaS (cloud IGA)
Apono	JIT Access / Modern PAM / Access Orchestration	Automated JIT & JEP, auto-expiring permissions, ChatOps-based access, cloud-native integrations	Cloud-native SaaS, API-driven
Securden Unified PAM	Privileged Access Management (PAM)	Password & key vaulting, credential rotation, privileged session monitoring	On-prem, private cloud, hybrid
Segura (senhasegura)	Identity Security / PAM + IAM	Privileged access, secrets management, identity governance, compliance reporting	SaaS and on-prem options
Doppler	Secrets & Config Management	Centralized secrets, CI/CD environment syncing, developer-first workflows	SaaS
Seamfix iAM	Workforce / Citizen IAM	Lifecycle management, MFA, RBAC, centralized policy-based access	Enterprise / government deployments
Akeyless	Secrets Management + Modern PAM	Vaultless secrets, remote access, certificate lifecycle automation, multi-cloud support	SaaS (cloud-native)
WSO2 Identity Server	Open-Source IAM / CIAM	Standards-based SSO, MFA, federation, extensible identity workflows	Open-source; self-hosted or managed
FusionAuth	CIAM / App Authentication	Developer-friendly auth, SSO, MFA, flexible hosting	Self-hosted or SaaS
Infisical	Open-Source Secrets Management	Encrypted secrets, Git-integrated workflows, RBAC, audit logs	Open-source + cloud SaaS

Turning IAM into an Identity-First Advantage

Taking an identity-first approach gives you tighter control over identity-related attacks and cleaner audit trails as you scale into more clouds, more SaaS, and exponentially more NHIs. With the right stack, you can leave standing privileges and one-size-fits-all roles in the past, moving towards dynamic, least-privilege access.

Apono is a cloud native orchestration layer that automates time-bound access, granular approvals, and just-enough access for both users and NHIs. It discovers over-permissioned identities and removes risky standing privileges with auto-expiring permissions. 

If you’re already investing in IAM, the next step is turning those policies into something your engineers actually feel less, not more. Apono helps teams operationalize Zero Trust in day-to-day workflows: approvals that are contextual instead of manual ticket ping-pong, and guardrails for NHIs that match the sensitivity of the systems they touch.

Ready to see how Apono can plug into your existing stack and eliminate standing privileges for good? For a deeper evaluation, grab the Privileged Access Buyer Guide + RFP Checklist and benchmark your current tools against a JIT-first, identity-driven future.

Just-in-Time access is widely accepted as a best practice for reducing standing privilege. The challenge for most organizations is not deciding to use JIT, but designing access policies that actually reduce risk without slowing engineers down. Security teams want tighter controls, stronger auditability, and less standing access. Engineering teams need fast, predictable access to do their work. When approval policies are too rigid, teams get blocked or work around controls. When policies are too loose, risk quietly accumulates.

This guide explains the core challenges of designing effective Just-in-Time access policies, outlines a practical policy framework, and shows how modern automation makes these policies enforceable at scale.

The Challenge of Balancing Security and Productivity

Access management usually breaks down because environments change faster than policies. Cloud environments are exceedingly dynamic and legacy PAM tools designed for the on-prem era simply cannot keep up with the needs of the business or the risks.

Common problems show up quickly:

• Temporary access becomes permanent because no one wants to disrupt workflows
• Manual approvals turn into bottlenecks, especially during incidents
• The same rules are applied to low-risk and high-risk systems
• Access reviews catch issues long after privileges have drifted.

The result is a model that satisfies neither security nor engineering. Just-in-Time access can solve this, but only when policies are intentionally designed around risk and duration.

Why Time-Bound Access Enables Effective Controls

Standing access creates risk because it exists even when it is not needed. Just-in-Time access reduces that risk by ensuring access is granted only for a defined window and removed automatically when the work is complete.

Effective JIT policies follow a few core principles:

• Privileged access expires by default
• Re-access requires a new request
• Duration is enforced automatically
• Approval requirements reflect risk

When duration is enforced consistently, approvals become a supporting control rather than the only line of defense.

Automatic, Self-Serve, and Manual Access Paths

Modern JIT policies should support different access paths based on risk, without forcing everything through the same approval model.

Automatic access
Used for low-risk environments like development and sandbox systems. Access is granted automatically when policy conditions are met, but still expires. This keeps engineers productive while preventing access from lingering.

Self-serve on-demand access
Used for moderately sensitive systems. Users request access when needed. Policies determine whether approval is automatic or conditional. Access is granted Just-in-Time and removed automatically.

Manual approval
Reserved for high-risk systems such as production infrastructure and sensitive data. Requests require explicit approval and are tightly time-bound. This adds friction where it matters most, without making it the default everywhere.

The goal is not to approve everything. The goal is to align access paths with the sensitivity of what is being accessed.

Recommended Just-in-Time Access Policy Framework

The table below summarizes recommended access durations and approval models, based on Apono best-practice guidance.

These limits ensure access is time-bound by design and cannot quietly turn into standing privilege.

Using Context to Secure Break-Glass Access

Emergency access presents a unique challenge. During incidents, speed matters, but so does control.

By using context from incident response tools such as PagerDuty, Splunk OnCall, Opsgenie, Grafana IRM, or others, organizations can allow break-glass access only when an active incident exists or when an engineer is on call. Elevated access is granted temporarily, tightly scoped, and removed automatically when the incident ends.

This approach enables fast response without relying on permanent admin access or broad emergency roles.

Enforcing JIT Policies Automatically With Apono

Policy design only works when enforcement is consistent and low effort.

Apono enforces JIT access policies directly in the access flow. Every request includes a required duration. Access expires automatically and must be re-requested if needed again.

Instead of relying on pre-created roles, Apono dynamically creates ephemeral roles on the fly based on the specific resource, and context. Permissions are assembled Just-in-Time, scoped Just-Enough, and removed when access expires.

This approach reduces overprivilege, eliminates role sprawl, and significantly lowers the operational burden on admins. Security teams define policy once, and Apono handles provisioning, expiration, and cleanup automatically.

All requests, approvals, role creation, and expirations are logged by default, creating a clear audit trail without manual evidence collection.

How JIT Policies Support Compliance and Audits

Well-designed JIT access policies directly support common regulatory requirements by enforcing least privilege and accountability continuously.

For auditors, this provides clear evidence of who accessed what, why, and for how long. For security teams, it turns compliance into an ongoing control rather than an annual scramble.

Designing Policies That Scale

Strong JIT access policies are not about adding friction. They are about removing standing access while preserving productivity.

By combining enforced expiration, dynamic role creation, risk-aligned approvals, and contextual controls, organizations can reduce privilege exposure, simplify audits, and give engineers the access they need without overprovisioning.

This framework provides a practical starting point for designing JIT access policies that scale with modern cloud environments.

Turn JIT Policy Design Into Enforced Access

You’ve seen how effective Just-in-Time access policies are designed—time-bound access, risk-aligned approvals, and automatic expiration.

The next step is turning those policies into something that actually works in production.

Download The Security Leader’s Guide to Rolling Out Just-in-Time Access to see how security teams operationalize JIT policies across cloud, databases, Kubernetes, and CI/CD—without disrupting engineering workflows.

Or, if you’re ready to see how this works in practice, book a demo to explore how Apono enforces JIT access with dynamic permissions, automatic revocation, and full auditability.

Privileged access programs were designed for environments where access could be defined ahead of time. That assumption no longer holds in the cloud.

Legacy PAM emerged in a world of static infrastructure, long-lived systems, and a relatively small number of privileged users. Access patterns were predictable. Roles could be created in advance, assigned broadly, and reviewed periodically. That model was imperfect, but it worked well enough.

Cloud environments operate at a very different pace. Infrastructure is created and changed continuously. Identities appear and disappear through automation. Privileged access is no longer limited to administrators. It is used constantly by developers, CI pipelines, service accounts, and increasingly AI-driven systems operating across production environments.

For cloud security teams, this shift turns privileged access into a dynamic security problem. Static access models struggle to keep up.

This is why the move from legacy PAM to Cloud PAM is not incremental. It is architectural.

Why the Cloud Broke Static Privileged Access

The move to the cloud changed how access behaves, not just where systems run. Several shifts matter most for cloud security teams.

Identity sprawl across humans, machines, and AI
Human users are now outnumbered by service accounts, pipelines, automation, and third-party integrations. These identities are often overprivileged and difficult to monitor at cloud scale. AI agents add further risk by introducing access patterns that cannot be fully predicted upfront.

Granular permissions
Cloud platforms expose fine-grained permissions at the API and resource level. Least privilege is achievable, but only if access can be adjusted dynamically. Broad, static roles quickly become misaligned with real usage.

Ephemeral infrastructure
Cloud resources are created and changed continuously by automation. Access needs evolve just as quickly, leaving static roles and predefined permissions struggling to stay relevant.

Together, these shifts make one thing clear. Access needs are no longer stable. Any PAM model that assumes they are will fall behind.

Why Static PAM Fails in the Cloud

Legacy PAM struggles in the cloud not because it is slow or manual, but because it is static by design.

Static PAM assumes access needs can be modeled in advance. Roles are pre-created. Approval paths are fixed. Privileges are granted long before they are actually needed, then reviewed periodically to correct drift.

That approach worked when systems changed slowly. In cloud environments, it produces predictable problems.

• Privileged roles expand to cover new services and workflows
• Standing access becomes the default because removal feels operationally risky
• Reviews lag behind reality and turn into reactive cleanup
• Security teams spend more time maintaining access models than enforcing outcomes

At cloud speed, access needs change continuously. New services, permissions, and identities appear daily. Static models require teams to anticipate these changes and update roles and policies ahead of time. That work inevitably falls behind.

Standing privilege becomes a coping mechanism for change, even as it increases risk. This is a structural limitation of static access models in dynamic environments.

How Cloud PAM and Just-in-Time Access Change the Model

Cloud PAM refers to privileged access systems built specifically for cloud environments, integrating directly with cloud control planes and APIs rather than relying on vaults, jump hosts, or session proxies. But Cloud PAM alone is not enough. Many Cloud PAM solutions still rely on pre-created roles and static permission models, which reintroduce standing access even in cloud-native architectures.

The real shift comes from Just-in-Time privileged access. Just-in-Time access changes how privileged permissions are granted, used, and removed. Instead of existing permanently, privileged access is provisioned only at the moment it is needed. Zero Standing Privilege builds on this model by making Just-in-Time access the default. Privileged access does not exist unless it is explicitly requested, approved if required, and granted for a limited duration.

Rather than relying on long-lived roles, Just-in-Time access delivers permissions that are scoped to the specific task, enforced at request time, and automatically revoked when the task is complete. This approach aligns privileged access with how cloud environments actually operate and eliminates standing privilege as a byproduct of static design.

In practice, Cloud PAM aligned with Just-in-Time access means:

• Privileged access is temporary rather than permanent
• Access decisions are made at request time
• Context such as environment and resource sensitivity informs access
• Privilege expiration is enforced automatically

For cloud security teams, this turns privileged access into a continuous control rather than a corrective process.

Legacy PAM vs. Cloud PAM at a Glance

Legacy PAM was designed for static infrastructure. Cloud PAM is built for environments that change constantly. This comparison shows how those models diverge in practice.

How Apono Makes Zero Standing Privilege Work at Cloud Speed

Apono was built to implement Cloud PAM in a way that truly supports Zero Standing Privilege at cloud scale.

Rather than requiring teams to pre-create and maintain privileged roles, Apono dynamically creates ephemeral roles at request time. Permissions are assembled based on context and the specific task being performed. Access is granted Just-in-Time, scoped Just-Enough, and removed automatically when no longer needed. This allows organizations to eliminate standing privilege without constantly rebuilding role models as environments evolve.

Static Access Cannot Secure a Dynamic Cloud

Cloud environments are not slowing down. Neither is the risk created by static privileged access.

For cloud security teams reassessing how access is granted, reviewed, and revoked, the next step is understanding where standing privilege still exists and how Just-in-Time access can replace it.

If you’re exploring Cloud PAM options, our Privileged Access Buyer Guide + RFP Checklist can help. It walks through the capabilities that matter most for operationalizing Zero Standing Privilege and offers clear guidance for comparing cloud-native approaches with legacy PAM solutions.

In most organizations, standing privileges don’t show up all at once. They accumulate quietly. A role is added “temporarily.” A contractor needs broad access to finish a project. A service account gets oversized permissions because no one has time to fine-tune them. None of these choices seem harmful in the moment, but over time they build into a privilege surface that’s far too large and far too easy to misuse.

The challenge is that standing privileges often look harmless until something finally goes wrong. The indicators are visible long before the incident, but only if you know where to look. Here are five of the clearest signs that your environment is carrying more access risk than it should.

1. You Have More Admins Than Your Environment Actually Needs

Admin creep happens naturally. In fast-moving environments, the easiest way to unblock a task is to give someone full access. It works. It’s quick. And it’s rarely revisited. Multiply that across cloud accounts, SaaS tools, Kubernetes clusters, and databases and you end up with dozens or even hundreds of identities that hold far more privilege than they need.

The problem isn’t just security. Admin sprawl amplifies operational fragility. A single mistake or a single malicious action can ripple far beyond its intended scope. We’ve seen this play out in cases like the fired contractor who reset thousands of employee passwords, or internal misconfigurations that caused major outages. In both types of incidents, the blast radius existed because privileges were broader than they needed to be.

If you can’t articulate why every admin in your environment truly needs that level of access, that’s a strong indicator that standing privileges have taken root, and a good moment to benchmark your exposure with the Standing Privilege Risk Checklist.

2. Long-Lived Keys and Credentials Are Still Everywhere

API keys, service account tokens, SSH keys, and automation secrets are some of the easiest paths into a cloud environment. They’re also some of the least governed. Many teams still keep:

• Credentials that never expire
  
• Keys embedded in pipelines or code
  
• Secrets used across multiple systems
  
• Tokens with full read/write access to production resources
  

These aren’t bad people making bad decisions. They’re busy teams trying to keep the lights on.

The problem is that long-lived credentials become high-value targets. Attackers increasingly test stolen cloud keys the moment they get them, as we saw in the AWS credential abuse cases involving TruffleHog and SES misuse. Whether the threat is external or internal, a persistent key with broad permissions is often the fastest route to sensitive resources.

If a service account can do more than its exact task—and keep doing it indefinitely—that’s an indicator of standing privilege risk.

3. Privileges Don’t Match What Identities Actually Use

Privilege sprawl is often a visibility problem. Teams don’t know what rights are being used, so they over-grant “just in case.” Over time, roles accumulate hundreds of permissions, most of which are never touched.

Common examples include:

• IAM roles with wildcard permissions
  
• CI/CD pipelines that can modify infrastructure far beyond their workload
  
• Databases where read/write permissions aren’t separated
  
• Kubernetes service accounts with full cluster-admin rights
  
• NHIs with cross-environment access because it was simpler than scoping
  

When permissions are broader than their real usage, the organization isn’t just exposed to attackers. It’s exposed to insider mistakes, misconfigurations, and accidental changes in sensitive systems. The Cloudflare outage is a well-known example of a change having far more impact than expected because of how permissions were structured.

If your team doesn’t regularly compare “granted” versus “used,” standing privileges are almost certainly accumulating.

4. Sensitive Actions Don’t Require Any Friction

Some operations should not be immediately available to any identity, no matter how trusted:

• Resetting large numbers of passwords
  
• Editing IAM policies
  
• Disabling security controls
  
• Modifying production data
  
• Spinning up new users or access keys
  
• Stopping backup or logging services
  

These actions should require either approvals, elevated Just-in-Time access, or automated guardrails that constrain when and how they can be performed.

In environments without friction, sensitive actions can be executed accidentally or misused maliciously. This is how attackers using valid RDP credentials can disable security tools instantly, or how insiders can execute destructive scripts without hitting any checkpoints.

If sensitive actions feel too easy, that’s an indicator that standing privileges are enabling more reach than intended.

5. You Can’t Easily Answer Who Has Access to What

Standing privileges thrive in environments where visibility is fragmented. Cloud, SaaS, identity providers, CI/CD, Kubernetes, and databases all have their own privilege models. Without unified visibility, organizations rely on:

• Spreadsheets for access reviews
  
• Outdated role definitions
  
• Tribal knowledge
  
• Manual investigations
  
• Multiple admin consoles
  

This fragmentation makes it nearly impossible to catch privilege drift or identify when service accounts, contractors, or AI agents have more access than expected.

And when an incident happens, delayed response often comes down to not knowing who had the ability to take a specific action. This is one of the biggest—and most overlooked—indicators that standing privileges have become ingrained.

How Zero Standing Privileges Addresses These Indicators

Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) focuses on removing permanent access and replacing it with temporary, scoped, and auditable elevation. Under ZSP:

• Access is granted Just-in-Time
  
• Privileges match the specific task
  
• Access expires automatically
  
• Sensitive actions require deliberate elevation
  

ZSP reduces the opportunity for malicious insiders, limits the surface attackers can abuse with stolen credentials, and prevents accidental actions from impacting production systems.

It directly addresses all five indicators by keeping privilege surfaces small and access intentional.

How Apono Helps You Reduce Standing Privilege Risk

Apono makes Zero Standing Privileges practical across cloud, databases, SaaS, Kubernetes, and hybrid environments. It helps teams:

• Automate Just-in-Time elevation without slowing users down
  
• Quarantine risky privileges without breaking workflows
  
• Rightsize access based on real usage and risk data
  
• Remove standing access for human and non-human identities
  
• Log and audit all elevations and admin actions
  
• Detect unusual privilege behavior early
  

The goal isn’t to lock systems down. It’s to introduce the right guardrails so access becomes safer and more predictable.

Putting Better Guardrails Around Access

Standing privileges rarely feel dangerous until they’re misused. But the indicators show up long before the incident happens. If your environment has more admins than needed, long-lived keys, broad permissions, frictionless sensitive actions, or limited visibility, privilege sprawl is already creating risk.

If you want a fast way to understand where your gaps are, download the Zero Standing Privilege Risk Checklist — 

or reach out to see how Apono can help reduce privilege exposure without slowing your teams down.

New integration closes a long-standing Zero Trust gap by eliminating persistent permissions and enabling real-time, policy-driven access across cloud environments.

NEW YORK – January 6, 2026 – Apono today announced a new integration with Check Point Software Technologies that delivers an advanced SASE-based Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) architecture designed to eliminate long-lived permissions and provide real-time access across modern cloud environments. This solution enables organizations to significantly reduce their attack surface while maintaining the agility required across engineering, distributed teams, and incident response operations.

Traditional SCIM-based identity synchronization can take 30–60 minutes, forcing organizations to rely on standing access to avoid operational delays. The new Apono–Check Point integration removes this dependency by enforcing temporary, event-driven access directly through Harmony SASE. Users receive only the permissions required for the specific task and time window, with access automatically revoked when the work is complete.

“Cloud environments are now operated not only by humans but by automated systems and AI-driven agents,” said Ofir Stein, Co-founder and CTO of Apono. “These systems react in milliseconds, and access must follow the same pace. Our integration with Check Point allows access to rise and fall dynamically alongside the infrastructure, ensuring real-time enforcement whether the actor is an engineer or an automated agent.”

Enterprises increasingly rely on SASE frameworks to secure distributed workforces. However, traditional provisioning approaches introduce friction and slow response times, particularly during high-urgency moments such as incident response.

The joint approach removes these bottlenecks by:

• Eliminating persistent permissions
• Replacing slow SCIM or identity provider syncs
• Enforcing temporary, real-time least-privilege access at the SASE enforcement layer

“Organizations are under increasing pressure to enforce Zero Trust without slowing down their teams,” said Amit Bareket, VP of Security Service Edge at Check Point Software. “With Harmony SASE, our collaboration with Apono extends Zero Trust from identity to Just-In-Time & Just-Enough network access enforcement in a single, cloud-delivered control plane. By unifying policy and real-time enforcement across users, devices, and apps, we eliminate unnecessary complexity and let teams stay productive without compromising security.” 

Key Capabilities

• Real-time identity provisioning: Instantly adds or removes users from Harmony SASE groups without waiting for SCIM or IdP cycles.
• Policy-driven Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP): All access is temporary, time-bound, and governed by policy. Permissions automatically expire when no longer needed.
• Context-aware access workflows: Access can be triggered by signals such as incident acknowledgement, change management events, or ITSM workflows.
• Access rightsizing enforcement: Automates detection of over-privileged users and adjusts permissions to ensure least-privilege access.

Apono and Check Point plan to further expand the integration with advanced automation capabilities, additional context triggers, and broader governance workflows. Both companies share a long-term vision for a unified, real-time Zero Trust architecture where access appears only when needed and disappears automatically.

“When we talk about deeper automation and richer context, we’re talking about an access model that can react on its own,” said Ben Avner, Head of Technology Partnerships at Apono. “Partnering with Check Point gives us the foundation to deliver an end-to-end, real-time system where privileges rise and fall automatically with the work itself.”

About Apono

Apono provides real-time, Just-in-Time, and Zero Standing Privilege access for cloud infrastructure, SaaS, and operational resources. By automating identity provisioning based on policy and operational context, Apono helps organizations enforce Zero Trust without slowing down engineering, operations, or incident response.

Contact Information:

Stephen Lowing
VP Marketing

[email protected]

apono.io 

Shai Hulud didn’t invent a new supply chain weakness. It took advantage of something most teams already struggle with: long-lived credentials sitting on developer laptops and CI runners. Once it landed in a workstation or pipeline, it went hunting for secrets, then moved into GitHub, npm, and cloud environments.

The damage is huge. More than 25,000 GitHub repositories showed signs of credential exposure tied to the operation, and hundreds of npm packages were altered and republished as “normal” updates. 

Teams that treated non-human identity (NHI) security as a secondary layer discovered that the worm viewed those identities as primary targets. NHIs had more rights and seldom expired. When credentials outlive their usefulness, the Shai Hulud npm worm is a perfect illustration of how quickly a local compromise turns into an ecosystem issue.

What is the Shai Hulud npm Worm?

Shai Hulud 2.0 spread through legitimate packages that contained malicious preinstall scripts. Those scripts ran before installation finished and inherited the environment in which they executed. The worm used this position to inspect local files, gather tokens, and transmit them externally. Equipped with the victim’s npm credentials, it automatically backdoored and republished other packages the maintainer controls.

The pattern wasn’t complicated, but it was frustratingly effective. It waited for a normal install, ran its preinstall script, and searched for credentials with real reach. Once it had one, it republished a backdoored version under the maintainer’s identity and propagated through standard npm channels. Everything looked routine because, operationally, it was.

The worm targeted a predictable set of secrets, including npm tokens, GitHub credentials (e.g., PATs/SSH creds), and cloud API credentials (AWS/GCP/Azure), plus CI environment secrets where available. These secrets already existed because they enabled faster local development and pipeline automation. Because these tokens were long-lived, the worm could reuse them across systems, moving from a single machine into source control, registries, and cloud environments. This is why secret management can’t be treated as a side project, as these tokens are the worm’s fuel. 

This combination of availability, scope, and longevity created the conditions for rapid propagation. The worm did not need to be sophisticated. It only needed access to credentials that could reach beyond the machine it first compromised.

Why the Shai Hulud Worm Is Malicious

Shai Hulud is dangerous because it moves through trusted identity relationships that were never designed to defend against compromise. It does not rely on a single exploit. It relies on normal development workflows and the credentials those workflows expose.

The worm embeds itself in preinstall scripts that run automatically during dependency installation. From there, it focuses on harvesting credentials rather than disrupting systems. Access is the objective. Tokens that can touch source control, publishing, and cloud are worth more than the laptop or runner they were stolen from. 

With the right token, an attacker can change code and reach production-like systems without ever needing to “own” the original machine. The Shai Hulud worm spread by acting like a normal maintainer. It reused real npm tokens to republish packages, so the poisoned versions looked legitimate, and they flowed downstream the same way any routine update would.

Several factors make this behavior particularly damaging:

• Preinstall scripts run by default during dependency installation, often before most security controls or CI guardrails can run.
• Stolen credentials enable unauthorized publishing and changes to repositories.
• NHIs often hold broad, persistent permissions.
• Each new installation exposes additional environments and secrets.

The main issue Shai Hulud exploits is a growing web of interconnected identities that link development systems, such as CI pipelines and cloud resources, together. This factor gives attackers clear paths across environments with little resistance. 

Impact of the Shai Hulud Worm

The operational impact of Shai Hulud extended across development, CI, and production environments. What began as a dependency issue quickly exposed structural weaknesses that exist in many engineering organizations, particularly around credential handling and trust in automation.

At the supply chain level, the worm modified hundreds of npm packages. Teams had to audit both transitive and direct dependencies, frequently without knowing which builds had pulled compromised versions. Integrity verification became sluggish and insufficient as a result. That scramble is exactly what effective supply chain risk management is meant to prevent: clear containment boundaries and fast credential rotation.

After credentials were stolen, the compromise became more serious. Attackers were able to alter repositories, publish unapproved package versions, and initiate continuous integration workflows under false identities. The risk extended beyond source control into cloud environments. Several areas felt the impact most acutely:

• Pipeline instability: Malicious scripts were introduced into build systems and altered execution paths, leading to compromised artifact generation, test behavior, and deployment reliability.
• Maintainer impersonation: Actual npm publishing keys were used to distribute modified packages, thereby undermining ecosystem trust and raising concerns over the accuracy of updates.
• NHI compromise: Service accounts and automation identities became the easiest pivot points. Their permissions were broad, their activity rarely scrutinized, and the worm moved through them without triggering the alerts teams rely on for user abuse.

Once the stolen secrets surfaced in public repositories, containment became significantly harder. Those credentials no longer had a defined boundary, which forced organizations to rapidly revoke, replace, and reassess every access path tied to the affected identities.

How to Know if You Are Affected by the Shai Hulud npm Worm

You can detect potential compromise by focusing on deviations in dependency structure, identity behavior, and repository activity. Look for:

• Packages that include unexpected preinstall scripts, such as setup_bun.js
• New versions of your packages were published without approval.
• Publishing activity by unknown identities or service accounts.
• Unapproved changes to GitHub workflows or repository settings appear without a corresponding change record.
• Sudden creation of GitHub tokens tied to users or automation that do not normally mint credentials.
• Cloud activity that originates from unfamiliar locations or involves sudden increases in privilege.
• CI jobs that run commands or scripts outside the planned sequence.
• Public GitHub repos referencing Shai Hulud that contain your secrets.
• Any shift in NHI patterns is unlikely to be benign because their behavior is normally consistent.

Most early signals appear in automation layers. NHIs do not deviate from routine unless something external influences them. Monitoring that layer provides the strongest detection point.

7 Ways to Protect Against the Shai Hulud Worm and Similar Attacks

Catching the next malicious script is not the goal of defending against Shai Hulud, as most of that is reactive. Removing the access conditions that allow a single compromised dependency to become a multi-system incident is the real work. Here’s how.

1. Remove Standing Credentials Through Just In Time Access

Shai Hulud was effective because the credentials it discovered were already valid and already powerful, some that were never meant to be permanent. That persistence gave the worm time to reuse them across repositories, registries, and cloud environments. 

Just-in-Time (JIT) access changes that dynamic. Using a cloud-native access management platform like Apono, you can apply this model consistently across both human users and non-human identities. The result is that access is available only for the duration of a task. 

2. Enforce Least Privilege Across Developers, Pipelines, and NHIs

Over-permissioning is rarely intentional. It is usually the result of pressure, such as a pipeline failure and blocked release. So someone broadens access to get things moving again, and the permission is never revisited. Over time, identities accumulate rights they no longer need.

When one of those identities is compromised, every attached permission becomes available to the attacker. Limiting privilege to a specific action, environment, and time window prevents that cascade. 

3. Secure CI and CD Systems by Removing Embedded Secrets

Because CI pipelines are situated between source code and production systems, they are appealing targets. That bridge is exactly why CI hardening is inseparable from cloud data security; pipeline credentials often have direct paths to production cloud resources. The pipeline configuration contains static secrets that make that access reusable and long-lasting. Once uncovered, those secrets are perpetually replayable. A more resilient approach removes secrets from pipelines entirely. 

4. Restrict and Monitor Publishing Rights

Package publishing rarely gets much attention once it is working. Tokens are created to keep releases moving and then left in place because changing them is more likely to cause trouble than praise. Over time, no one is quite sure who owns those credentials or how often they should be reviewed.

Shai Hulud exploited that drift. It reused valid maintainer credentials and pushed altered packages through standard release mechanisms. Nothing about the process looked unusual, which is why the updates traveled as far as they did before anyone noticed.

Constraining publishing access changes that outcome. Limiting who can publish, what they can publish, and how long that access exists reduces the window for abuse. 

5. Apply Zero Trust Controls Across Development Tooling

In many environments and for teams, Zero Trust initially applies, but not much beyond. Credentials are accepted once and then reused by developer tools without reassessing context, and access persists until it is explicitly revoked, even when the surrounding conditions no longer exist. This is the gap that Shai Hulud exploits, as stolen credentials remain usable even when the original context no longer exists.

In practice, that persistence shows up in a few predictable ways:

• Credentials remain valid across sessions. Access continues from different machines.
• Changes in device state go unnoticed.

Let’s look at a real-world example. Apono takes a different approach, where access is treated as a continuous decision rather than a one-time event. Each request is evaluated using the current identity attributes and the state of the requesting device. When those conditions no longer meet policy requirements, access is denied instead of preserved. 

Source

6. Track NHI Behavior Continuously

Non-human identities operate on schedules, repeating the same actions and creating useful predictability. When something goes wrong, the signal usually appears as a deviation rather than a spike in activity. That might look like:

• access to resources that the identity has never touched before
• activity outside its normal execution window
• permissions being exercised in a new context

Changes in behavior, scope, and timing are often the first indication that an automation identity has been compromised. Deviations from established patterns tend to surface upstream, before activity becomes overtly malicious, which is exactly where worms like Shai Hulud gain their footing.

7. Strengthen Developer Workstations

Developer machines remain a common entry point because access accumulates quietly over time as tokens get cached, among other bad habits, to reduce workflow friction. Tooling continues to assume a high level of trust long after the original context has changed.

Removing stored tokens, requiring hardware-backed authentication, and using secrets scanning tools to catch exposed tokens before they land in commits or logs. More importantly, local access should never grant durable privileges into production systems. When access is temporary and tightly scoped, a compromised workstation no longer serves as a gateway to the rest of the environment.

Why Containing Worms Requires Containing Privilege

When access outlives intent, compromise stops being local. The Shai Hulud infection was able to spread through repositories, pipelines, and cloud systems more quickly than most controls were designed to stop, thanks to those access paths.

Apono breaks the continuity attacks Shai Hulud relies on. Access is issued when needed, removed when it is no longer required, and never left standing by default across development, CI, and cloud systems. When credentials expire, and privilege is tied to intent, a compromised dependency stays local instead of rippling outward.

Supply chain attacks will continue. The organizations that hold up best are the ones that control privilege as aggressively as they control code. That starts with understanding where standing access still exists, how long it persists, and which access paths create unnecessary blast radius.

To help teams take that first step, we’ve put together a practical Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) Checklist – a quick way to assess your current access posture and identify where privilege needs to be tightened before the next incident tests it.

Identity sprawl is exploding. What was once a manageable set of user accounts has rapidly evolved into a complex ecosystem, comprising human identities, service accounts, ephemeral workloads, APIs, and bots, each with its own permissions and potential blast radius.

Machine identities alone now outnumber humans by more than 80:1, creating an ever-expanding attack surface that most teams can’t fully see, let alone govern. 60% of these non-human identities (NHIs) are over-permissioned, turning everyday automation into a ticking time bomb for lateral movement and unauthorized access.

For DevOps and platform teams, the problem isn’t theoretical. You see it every day in the form of outdated service roles that never got cleaned up and bots that no one remembers creating, yet everyone still relies on. Identity governance tools help untangle that mess, providing teams with the visibility and automation they need to maintain secure access.

What are identity governance software solutions?

Identity governance software solutions provide control over who has access to what, and more importantly, why. They add an oversight layer (automated certifications, approval workflows, entitlement management, and privilege drift monitoring) that goes beyond traditional IAM, which manages only authentication and basic roles. IAM identifies users; IGA ensures the continued appropriateness of access.

Identity governance has become critical in cloud-native environments. The old model (static roles and the occasional access review) just can’t keep up with how quickly engineering teams move today. And when accounts in places like CI/CD pipelines start collecting permissions they no longer need, they quietly turn into long-term attack paths if no one is watching.

Identity and access governance is also a core pillar of Zero Trust. If Zero Trust means “never trust, always verify,” IGA is the function that enforces it at the identity layer. Instead of assuming a role is safe because it was approved months ago, modern governance continuously validates that every permission (human and NHIs) is still aligned with least privilege. 

The proliferation of NHIs holding long-lived, high-risk permissions that never get reviewed means teams rely on identity governance solutions to discover and right-size these entitlements. And because cloud identities now encompass everything from developers and contractors to service accounts and AI agents, ignoring NHIs is no longer an option.

Benefits of Identity Governance Software Solutions

• Reduced risk from excessive privileges: Identity governance solutions proactively detect and right-size over-permissioned accounts to Just Enough Privilege, including NHIs, to reduce lateral movement risk from compromised tokens and long-lived credentials.
• Strengthen compliance and audit readiness: IGA platforms automate access reviews and maintain clean audit logs for regulations and frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA. Instead of manual spreadsheets, you get automated evidence collection and continuous least-privilege enforcement.
• Increase operational efficiency through automation: Workflows, such as provisioning and approvals, are automated, eliminating the ticket load and role sprawl that slow down DevOps teams.
• Enforce scalable, context-aware access: Modern IGA tools apply policies based on identity type, environment, sensitivity, and risk signals for consistent least privilege across multi-cloud and ephemeral workloads.

Key Features of Identity Governance Software Solutions

• NHI visibility and governance: With machine identities far outpacing human users, a modern IGA must discover NHIs and map their access to prevent hidden entitlements. 
• Automated provisioning and deprovisioning: The best identity governance software solutions integrate with cloud providers and DevOps tools to ensure identities are created, updated, and removed in real time.
• Just-in-Time (JIT) and time-bound access: A core component of Zero Trust, JIT access enforces least privilege by granting permissions only when needed and automatically revoking them when the task is complete. 
• Comprehensive audit trails: IGA solutions provide audit trails for access requests, approvals, and entitlement changes, but not workload-level access logs.
• Seamless cloud and DevOps integrations: Modern stacks span dozens of SaaS apps. A great IGA solution must provide native connectors and APIs to enforce consistent policy across all environments.
• Context-aware access policies: Identity governance should adapt to conditions such as user role and behavioral risk signals, making context-aware policies necessary to enforce granular, dynamic access at scale.

10 Top Identity Governance Software Solutions

Some identity governance software solutions (like Apono) bridge multiple categories by combining traditional governance capabilities with automated, Just-In-Time access and dynamic policies that work across both human and non-human identities. Let’s take a look at the categories.

Category 1: Dynamic Access & Just-in-Time Governance

Tools in this category aim to eliminate always-on permissions by granting people (and systems) only the access they need, exactly when they need it. They’re especially useful for teams working in fast-moving cloud-native security environments where access needs shift constantly.

1. Apono

Apono isn’t a traditional IGA platform; it’s the modern evolution of identity governance built for cloud-native, DevOps-led organizations. Instead of relying on static roles or quarterly reviews, Apono brings Zero Trust to life by granting access only when it’s needed and revoking it immediately afterward. JIT and JEA usually sit in the JIT PAM world, but Apono folds those real-time controls directly into governance.

Designed for fast-moving engineering teams, Apono governs both human users and NHIs, ensuring every request is scoped, time-bound, and aligned with least privilege. Its unified, cloud-native policy plane centralizes access across infrastructure, SaaS apps, databases, CI/CD pipelines, and ephemeral workloads, and is delivered through self-serve Slack, Teams, or CLI workflows without ticketing delays.

Key Features 

• Auto-expiring permissions that eliminate standing access risks
• Self-serve, granular access requests via Slack, Teams, or CLI
• Break-glass and on-call flows for rapid incident remediation
• Centralized visibility, access discovery, and audit-ready reporting
  

Best For: Cloud-native organizations enforcing least privilege, securing NHIs, and automating JIT access.

Price: Contact Apono for customized pricing.

Review: “Quick and easy config to integrate access control with a myriad of service providers and data stores. For administrators, it’s relatively straightforward to define and implement access flows. For the requester, all they have to do is ask for it via Slack, and they get what they need within seconds. Apono keeps track of everything and reacts just in time to apply, restore, or revoke credentials and permissions.”

Category 2: Enterprise-Grade Identity Governance Platforms

Enterprise-grade IGA platforms provide the broad, centralized governance capabilities large organizations rely on to manage tens of thousands of identities. They’re well-suited for companies with established IAM programs and complex approval workflows.

2. Omada Identity

Omada is a comprehensive IGA platform focusing heavily on lifecycle management and policy-driven governance. It is known for its mature workflows and robust audit capabilities, and it integrates with complex IT and HR systems.  

Key Features 

• Role lifecycle management and policy-based access control
• Automated access certifications and entitlement reviews
• Segregation of Duties (SoD) policy modeling

Best For: Enterprises with complex IAM programs requiring Segregation of Duties (SoD) controls. 

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “I like how easy it is to look up and change permissions for a user, and to designate auto-approve for certain things.”

3. Saviynt

Saviynt blends identity governance, privileged access management (PAM), and application access management into a single solution. Users choose it for SoD controls across enterprise apps like SAP and Salesforce.

Key Features

• Cloud-native architecture with strong SaaS integrations
• Risk-based access recommendations and remediation
• Automated provisioning with HR-driven workflows

Best For: Large enterprises requiring unified IGA and PAM. 

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “The customer relations have been great, there is a great community, and the tool itself makes it easy to get a return on investment quickly.”

4. CyberArk Modern IGA

CyberArk’s Modern IGA extends the company’s suite of privileged access security into full identity governance. Built to complement PAM capabilities, it emphasizes lifecycle automation and certification workflows to reduce the impact of credential attacks.

Key Features

• Access certification workflows and entitlement cleanup
• Risk analytics to surface toxic combinations of access
• Native ties to CyberArk’s PAM platform for end-to-end privilege protection

Best For: Organizations already using CyberArk PAM. 

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “I like the way we can securely connect to the servers and perform the activity without worrying about cyberattacks or security threats.”

Category 3: Cloud-Native Identity & Access Automation

Cloud-native identity and access automation tools eliminate the manual friction of managing entitlements across distributed, multi-cloud environments. They excel at automating provisioning and identifying privilege drift.

5. SecurEnds

SecurEnds is a cloud-native governance tool designed to streamline access reviews and entitlement cleanup. It’s especially helpful for teams buried in compliance tasks, giving them a clearer view of who has access to what across both SaaS apps and internal systems.

Key Features

• ML-driven entitlement discovery to detect privilege creep
• Risk scoring for accounts and entitlements
• Integrations with HRIS and major cloud/SaaS providers

Best For: Teams needing automated access reviews without deploying a heavyweight enterprise IGA suite.

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “This tool provides a modular approach that can grow and mature along with the organization, ultimately providing automation options for access reviews.”

6. Veza

Veza is an authorization platform that unifies identity-to-data permissions across multi-cloud and SaaS environments. Veza’s graph-based model gives granular visibility ideal for cloud security and data governance teams.

Key Features

• Authorization graph modeling for identity-to-resource mapping
• Domain-specific governance for data stores and cloud IAM
• Alerts for privilege escalations or high-risk entitlements

Best For: Security and data governance teams requiring granular, identity-to-data permissions visibility.

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “Veza Digital delivered items on time and achieved every milestone as planned. They listened to and addressed feedback in a detail-oriented manner.”

7. Elimity

Elimity provides entitlement intelligence and access cleanup insight, making it a strong fit for teams that want improved visibility without deploying a full-scale IGA suite.

Key Features

• Automated entitlement discovery and insights
• Identity risk scoring and privilege anomaly detection
• Integrations with major directory services and SaaS apps

Best For: Organizations seeking lightweight identity analytics and entitlement intelligence.

Price: By inquiry. 

Category 4: Policy-Orchestration & Cloud Privilege Platforms

Policy orchestration and cloud privilege tools are all about bringing order to multi-cloud chaos. They pull identity and access rules into one place, smoothing out the differences between platforms so teams can enforce least-privilege consistently across every cloud and application.

8. Strata Identity

Strata Identity’s “identity fabric” approach abstracts away platform-specific policy differences, enabling organizations to enforce consistent access rules without re-architecting infrastructure.

Key Features

• Policy orchestration across multiple IDPs (Okta, Azure AD, Ping, etc.)
• Real-time policy replication and drift prevention
• No-code migration of identity policies between platforms

Best For: Multi-IDP or multi-cloud environments that need to unify and orchestrate identity policies. 

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “Strata helped us update the authentication experience and unify SSO without slowing down innovation.”

9. ZertID

ZertID focuses on cloud entitlement management and identity governance across AWS, Azure, and GCP. It’s used for unifying cloud IAM policies and making cloud permissions easier for security teams to visualize and control.

Key Features

• Permission graphing and entitlement visualization
• Anomaly detection for privilege changes or drift
• Automated cleanup recommendations for excessive permissions

Best For: Cloud-forward teams that need clear visualization and centralized control of AWS, Azure, and GCP IAM entitlements. 

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “Zertid helped us to create workflows for integrating and cross-wiring things across the ServiceNow platform and our custom ServiceNow apps.”

10. Britive

Britive provides a cloud-native privileged access platform designed to automate ephemeral access across cloud and DevOps environments. Focused heavily on CI/CD pipelines and cloud service entitlements, Britive helps reduce standing privileges across cloud and SaaS systems.

Key Features

• Real-time discovery of cloud entitlements
• Context-aware access workflows and policy enforcement
• Integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Terraform, and more

Best For: DevOps and cloud security teams requiring ephemeral access to APIs.

Price: By inquiry. 

Review: “Solid product, great team behind it, easy to navigate portal, and comprehensive documentation regarding implementation.”

Reimagining Identity Governance for Modern Cloud Environments

Traditional IAM tools, which rely on static roles and manual approvals, can’t keep pace with cloud-native development or the scale of human and non-human identities that organizations manage.

Apono sits at the center of this evolution. By automating JIT access and enforcing least privilege across both human users and NHIs, Apono bridges the gap between identity governance and real-world DevOps workflows.

With auto-expiring access, centralized audit logs, and one-click self-serve requests via Slack, Teams, or CLI, engineering teams stay productive while security teams regain control and visibility.

If you’re ready to reduce identity-based risk and simplify compliance, now is the time to explore a modern approach to identity management. To dive deeper into how privileged access fits into this shift, check out our PAM Buyer Guide and book a quick meeting with our team to see how JIT access can work in your environment.

Secrets run your applications: API keys, SSH keys, tokens, passwords, database credentials. They reside in repositories, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code templates, containers, and even chat logs; one stray commit is enough to expose a path into production.

In 2024, abuse of valid account credentials was the initial access vector in roughly 30% of incidents investigated. At the same time, machine identities now outnumber humans by more than 80 to 1, many of which are tied to long-lived secrets that are difficult to manage.

Secret scanning tools help you stay ahead of this by automatically searching code and configuration for exposed credentials across GitHub, GitLab, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud resources so you can revoke and rotate them before an attacker simply logs in.

What are secret scanning tools?

Secret scanning tools are automated security solutions that detect exposed credentials, such as API keys, tokens, passwords, and connection strings, before they can be abused, and provide the necessary information to remediate them quickly. They continuously analyze sources like code repositories, configuration files, IaC templates, container images, and logs to catch secrets that end up in places they shouldn’t. Hence, scanning complements your broader secrets management strategy.

Most tools integrate directly with GitHub and other version control and CI/CD systems. Some run as static scans against code and configuration at rest, while others operate dynamically in pipelines, runtimes, and cloud environments to catch drift and secrets that surface only at execution time.

Even the best scanners only detect exposed credentials; they can’t fix the root causes behind secret sprawl: standing privileges and unmanaged non-human identities (NHIs). Scanning can surface these leaks, but it cannot right-size permissions or prevent overprivileged service accounts from becoming high-value breach targets.

Pairing secret scanning with Just-in-Time (JIT) access and least-privilege policies ensures that even if a secret leaks, its underlying permissions are time-bound and far less dangerous. 

Types of Secret Scanning Tools

Secret scanning shows up at different layers of the delivery pipeline. In practice, most teams combine several types of tools to cover source code, build processes, and infra.

• Source code scanners run against repositories to detect secrets committed to the Git history or stored in branches and pull requests. They typically plug into GitHub, GitLab, or Azure Repos and surface findings directly within the developer workflow.
• CI/CD pipeline scanners run as part of build and deployment pipelines. They inspect artefacts, environment variables, and config files generated at build time.
• IaC and container scanners focus on infrastructure-as-code templates and container images, including configurations used in cloud or on-prem data center management environments.
• Runtime and cloud environment scanners look at live applications and cloud accounts. They detect secrets left in logs, storage buckets, or configuration stores that only appear after the system is live.

Benefits of Secret Scanning Tools

• Stronger security posture: Centralizes how you check secrets across code, pipelines, infrastructure, and cloud.
• Faster incident response: When a key leaks, you can quickly see where it “lives”, who uses it, and what to rotate.
• Better developer productivity: Checks in Git and CI/CD reduce security tickets and late rework by keeping feedback inside dev tools.
• Easier Compliance: Provides evidence that you monitor exposed credentials and enforce access-key policies, which simplifies SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI and similar compliance regulations.
• Protection for non-human identities (NHIs): Reduces the chance that powerful service accounts and workloads are left with hard-coded, long-lived credentials. NHIs hold a high volume of operational privileges in most cloud environments, which is why teams increasingly rely on NHI management tools to understand and control how these identities use secrets.

Key Features to Look For in a Secret Scanning Tool

• Automated detection and remediation: Continuous scans in repos and pipelines that catch new secrets quickly and can open tickets or trigger revoke-and-rotate steps with your secrets manager, reducing the window in which exposed keys could be used in credential attacks.
• Context-aware, granular policies: Controls you can tune by repository, environment, secret type, and identity. This way, production or high-privilege secrets are handled differently from low-risk test data, following the principle of least privilege and time-bound access patterns.
• Seamless developer experience: Findings in pull requests or pre-commit hooks (with low noise and clear guidance) so teams adopt scanning without feeling blocked.
• Cloud-native, API-driven architecture: First-class support for multi-cloud, containers, and IaC, plus APIs and webhooks to feed results into internal platforms, chat, and automation.
• Centralized visibility and reporting: Dashboards and exports that highlight unresolved high-risk secrets and coverage gaps over time for security and GRC teams, a key requirement for root-cause analysis.

Top 7 Secret Scanner Tools

1. GitGuardian

GitGuardian is a dedicated secrets security platform that scans code repositories, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and developer tools for hard-coded credentials and other sensitive tokens. It centralizes incidents and secret inventory across GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, and more, with policy controls and workflows for triage and remediation.

Best for: Perimeter-wide secrets detection.

Price: Free tier for up to 25 developers. Business and Enterprise plans for larger teams.

Review: “I like GitGuardian best for its real-time detection of secrets in both public and private repositories and its easy integration with developer tools…”

2. Apono

Apono is a cloud-native access management platform that eliminates the root causes of secret sprawl: standing privileges and unmanaged NHIs. Apono replaces standing privileges with JIT and Just Enough Privilege access to cloud and data resources for both human and machine identities. It connects to cloud platforms and identity providers to automate time-bound approvals and revoke-or-restore workflows, so credentials are only valid when needed.

Apono’s value becomes clear when combined with secret scanning: even if a credential leaks, its permissions are limited, temporary, and automatically revoked after use. Apono removes the need for long-lived IAM keys by brokering short-lived, scoped access through native cloud identity services.

Best for: Engineering teams that need automated, least-privilege access without slowing down developers or managing credentials manually.

Price: 30-day free trial with subscription pricing based on environments and usage.

Review: “Quick and easy config to integrate access control with a myriad of service providers and data stores.”

3. TruffleHog

TruffleHog is an open-source secrets scanning engine that digs through git history and other sources, such as local files, S3 buckets, Docker images, and logs, to find leaked credentials. It supports hundreds of secret types, utilizing both pattern- and entropy-based detection, and can validate many findings against provider APIs to reduce false positives.

Best for: Granular and extensive customization.

Price: Free and open source, with a paid enterprise edition available from Truffle Security.

Review: “Trufflehog offers a versatile solution for keeping your code’s secrets under wraps, available both as an open-source tool and as an enterprise solution.”

4. Yelp detect-secrets

Detect-secrets is Yelp’s open-source Python scanner that inspects a repository’s current state for high-entropy strings and known secret patterns, using a baseline file to manage existing findings. It’s lightweight enough for pre-commit hooks and CI/CD jobs, and extensible via plugins and custom rules when you need organization-specific detectors.

Best for: Low-overhead CLI scanning.

Price: Free and open source.

Review: “Detect-secrets by Yelp takes a minimalist approach to secret scanning, focusing on high accuracy and low operational overhead.”

5. Doppler

Doppler is a hosted secrets management platform that centralizes environment variables and API keys, then syncs them to apps, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud platforms as up-to-date configuration. It combines secret storage with basic scanning and auditing features, helping teams standardize how secrets are distributed and rotated while relying on dedicated scanners to find new leaks.

Best for: Managing a “source of truth” for secrets alongside separate secret scanning tools.

Price: Free Developer plan with paid plans with per-user pricing.

Review: “Doppler is one of those tools that I don’t want to imagine not having in my stack.”

6. Nightfall AI

Nightfall AI is an AI-native data loss prevention platform that also scans source code and git history for secrets via GitHub Actions, CI integrations, and DLP APIs. It detects credentials and API keys alongside PII/PHI in tools like GitHub, Slack, Google Drive, and other SaaS applications, allowing you to enforce consistent policies across repositories and cloud services.

Best for: Combining DLP and secret scanning across many apps and services.

Price: Free tier and paid volume-based pricing.

Review: “Nightfall is very easy and quick to rollout compared to a lot of other DLP products.”

7. AWS IAM Access Analyzer

AWS IAM Access Analyzer is a native AWS service that analyzes IAM and resource-based policies to identify public and unused access to your AWS resources. It also validates and generates fine-grained policies based on access activity, encouraging least-privilege permissions and reducing blast radius if secrets or credentials are abused.

Best for: AWS-centric secret scanning.

Price: Billed per resource, identity, or API call.

Review: “The fact that it enables me to precisely regulate user access is what I value most.” 

The Hidden Secrets of Secret Scanning

Secret scanning tools are now vital for teams shipping continuously. They provide visibility into exposed credentials across code, CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure, and cloud, allowing you to revoke and rotate them before an attacker gains access. 

On their own, though, scanners are reactive. They can tell you a secret has leaked, but not what it can do, or how long it should stay valid. Controlling attack blast radius requires access policies that default to no access and grant short-lived, least-privilege permissions based on context, such as user, role, resource, and variables like time of day or location. This is the missing half of the equation; detection without automated, zero-standing privilege access controls still leaves your organization exposed.

This is where an access platform like Apono fits into the picture. Apono automates just-in-time, just-enough access for both human and machine identities across your cloud and data stack, so most credentials are short-lived and tightly scoped. It removes the operational overhead of manually granting or revoking access and eliminates long-lived keys across pipelines, tools, and workloads.

If you’re working to reduce secret sprawl and eliminate long-lived credentials, explore our PAM Buyer Guide for a deeper breakdown. Alternatively, book a personalized Apono walkthrough to see how automated JIT access closes the gaps secret scanning tools can’t.

Pillar Security’s recent analysis of Docker’s Agentic AI assistant, Ask Gordon, offers an early glimpse into the security challenges organizations will face as AI systems begin operating inside the development stack. Their researchers discovered that a single poisoned line of Docker Hub metadata caused the agent to run privileged tool calls and quietly exfiltrate internal data.

The failure happened inside the decision-making layer where an AI agent consumes data and translates it into actions. That layer is quickly becoming one of the most critical surfaces security teams must defend.

The broader implication is clear. Organizations are pushing toward Agentic AI because of the enormous potential productivity gains. But autonomy, speed, and system reach create identity-like risks that many environments aren’t prepared to manage.

What Happened

The Ask Gordon AI Agent fetches Docker Hub metadata to help users understand container images. Pillar’s researchers inserted a malicious instruction into a repository description, and the agent:

• Accessed an attacker-controlled URL
  
• Executed internal tool calls (build logs, build lists)
  
• Packaged log data and chat history
  
• Sent the full payload externally without user approval
  

The agent simply interpreted untrusted data as instruction. Docker responded to this risk by requiring human approval for tool calls that touch sensitive data or external systems.

While this is an effective fix, the real challenge is bigger than a single feature bug.

The Growing Tension: Productivity vs Security in the Agentic Era

Agentic AI promises huge efficiency gains with the potential for:

• Reduced manual toil
  
• Faster development workflows
  
• Automation that scales far beyond human capacity
  

But these strengths introduce new risks:

• Agents act independently
  
• They ingest untrusted content at scale
  
• They infer intent and may take unintended actions
  
• They interact with internal and external systems
  
• They do all of this at machine speed
  

These are many of the same factors that we apply risk modeling to human users, but multiplied by automation, volume, and a lack of common sense.

Agentic AI: A New Identity Class With Unique Risk

Security teams historically manage two categories of identity:

Humans — Unpredictable, creative, fallible and sometimes malicious.

Non-human identities (NHIs) — Service accounts, tokens, cloud roles. Predictable but extremely numerous.

Agentic AI now becomes a third category altogether.

Agents combine characteristics of both:

• Human-like autonomy and decision-making
  
• Machine-like scale, speed, and integration depth
  

They access internal systems. They make decisions without human review. And they can be manipulated through crafted inputs. Traditional IAM models do not yet account for these traits.

The Ask Gordon incident is a concrete example of this shift and raises real questions about how organizations can reliably roll out AI tooling in the near term..

How Security Teams Should Approach Agentic AI

Because agents cannot reliably differentiate safe instructions from malicious ones, access boundaries carry the burden of defense. Three principles matter most.

1. Know what your agents can see and do

Teams must understand:

• What data agents can read
  
• Which systems they can modify
  
• What privileges they inherit from humans
  
• Where they overlap with sensitive environments
  

2. Apply Access Controls Based on Risk, Not Identity Type

As organizations adopt Agentic AI, the old model of treating access differently for humans and NHIs breaks down. Agents introduce autonomy and unpredictability at scale, so access must be governed by risk, not by the type of identity making the request.

A risk-based model asks only:

• What is the potential impact if this identity acts incorrectly?
  
• What level of oversight is appropriate for that impact?
  

This applies to everyone:

• Humans bring intent and unpredictability
  
• NHIs bring volume and persistence
  
• AI agents bring autonomy and speed
  

The goal is the same across all of them: define clear boundaries around sensitive actions and ensure identities operate within them.

3. Treat external communication as a privileged action

Ask Gordon succeeded because the agent could transmit data freely. Any system capable of making external requests should require consent, context, or both.

How Apono’s Access Engine Scales to Humans, NHIs, and Agentic AI

Apono’s access model is built around context and risk, which makes it naturally suited for managing Agentic AI alongside humans and NHIs.

A unified, scalable control plane

Apono evaluates every identity the same way:

• What are they trying to access?
  
• How sensitive is the resource?
  
• What context and justification support the request?
  

This creates a consistent, enforceable approach that scales as organizations introduce more automation.

Dynamic policies that prevent privilege drift

As identities take on new tasks or as resources grow in sensitivity, Apono automatically adapts access policies. This keeps permissions aligned with current context and prevents the slow buildup of unnecessary rights.

Ephemeral access removes standing privilege

Whenever access is approved, Apono generates a temporary, scoped role and deletes it when the task ends. This avoids:

• Long-lived permissions
  
• Static role sprawl
  
• Agents inheriting privileges they shouldn’t have
  

Continuous monitoring for accountability

Apono surfaces unusual or risky identity behavior, whether human, NHI, or AI agent. This gives security teams the confidence and auditability needed as autonomous systems become more integrated into daily operations.

Taking the Next Step Toward Smarter Access Controls

Whenever an AI agent is allowed to read internal data and perform actions on your behalf, it becomes part of your identity surface. 

Organizations will adopt Agentic AI rapidly because the productivity gains are too compelling to ignore. But autonomy without access boundaries creates real operational risk.

Zero Standing Privilege offers a workable foundation for securing humans, NHIs, and now Agentic AI. Apono operationalizes that model by making access contextual, temporary, and enforceable at scale.

To evaluate where standing privileges may already exist in your environment, download our Zero Standing Privilege Checklist.

To compare Cloud Privileged Access Management solutions designed for the Agentic era, explore our Privileged Access Buyer Guide + RFP Checklist breaks down the capabilities that matter most and the questions that separate cloud-native solutions from legacy ones.