Securing Cloud Agility with Zero Standing Privileges

Fast-moving cloud environments demand agility, yet without the right access controls they introduce significant risk. The rise of machine identities has amplified this challenge. According to our research, machine identities now outnumber human identities by 82 to 1.

Resources such as virtual machines, containers and services are constantly being created, modified and terminated. At the same time, workloads are increasingly distributed, with data and applications spread across multiple regions, accounts and even different cloud service providers.

In this landscape, ensuring secure access to cloud provider consoles and command-line interface (CLI) tools is critical for the teams managing and operating infrastructure. Yet, a single misconfigured permission or exposed credential can open the door to breaches, lateral movement and data compromise.

The challenge for organisations is clear. How can they empower teams to move quickly and efficiently in the cloud while maintaining strong access controls, visibility and governance?

Think twice before giving the keys to castle

Cloud consoles and command line interfaces are essential tools for cloud operators and technologists. Often seen as the foundation of modern infrastructure, they are used to manage services and support deployments, providing the flexibility and control teams need to work at speed.

However, without the right guardrails, these same tools can introduce serious risks. Users are often granted excessive IAM privileges for the sake of convenience or to preserve workflows. This is intensified by the fact that 61% of global organisations still lack identity security controls to protect their cloud infrastructure and workloads.

Exposed static credentials often remain active and undetected for long periods, while login-based access paths continue to be a prime target for phishing and social engineering attacks. Even a single misstep or overlooked credential can threaten critical systems and sensitive data.

To prevent this, organisations need fine-grained access controls, well-defined session boundaries and continuous monitoring. Without these measures, console and CLI access can quickly become one of the highest-risk vectors in any cloud security posture.

Preparing for new security risks

It is also important to consider the impact of AI. Sanctioned and unsanctioned adoption of AI and LLMs is simultaneously transforming organisations but amplifying cybersecurity risks. At the start of the year, AI was expected to drive the largest number of new identities with privileged and sensitive access but 68% of organisations lacked the identity security controls needed to protect the business from AI threats.

The integration of AI into traditional workflows, for example, is creating new vulnerabilities and potential entry points for malicious actors. AI models can be susceptible to adversarial attacks, where manipulated input data can trick the system into making incorrect decisions. Attackers may also attempt to steal or replicate proprietary AI models.

These are just some of the vulnerabilities that come with the use of AI. Adopting a Zero Standing Privilege (ZSP) approach can help protect against this expanding threat landscape by ensuring access is granted only when needed, to those who need it, and for no longer than necessary. But what does that look like in practice?

Cloud security starts with zero standing privileges

Zero standing privileges is a security approach that eliminates persistent access rights to sensitive systems and cloud environments. Instead of granting users long-term privileges, ZSP ensures that access is provisioned just-in-time, for a specific task or time window, and is automatically revoked once the session ends.

With ZSP, users cannot access high-risk roles or environments continuously. They carry out routine access with time-limited permissions and gain access to more sensitive functions through explicit approval workflows. All access is timed, auditable and tightly controlled, dramatically reducing the attack surface and the potential impact of credential compromise or privilege misuse.

ZSP shifts the security model from always-on access to access when needed, enabling strong security without slowing down operations.

Adopting a new approach to cloud security

The combination of cloud and the use of new technologies like AI has made it possible to innovate faster than ever, but it has also reshaped security approaches. With human and machine identities multiplying at unprecedented speed, traditional access models are no longer fit for purpose. Zero Standing Privileges provides businesses with a way forward that minimises friction, while helping to balance agility and control with keeping risks contained.