APAC Firms Grapple with Digital Cybersecurity Concerns Due to AI Identities

Regional it leaders sound the alarm as the explosion of ai agents and machine identities creates unmanaged gaps in the asia pacific digital cybersecurity landscape

According to a recent survey published by Keeper Security, 94% of APAC IT leaders experience digital cybersecurity challenges while managing a growing identity footprint, underscoring the increasing use of AI and machine identities contributing to regional pressure. The research’s core findings were identity systems expanding beyond employees and contractors to include service accounts, automated workflows, and other non-human identities within its fold. This follows many organizations continuing to rely on fragmented security tools. In the survey sample, managing identity growth was reported as difficult by 89% respondents, with the percentage rising to 94% in APAC. Respondents in this region also reported a greater deterioration in the threat environment compared to other regions in the study.

Detection Gaps

Delays in detecting suspicious activities were another focal theme of the survey. Inability to detect credential misuse was reported by 72% of organizations, which indicates them lacking continuous oversight of privileged access and identity abuse. In the Asia-Pacific:

• 22% or organizations reported taking days or longer to detect credential misuse or unauthorized privileged access.

• 48% reported being able to detect such incidents within hours, and

• 28% said they can do so within minutes

Attackers Target Systems Before Intervention

Furthermore, several companies in the region are likely to be affected by attackers who have a broad window to move through systems before security teams intervene. Awareness among organizations on staying updated with the latest security tools is high, with 96% of organizations recognizing the exploitable gaps created by disconnected or poorly integrated security tools that pose AI security risks. In what is a cause for concern, only 36% organizations globally reported complete deployment of Privileged Access Management despite being concerned about identity expansion and credential misuse.

AI Pressure

A major factor driving digital identity growth is AI adoption. The number of non-human identities inside organizations is increasing due to AI agents, service accounts, and automated processes, all of which overburden security teams already coping with fragmented systems. Interestingly, over half of APAC respondents at 53% identified AI-related non-human identity management and security as a major identity governance gap when compared with 43% globally.

Moreover, respondents were also more concerned about the use of AI tools in APAC compared to the global average. Another issue is the lack of visibility into which AI tools employees use, with 42% and 47% of organizations describing a significant governance gap globally and in APAC, respectively.

Future of Digital Cybersecurity

Darren Guccione, CRO and Co-Founder of Keeper Security, noted that the need for implementing persuasive identity governance with real-time detection and minimal privilege enforcement is due to the mushrooming of AI and machine identities within enterprise infrastructure. CIO Bulletin views as essential a unified identity security platform that considers every agent, service account, and machine identity as an auditable entity to bridge the gap between what organizations govern and what they cannot see with greater AI involvement.