Why Identity Security Needs Both IAM and ITDR

Every security team knows that sinking feeling.

The one where you've invested heavily in identity and access management, locked down permissions, enforced Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) everywhere and yet, attackers still got in.

They compromised a legitimate account, moved laterally through your environment, and exfiltrated data before anyone noticed. Your Identity and Access Management (IAM) system did exactly what it was designed to do: grant access to authorized users.

But the attacker looked exactly like an authorized user.

This is the identity security blind spot that continues to plague organizations big and small today. It’s also why Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is rapidly gaining traction.

The question you might be asking, then, is if we already have IAM, why do we need ITDR? Isn’t it solving the same problem?

Well, not quite.

Understanding the difference could be the key to closing your most critical security gap. Let’s look at this more closely.

What Does Traditional IAM Actually Do?

Traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) has been the cornerstone of enterprise security for decades.

Platforms like Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity, and CyberArk have built empires on solving a fundamental problem: ensuring the right people have the right access to the right resources at the right time.

As has been well established, IAM excels at:

Provisioning and deprovisioning: Automatically granting and revoking access as employees join, move, or leave
Authentication: Verifying user identities through passwords, MFA, biometrics, and single sign-on
Authorization: Defining and enforcing what authenticated users can access based on roles and policies
Governance: Conducting access reviews, managing privileged accounts, and maintaining compliance

To visualize it, think of IAM as building a fortress with sophisticated gates. It determines who gets keys, which doors those keys open, and maintains detailed logs of who was issued what access. It's preventive by design, focused on establishing and maintaining proper access controls.

And so for years, this approach worked reasonably well. But as we’ve seen, the threat landscape has evolved drastically making modern IAM integrations essential for stronger automation and visibility.

The Problem: When Legitimate Access Becomes a Weapon

Here's what traditional IAM wasn't designed to handle: attackers who don't break down the gates but steal the keys instead.

Modern identity-based attacks exploit legitimate credentials and permissions by using techniques such as credential theft, token manipulation, exploiting misconfigurations to elevate permissions after initial access, golden ticket attacks or OAuth abuse.

To your IAM system, these attacks look like normal, authorized activity. A stolen credential passed through MFA via a phishing proxy? Check. A compromised service account making API calls? Authorized. An attacker using legitimate admin credentials? Perfectly valid access too. This is why you need something additional to keep your organization secure.

Enter ITDR: Detection and Response for Identity-Based Threats

Identity Threat Detection and Response (IDTR) represents a fundamental shift in how we protect identity infrastructure. Rather than just managing access, ITDR platforms continuously monitor identity systems for signs of compromise, misuse, and attack.

It assumes that credentials will be compromised and permissions will be misused, so it focuses on detecting and responding to threats in real-time by providing:

Behavioral analytics: Establishing baselines for normal user and service account behavior, then detecting anomalies that indicate compromise
Threat detection: Identifying attack patterns like impossible travel, unusual permission changes, suspicious authentication patterns, and lateral movement attempts
Identity system monitoring: Watching for changes to critical identity infrastructure like IAM policies that could indicate an attacker establishing persistence
Real-time response: Automatically revoking sessions, forcing re-authentication, or blocking suspicious access attempts
Identity-specific threat intelligence: Correlating indicators of compromise specifically related to identity infrastructure

If we go back to our visual of your organization’s defenses as a fortress, think of ITDR as having security cameras and motion sensors throughout s that alert you when someone is behaving suspiciously even if they have valid keys for entering. It's responsive by nature, designed to catch threats that have already bypassed preventive controls.

The Technical Differences That Matter

The distinction between IAM and ITDR is deeply technical and operational, affecting how each approach protects your identity infrastructure.

Why You Need Both: The Complementary Approach

Here’s the main take away from all this information: ITDR doesn't replace IAM. They're complementary layers that address different aspects of identity security.

IAM remains essential for establishing proper access controls, enforcing least privilege, and maintaining governance. Without strong IAM, your attack surface is unnecessarily large. But IAM alone can't protect you from attackers wielding legitimate credentials.

ITDR fills the gap by providing the threat detection and response capabilities that IAM was never designed to deliver. It operates on the assumption that your access controls will be circumvented and provides the visibility and response mechanisms to detect and contain identity-based attacks.

The most mature security programs are now deploying both by effectively integrating them to create a closed-loop system where ITDR findings inform IAM policy improvements, and IAM policy context enhances ITDR detection accuracy.

Conclusion: Securing Identity with Metron

On one hand IAM helps you build secure access patterns and on the other, ITDR helps you detect when those patterns are being exploited. So the question isn't whether to choose IAM or ITDR, it's how quickly you can deploy both layers to create comprehensive identity security.

As a trusted cybersecurity integration provider, Metron Security understands that modern identity security requires a multi-layered approach.

We work with our clients to assess their current identity security posture, identify gaps that attackers could exploit, and implement the right combination of technologies and processes to protect against both current and emerging identity-based threats.

A strong fortress needs smarter gates and sharper eyes. If you’re implementing IAM or ITDR or facing integration challenges, our team can help. Contact us at connect@metronlabs.com .