Today’s SaaS security problem isn’t always that attackers are breaching your defenses—sometimes, they’re simply logging in.
In the modern enterprise, identity is the key. And for attackers, it’s the skeleton key.
With SaaS adoption accelerating and business users driving SaaS application sprawl faster than security teams can control it, identity-based attacks have become the most effective—and most overlooked—way into your environment. These attacks exploit your users, their credentials, and the gaps in visibility between authentication and action.
That’s where Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) becomes indispensable.
SaaS Apps Run on Trust. Attackers Exploit It.
SaaS platforms are fundamentally built on trust. Trust that a user is who they say they are. Trust that their actions are appropriate for their role. Trust that the identity provider has done its job.
But once an attacker gets valid credentials—via phishing, reuse, or a token theft—they inherit that trust. And they operate in plain sight.
They won’t trip your antivirus. They won’t get caught in a vulnerability scan. They’ll simply log in, escalate privileges, and exfiltrate data under the radar.
The only way to catch them? Monitor identity behavior—that’s the job of ITDR.
What is Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)?
Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) is a specialized cybersecurity approach focused on continuously monitoring, detecting, and responding to threats targeting user identities and access within an organization. Unlike traditional security tools that concentrate on network or endpoint protection, ITDR zeroes in on identity-related risks such as compromised credentials, unauthorized access attempts, privilege escalation, and lateral movement. By analyzing user activity and access management logs across various applications and systems, ITDR provides real-time visibility into suspicious behaviors that could indicate identity attacks. This makes ITDR an essential security solution for protecting user identities, safeguarding sensitive data, and strengthening an organization’s overall identity security posture.
Prevention Tools Can’t Catch What Looks Legit
Traditional IAM Tools Fall Short
Security teams have spent years investing in MFA, SSO, and provisioning tools—and those remain critical. But these tools focus primarily on authentication and authorization, not on monitoring user activity and behavior.
They don’t tell you if a legitimate user is suddenly pulling every report in Salesforce at 2AM. Or if a trusted OAuth app is being abused to siphon files from Google Drive. Or if a former employee’s session is still active in a sensitive finance app like NetSuite.
Legacy SIEMs and Detection Tools Weren’t Built for This
- SIEMs often lack the contextual understanding of identity behavior across multiple SaaS environments
- CASBs and DLPs may monitor some activities but can’t stitch together identity risk across applications or catch slow, subtle insider abuse
Real Attacks, Real Consequences
Let’s move beyond theory.
- Microsoft’s Midnight Blizzard breach exposed critical vulnerabilities in identity infrastructure, where attackers exploited user accounts lacking multi-factor authentication (MFA) protections. By targeting these accounts, the attackers bypassed traditional security measures and gained unauthorized access. They leveraged legacy OAuth tokens that possessed high privileges, enabling them to access critical systems without triggering alerts. Furthermore, the attackers created new OAuth tokens to maintain persistence within the environment, allowing continuous access over extended periods. This breach demonstrated how compromised user credentials combined with weak identity protection strategies and insufficient monitoring of identity-related activity can lead to sophisticated threats that evade existing security controls and detection tools.
- Snowflake’s customer breaches involved credential stuffing attacks compounded by critical misconfigurations—most notably weak MFA enforcement—where many accounts lacked proper MFA configuration, leaving them vulnerable. Attackers leveraged these improperly secured accounts to gain access to sensitive data and maintain persistent presence within the environment. High-profile victims such as Ticketmaster, AT&T, and Santander Bank suffered significant data breaches as a result. These incidents highlight how weak MFA enforcement, combined with the absence of real-time identity activity monitoring, can lead to devastating data exfiltration and identity compromise.
These weren’t just failures of configuration—they were critical failures of detection as well. While proper configuration is essential, without robust detection capabilities, misuse can go unnoticed until significant damage occurs. ITDR could have exposed the misuse early—before damage was done. In both incidents, attackers exploited valid credentials and the absence of continuous, identity-focused monitoring to infiltrate systems. Implementing ITDR adds that vital detection layer, identifying malicious activities sooner and potentially mitigating the damage far more effectively.
ITDR fills that visibility gap.
It analyzes identity behavior continuously—across sessions, apps, and integrations—to detect anomalies that signal abuse. ITDR is purpose-built for identity behavior analytics in cloud-first environments.
The Insider Threat Isn’t Just a Headline—It’s a Daily Risk
Not every identity threat comes from the outside:
- An ambitious salesperson downloading customer data before jumping ship
- A fatigued remote employee accidentally sharing sensitive docs via unsecured apps
- A misconfigured integration pulling more data than it should
ITDR doesn’t just protect against attackers—it protects against misuse.
Malicious or accidental, insider threats are identity-driven. And without behavioral baselines, they’re nearly impossible to catch.
What Makes an ITDR Solution Effective for SaaS
Not all ITDR is created equal—especially in the context of SaaS. In the age of SaaS, your crown jewels aren’t behind firewalls—they’re behind logins. And attackers know it.
The best solutions:
- Correlate identity behavior across disparate SaaS apps
- Detect lateral movement, privilege escalation, and risky session patterns
- Flag anomalous non-human identity activity such as API and OAuth token usage
- Work in real-time to support automated response and investigation
Most importantly, they’re built to understand how identities behave in SaaS—where roles are often fluid, ownership is decentralized, and integrations are everywhere.
If you’re not monitoring identity activity continuously, you’re blind to your biggest risk.
ITDR gives you that visibility—along with the intelligence and response capabilities needed to stop attacks early.
Final Thoughts
In the world of SaaS, identity is the new perimeter—and attackers know it. They’re not exploiting technical vulnerabilities; they’re abusing valid credentials, trusted integrations, and excessive permissions to move undetected.
ITDR brings the visibility, context, and real-time response needed to detect identity threats as they unfold. But detection alone isn’t enough. That’s where SSPM (SaaS Security Posture Management) plays a critical role—by hardening the environment before an attack ever begins. Organizations must adopt a dual approach: proactively managing configurations and permissions through SSPM, and dynamically detecting and responding to threats via ITDR.
Together, SSPM and ITDR form a powerful one-two punch:
- SSPM reduces the SaaS attack surface through continuous risk assessment and hygiene
- ITDR catches identity-driven threats that slip through, providing the response muscle
This is the future of SaaS security—proactive, identity-aware, and built for the way modern organizations actually work. Valence stands at the forefront of this integrated strategy, offering a unified platform that empowers security teams to safeguard their SaaS environments effectively.
Valence delivers continuous identity threat detection and response across your SaaS stack—helping you stop credential abuse, insider threats, and identity-driven attacks before they spread.
→ See how Valence combines SSPM and ITDR in one unified platform
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