What is a security identity?

A security identity is a user or service account that anchors access, activity, and investigations—enriched with context about privilege and relationships that changes how findings are interpreted.

What is a security identity?

Short answer

A security identity is a user or service account in your environment—human users, service principals, machine accounts, and similar—that anchors access, activity, and investigations. It is a decision lens, not just a directory record.

Explanation

Identities matter because security work attaches to who or what acted: the same alert on a contractor account is not the same decision as the same alert on a privileged administrator. Context—identity privilege (KID-GLS-0031), access relationships, and environment—changes what analysts prioritize and how they explain blast radius.

Guide: Understanding Security Identities (KID-CON-0090).


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