Securing identities isn’t a one-and-done process. It’s a continuous lifecycle, and any gap at any stage—whether it’s during onboarding, internal role changes, or offboarding—can create an open door for attackers. The "joiner, mover, leaver" (JML) model is the backbone of identity lifecycle management (ILM), but if you’re not securing identities across each of these stages, you’re playing a dangerous game of chance with your organization’s security.

The key to stopping these gaps is visibility and control. You need full, real-time insight into who has access to what—and why. With least-privilege control as a core principle, users should only have access to the systems and data they need for their current role. Anything more is just an invitation for abuse, whether from malicious insiders or external attackers who manage to compromise credentials. Comprehensive identity lifecycle management is both a best practice and an absolute necessity if you want to keep your environment secure.

Automation is Key: From Joiner-Mover-Leaver to Just-in-Time Access

Manual identity governance processes are a security and operational liability. Managing the JML lifecycle with spreadsheets, ticketing systems, and email chains is not only slow, but it opens up significant risk gaps. Automation is the answer. By automating provisioning workflows, you ensure that employees joining, moving within, or leaving your organization get precisely the access they need—when they need it—and nothing more.

Automating Onboarding

Let’s start with onboarding. Automated provisioning allows you to spin up access for new hires on day one without waiting for an admin to shuffle through requests or dig through legacy systems. No more delays while employees wait for approvals to trickle in from different departments. Instead, access is granted based on predefined roles and policies, saving time for both IT and end users. Employees hit the ground running, and more importantly, there’s zero guesswork about what privileges they should or shouldn’t have.

Automating Role Shifts

Then we move to the mover phase. Role changes, promotions, or department transfers often result in “permission creep,” where old access is never revoked. This can leave employees with far more privileges than necessary, creating significant security risks. Automated systems immediately adjust privileges based on a user’s new role, ensuring they’re always operating with least privilege access. No leftover entitlements hanging around to trip you up later.

Automating Offboarding

Finally, with leavers, automation ensures a clean exit. As soon as someone leaves the organization, their access is revoked automatically across all systems, from SaaS apps to on-prem resources. There are no loose ends, no forgotten accounts lurking in the shadows, just a clean cut, reducing the risk of orphaned accounts being used in an attack.

Automating JIT

But the real game-changer in automation is just-in-time (JIT) access for privileged entitlements. Instead of granting long-term, standing privileges to sensitive resources, JIT access allows users to gain elevated permissions only when they need them. Let’s say an engineer needs temporary access to a production environment—JIT access grants it for the duration of that specific task, and then it’s revoked immediately after. No more permanent access that could be exploited, either by insiders or through compromised credentials. It’s access on-demand, with a built-in expiration date. This minimizes the attack surface while ensuring users have the flexibility to do their jobs efficiently.

Now, let’s talk about why all this matters. Manual processes are killing productivity and increasing security risks. IT teams waste hours on mundane, repetitive tasks—provisioning accounts, reviewing access, following up on stale permissions—while more critical issues are left waiting in the queue. These inefficiencies slow down operations, frustrate employees, and leave organizations exposed to preventable security incidents. And the kicker? Manual processes are prone to human error. Even the most vigilant teams are bound to overlook a misconfigured permission or delay a crucial deactivation.

Automation, on the other hand, removes the human element from these routine tasks. It enforces policies consistently and instantly, giving you peace of mind that no step has been skipped, and no user has been forgotten. This isn’t just a security win—it’s a productivity boost across the board. By freeing up IT and security teams from manual workflows, you can redirect those resources to more strategic initiatives. Automating access also streamlines compliance, making it easier to demonstrate that you’re following least-privilege principles and adhering to industry regulations.

The Time for Transformation is Now

Identity-related security risks aren’t slowing down—they’re accelerating. As threats grow more sophisticated, relying on outdated, clunky IGA systems is no longer an option. The longer your organization waits to modernize, the more vulnerable you become to breaches, over-privileged accounts, and compliance failures. Now is the time to take action.

Lumos offers a modern, streamlined approach to identity governance that not only strengthens security but also simplifies operations and boosts productivity. It’s time to rethink your current IGA approach and consider the clear benefits of transitioning to a solution that’s designed for today’s—and tomorrow’s—challenges.

Want to see Lumos in action? Book a demo and let’s talk about how you can simplify and secure your identity management—without the complexity and cost of traditional IGA solutions