--- title: Always-on privileged access is pervasive — and fraught... description: 91% of users log in at their highest privilege level and stay there, creating significant security and operational risks. This widespread practice stems from... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/always-on-privileged-access-is-pervasive-and-fraught-with-risks-pvlw6ry4b twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Always-on privileged access is pervasive — and fraught with risks | daily.dev og:description: 91% of users log in at their highest privilege level and stay there, creating significant security and operational risks. This widespread practice stems from... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/always-on-privileged-access-is-pervasive-and-fraught-with-risks-pvlw6ry4b og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/pvlw6RY4B.png og:image:alt: Always-on privileged access is pervasive — and fraught with risks og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Always-on privileged access is pervasive — and fraught with risks **[CSO Online](https://daily.dev/sources/csoonline)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary 91% of users log in at their highest privilege level and stay there, creating significant security and operational risks. This widespread practice stems from complex IT environments, legacy systems without clear ownership, and governance models that haven't kept pace with modern infrastructure. The problem is worsening with the explosion of non-human identities like service accounts, APIs, and CI/CD pipelines that operate continuously with standing access. Traditional PAM and IAM tools struggle with dynamic, ephemeral environments where identities are created programmatically and access requirements change in real-time, signaling a need for paradigm shift toward just-in-time access models. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Enterprises still aren’t getting IAM right](https://daily.dev/posts/enterprises-still-aren-t-getting-iam-right-gtsss02x9) · CSO Online · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Risky identities continue to plague cloud infrastructures](https://daily.dev/posts/risky-identities-continue-to-plague-cloud-infrastructures-vc4c8iuxq) · Sysdig Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why Every Enterprise Needs a Strong Identity and Access Management Framework](https://daily.dev/posts/why-every-enterprise-needs-a-strong-identity-and-access-management-framework-kdqohlbpi) · Security Boulevard · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [PIM vs PAM Security: Which Approach Better Protects Your Enterprise?](https://daily.dev/posts/pim-vs-pam-security-which-approach-better-protects-your-enterprise--aacpdyacf) · Netguru · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI Agents Are Privileged Users; Who Is Auditing Their Access?](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-agents-are-privileged-users-who-is-auditing-their-access--gprca2dhv) · Dark Reading · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#cyber](https://daily.dev/tags/cyber), [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/always-on-privileged-access-is-pervasive-and-fraught-with-risks-pvlw6ry4b) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Always-on privileged access is pervasive — and fraught with risks","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/always-on-privileged-access-is-pervasive-and-fraught-with-risks-pvlw6ry4b","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/always-on-privileged-access-is-pervasive-and-fraught-with-risks-pvlw6ry4b"},"datePublished":"2026-01-28T09:32:16.657Z","dateModified":"2026-01-28T09:32:47.761Z","description":"91% of users log in at their highest privilege level and stay there, creating significant security and operational risks. 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