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Readiness Report | October 2026

The Identity Recovery Gap: Why Restoring Access Isn’t Restoring Trust

Most identity strategies focus on preventing unauthorized access – not recovering identity systems after compromise. If identity can’t be restored to a trusted state, neither can the business.

The Reality: Identity Availability Isn’t Identity Recoverability

Most organizations aren’t prepared to recover identity systems quickly or to bring identity services back online smoothly. Far fewer can prove the identity they’ve restored is actually trustworthy.

The Identity Recovery Gap reframes identity from a security control into critical recovery infrastructure – and lays out what CIOs and CISOs should require to close it.

Key Insights

The Stakes

Identity has become the primary attack surface and attack vector in the enterprise. Frontier AI is compounding the problem – adversaries can now begin lateral movement within as little as four minutes of the initial compromise of an account or identity. Detection and containment windows that once measured in hours now measure in minutes.

What Makes This Threat Different

This report reframes identity from a security control into critical recovery infrastructure. It moves past the question most identity programs answer – can we stop the attack? – to the one that actually determines business survival: Can we quickly restore trusted identity after an attack succeeds?

You’ll learn the five pillars organizations need to address to close the identity recovery gap, and what’s required of your identity resilience strategy along the way.

Why It Matters

The gap between “identity is back online” and “identity is trustworthy” is a critical space most businesses struggle to close after an attack. This Readiness Report gives CIOs and CISOs a framework for addressing it – before an incident forces the conversation.


79%

of cyberattacks started with compromised identity.1 


24.7%

of organizations have documented and tested their Active Directory and Entra ID recovery capabilities.2 

 

 

1. The State of Ransomware Report 2026, Sophos
2. Resilience Operations: The Discipline That Makes Readiness Provable, IDC — sponsored by Commvault

The Five Pillars of Identity Resilience


Assessment


Protection


Detection


Readiness


Recovery

ASSESSMENT

Understand Where You Stand

Before you invest in solutions, assess your current identity resilience capabilities with the Commvault Identity Resilience Assessment – and see where your organization has gaps across all five pillars.

STRIVE Podcast

Non-Human Machine Identities: The Governance Gap

Commvault Field CTOs Vidya Shankaran and Dan Conrad break down the governance gap in machine identities – and explain why non-human identities (they outnumber humans 144:1!) have become a critical cybersecurity risk.

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INFOGRAPHIC

The Identity Resilience Health Check

A self-guided check against the six requirements every identity resilience strategy needs.

Download the Health Check about The Identity Resilience Health Check
EBOOK

Get Real About Identity Resilience

The business case and threat landscape behind this report – learn why identity has become the primary attack surface, and what building real resilience requires.

Get the eBook about Get Real About Identity Resilience
Event series

Join the Readiverse CXO Exchange

Join an exclusive community of CxOs building cyber resilience strategies that anticipate threats and accelerate readiness.

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