How exposed is your help desk to identity-based attacks?
Most organisations cannot answer this with confidence. The help desk is the last line of defence against social engineering — and the first line attackers test. This 5-minute benchmark scores your maturity across the four dimensions that determine whether your help desk is part of your security posture, or part of the attack surface.
What is Workforce Identity Verification?
Workforce Identity Verification (WIV) is the discipline of confirming that the person asking your help desk to take a privileged action — reset a password, unlock an account, change an MFA device — is actually the legitimate employee they claim to be. It is the control that sits between an attacker with stolen credentials and your entire identity infrastructure.
Why this matters now
According to the 2025 IBM/Ponemon Cost of a Data Breach Report, phishing and stolen credentials are the top two initial attack vectors, and AI-generated impersonation has collapsed the cost and skill required to socially engineer a help desk agent. The control most organisations rely on — agent judgement — is no longer fit for purpose.
The four dimensions measured
- Threat Awareness & Visibility — do you know what's hitting you?
- Process Discipline & Agent Discretion — is policy enforced or improvised?
- Verification Method Strength — what actually proves identity?
- Audit, Logging & Detection — would you see an attack in progress?
The four maturity levels
Exposed — critical gaps, high breach risk. Reactive — partial controls, significant exposure remains. Managed — solid foundation, key gaps to close. Governed — best practice, maintain and extend. Your overall level is the level of your weakest dimension — because that is the dimension an attacker will find.