Who Approved This? Why Most Systems Cannot Answer the Simplest Audit Question
Who Approved This? Why Most Systems Cannot Answer the Simplest Audit Question
February 2, 2026
Every audit eventually arrives at the same moment.
A transaction. A system change. A sensitive access event.
And then the question:
“Who approved this?”
On the surface, it sounds straightforward. In practice, it is where many organisations realise their audit trails do not provide the expected answer.
The Question MFA Was Never Meant to Answer
MFA is very good at answering one thing:
“Is the account holder present right now as a user of this system?”
What it does not answer is a different, more consequential question:
“Should this user be allowed to do this, at this moment?”
That distinction is subtle, but critical.
Once MFA is satisfied, most systems assume trust for the duration of a session. From that point on, approvals, changes, data access, and high-risk actions often proceed without further challenge, even if circumstances have changed.
MFA confirms access. It does not confirm authority or intent.
Activity Is Easy to Prove. Authority Is Not.
Most systems can show:
Which account performed an action
When it happened
The source system or device
What they struggle to show is something far more important:
Why that action was allowed.
Logs record activity. Policies describe intent.
Neither proves that the user had the right authority at the moment the action occurred.
This gap is usually invisible until an auditor, regulator, or board asks the question directly.
The Everyday Reality of Audits
For compliance and operations teams, this is a familiar scenario.
An action is flagged. A log is produced. A role mapping is referenced. An email or approval workflow is dug out.
Then comes the uncomfortable follow-up:
“Can you prove that this authority was valid at the time?”
Often, the honest answer is not definitive.
Roles change. Permissions persist. Delegations expire quietly.
Audit trails were never designed to capture decision justification, only evidence that something happened.
Why Traditional Audit Trails Fall Short
Most audit mechanisms were built for a simpler world:
Static roles
Stable teams
Clear organisational boundaries
Today’s environments are very different:
Contractors and third parties
Rapid role changes
Delegated and temporary access
Automated workflows
Yet systems still rely on standing permissions granted days, months, or even years earlier.
When authority is assumed rather than verified, audit trails become retrospective narratives, not proof.
The Missing Evidence: Authority at the Moment of Action
What auditors increasingly want to see is not just who clicked the button, but:
What credentials authorised the action
Whether those credentials were valid at the time
That the system enforced this intentionally
This requires authority to be checked when the action occurs, not inferred afterwards.
That is the gap most systems leave open.
How Credential Challenge Changes the Audit Conversation
The Origin Secured Credential Challenge was designed to close this gap.
When a user attempts a sensitive action, approval, access, change, or transaction, the system challenges the credentials required to perform that action in real time.
The challenge:
Confirms the user holds the necessary authority right now
Requires explicit permission to proceed
Verifies credentials without exposing underlying data
Each interaction is:
Cryptographically signed
Time-stamped
Recorded immutably on the OS Event Chain
The result is an audit record that does not just show activity, it proves authorisation.
What This Means for Compliance and Operations Teams
For compliance leaders, this removes ambiguity.
For operations teams, it removes rework.
Instead of reconstructing decisions after the fact, organisations can:
Demonstrate exactly why an action was allowed
Provide tamper-evident evidence instantly
Reduce reliance on manual approvals and email trails
Audits become faster. Findings become clearer. Disputes become rarer.
From “Who Did This?” to “Here is Why It Was Allowed”
The audit question is not going away.
In fact, it is becoming more central as regulators and boards focus on accountability rather than process.
Systems that can only answer what happened will always fall short.
Systems that can prove why it was allowed are the ones compliance teams can stand behind with confidence.
That is the shift the Origin Secured Credential Challenge enables.
Stuart Kenny
CEO, Origin Secured
