Every day, we interact with countless digital touchpoints — logging into applications, accessing files, or booking work travel. A fundamental element underpins all these interactions: identity. As technology journalist Diana Blass explains, identity serves as "the front door" to virtually every digital access point within an enterprise.
However, this gateway is also a vulnerability. A staggering 80% of cyberattacks leverage compromised credentials, according to CrowdStrike’s 2023 Global Threat Report. The inherent complexity of integrating systems, cloud providers, and applications introduces risk. This complexity is not static; it's growing rapidly, particularly with the widespread adoption of AI tools.
AI agents, now commonly deployed for tasks like content research and customer support, represent a new frontier for identity security that is often overlooked in enterprise strategies. These non-human identities introduce new challenges and demand a more comprehensive approach to identity.
The answer to this growing challenge? An "identity security fabric," or universal layer, that gives organizations visibility and governance over all identities, human and non-human alike, within the enterprise.
“My hope is that as we start formalizing our vision for an identity security fabric for AI and non-human identity in the enterprise, we could see a … standard evolve, which then can be adopted broadly by both application vendors as well as other security products,” says Arnab Bose, Chief Product Officer for Okta Platform.
It’s clear that identity must be managed both within the enterprise and beyond. As Blass concludes: “When identity is everywhere, you can’t afford to leave it unprotected.”
