Okta CEO: AI safety and identification safety are one and the identical
At its annual Oktane buyer convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, identification and entry administration specialist Okta has been increasing its imaginative and prescient to be a first-port-of-call with regards to securing non-human identities (NHIs) as a swelling wave of synthetic intelligence (AI) brokers causes their numbers to swell dramatically.
Among the many bulletins made in the present day are new capabilities inside each the Okta and Auth0 platforms that the provider mentioned will allow customers to combine AI brokers seamlessly into their identification safety materials.
A research launched earlier in 2025 by Okta revealed that though 91% of organisations have been already deploying agentic AI in the hunt for productiveness beneficial properties, but in addition that simply 10% of organisations are in the present day placing any type of cyber governance in place to handle brokers – so Okta believes the chance can also be rising, and quick.
Such dangers are now not theoretical; Okta cited incidents such because the now notorious breach which an AI bot constructed on the Paradox AI platform and utilized by fast-food large McDonalds in its hiring course of uncovered the private knowledge of thousands and thousands of job candidates to hackers who appropriately guessed that its password was ‘123456’.
Okta CEO Todd McKInnon in contrast unleashing AI brokers on an organisation’s setting to creating quite a lot of particular person new insider threats.
“AI brokers are a robust new identification kind. They will act independently, on their very own or on behalf of a consumer or a group or an organization,” mentioned McKinnon. “They will entry instruments, apps or knowledge, they’ll plan or full duties on their very own. The tempo right here of innovation is completely beautiful.
“These AI brokers and the potential right here, are getting very, very highly effective and it’s taking place in a short time.
“With out identification safety AI safety collapses. AI safety is identification safety, you’ll be able to’t achieve success in a single with out the opposite,” mentioned McKinnon.
Okta for Brokers
Formally launched in the present day, the agency’s new Okta for AI Brokers idea will combine AI brokers into identification safety materials to supply an end-to-end safety wrap round them.
Amongst different issues, the service supplies instruments to allow agent discovery and identification of dangerous – or rogue shadow – brokers, centralised controls to handle their entry, and automatic governance to implement wider safety insurance policies and handle their total safety journeys or ‘lifecycles’.
Notable among the many options of the brand new package deal, Okta is speaking up Cross App Entry (XAA), a protocol which extends OAuth to safe agent-driven and application-to-application interactions. With help from companions akin to AWS, Field, Google Cloud, Salesforce and plenty of others, Okta mentioned XAA will shift management from particular person apps to the broader identification layer, bringing real-time visibility, policy-driven safety, and safer agentic integrations.
“Enterprises in every single place are grappling with how one can safely harness AI with firm knowledge. Our clients depend on Glean to unify that data and empower AI brokers to take significant motion,” mentioned Sunil Agrawal, CISO at AI knowledge platform Glean, which has been working with Okta on XAA.
“Glean brokers act strictly on behalf of the consumer – with no additional privileges. XAA takes that precept even additional and represents the following step towards making it safer and seamless for AI brokers to attach throughout techniques. We’re excited to help this rising protocol and to assist information the business towards standards-based agent interactions.”
Kristen Swanson, senior vice chairman of design and analysis at Okta, added. “The trendy enterprise requires an identification safety material that may unify silos and cut back the assault floor. Our newest improvements weave brokers into that material to handle their complete identification lifecycle, leveraging open requirements like Cross App Entry that assist elevate your entire business and create a safer AI-powered ecosystem.”
Elsewhere at Oktane, Okta unveiled Verifiable Digital Credentials (VDC), a brand new platform designed to cut back AI-powered fraud and potential friction throughout worker onboarding or different comparable processes by enabling organisations to digitally show a consumer’s identification and eligibility, and set up ongoing belief.
