What CISOs need to get right as identity enters the agentic era
Summary
As AI agents become more common, security leaders (CISOs, Chief Information Security Officers) face new challenges because these non-human identities are harder to track and verify than human users, and traditional security signals no longer work. The source recommends treating identity as the foundation of security architecture, with advice including maintaining clean directories, creating complete inventories of non-human identities (AI agents and service accounts), enforcing least privilege access (giving users only the permissions they need), using phishing-resistant authentication methods beyond SMS, and assuming that credentials may be compromised.
Solution / Mitigation
The source recommends several specific steps: (1) 'Build a strong foundation before layering on complexity' by getting 'clean directories, enforced least privilege, and reliable offboarding processes' in place; (2) 'Design for the new class of identities' by starting 'from least privilege rather than from legacy'; (3) 'Get your non-human identity inventory in order' by building 'a full inventory of non-human identities and include who is responsible for each identity, and what each one is authorized to do'; (4) 'Treat MFA as a starting point, not a destination' by including 'phishing-resistant alternatives to SMS or push-based MFA' along with 'least privilege, micro-segmentation, and continuous monitoring'; and (5) 'Assume credentials may be compromised and architect accordingly.'
Classification
Original source: https://www.csoonline.com/article/4163365/what-cisos-need-to-get-right-as-identity-enters-the-agentic-era.html
First tracked: April 28, 2026 at 08:00 AM
Classified by LLM (prompt v3) · confidence: 85%