Source: www.lastwatchdog.com – Author: bacohido
As enterprise adoption of generative AI accelerates, security teams face a new identity dilemma — not just more users and devices, but a growing swarm of non-human agents and autonomous systems requesting access to sensitive assets.
Related: Top 10 Microsoft Copilot risks
At the same time, traditional identity and access management (IAM) tools are buckling under the pressure of cloud sprawl, decentralized architectures, and constant change.
The result? An urgent need for a smarter approach — one that helps teams see, understand, and act on who has access to what, across human, non-human, and AI identities, in real time.
For this Q&A, we engaged Jim Alkove, co-founder and CEO of Oleria and former Chief Trust Officer at Salesforce. Alkove breaks down why identity is the new battleground — and how a usage-aware, unified identity platform can help CISOs regain visibility and control.
LW: GenAI tools like Copilot are transforming workflows — but also introducing new access-related risks. Where are the blind spots showing up most?
Alcove: AI co-pilots like Microsoft Copilot are surfacing a critical gap: excessive access permissions and sprawling data exposure. In the past, employees couldn’t easily find everything they had access to, so some risk stayed hidden. Now, GenAI makes that access visible — and dangerous.
These tools honor existing permissions, which gives organizations a false sense of security. The problem isn’t that AI breaks the rules — it’s that the rules were too loose to begin with.
It’s a real blocker. A recent Gartner survey found that 40% of IT managers have paused GenAI deployments over security concerns. The root of it all? Excessive, invisible access. Getting to least privilege — and keeping it — is the only way to move forward.
LW: What’s the core identity problem Oleria is solving — and why now?
Alcove: Identity really has become the biggest security challenge we face today. The numbers are staggering — more than 80% of breaches now stem from identity issues. And it’s not just human users anymore. In many enterprises, non-human identities — things like service accounts, automation scripts, and AI agents — outnumber people by 80 to 1.
The problem is that most legacy tools just weren’t built to handle this. They still rely on static snapshots and manual reviews, which simply can’t keep up with the pace or complexity of modern environments.
That’s why we built Oleria from the ground up with a completely different approach. At its core, our platform gives security teams real-time clarity and control, without slowing innovation. It’s designed to help you see exactly who — or what — has access to what, how that access is being used, and whether it poses a risk.
We unify identity data from everywhere — cloud platforms, HR systems, SaaS apps, even homegrown tools — and map it into a single, dynamic access graph. That gives you a live picture of your entire identity landscape.
From there, we continuously monitor usage patterns to spot issues that traditional tools often miss — like dormant accounts, creeping privileges, or weak MFA setups.
And finally, we help teams take meaningful action. You can automate clean-up tasks, enforce least privilege as things change, or just ask Oleria Copilot something as specific as, “Who hasn’t used their admin rights in the last 30 days?” and get an answer you can act on immediately.
LW: You talk about unifying posture, governance, and detection. What does that enable that siloed tools miss?
Alcove: Traditional IAM tools grant access — but they rarely help you govern it over time. You get fragmented snapshots that miss key risks.
By combining governance, posture, and detection into one system, Oleria gives security teams a complete, real-time picture. We connect all identity data into one graph and layer usage intelligence on top.
That integration lets teams spot dormant access, risky permissions, and misconfigurations as they happen — and act immediately.
LW: Security teams are often overwhelmed by identity alerts. How are you helping customers cut through the noise?
Alcove: Security teams don’t need more alerts. They need answers.
Oleria provides real-time context. We monitor behavior across identity types and flag anomalies — things like unused privileges, privilege creep, and policy violations.
With Oleria Copilot, you can just ask: “Which service accounts haven’t been used in 30 days?” and get a precise, actionable answer.
It’s all about helping teams focus — and move — faster.
LW: Non-human and AI identities are exploding. What needs to evolve to secure them?
Alcove: Non-human identities — service accounts, scripts, AI agents — outnumber humans 80 to 1 in many orgs. And most of them are invisible, over-permissioned, and unmanaged.
These identities often have no owner. They operate in the background, with too much access and too little oversight.
As AI speeds up the creation of machine identities, this problem will only grow. Organizations need NHI-specific governance: ownership, usage tracking, and lifecycle controls.
That’s what we help enable — continuous discovery, monitoring, and remediation. Because securing these identities isn’t optional. It’s how you prepare for a future where machines operate at scale.
LW: Compliance mandates around AI and data access are growing fast. How can companies stay ahead?
Alcove: Compliance can’t be a checkbox exercise anymore. Companies need audit-ready visibility — and the ability to prove least privilege at any moment.
Oleria helps do that by eliminating manual reviews and showing access in real time. You get instant answers to tough questions: “Who can see this dataset?” “Which AI agents accessed it last week?”
That kind of transparency is what regulators — and your board — will expect going forward.
LW: What does the future of identity look like — and how should CISOs prepare?
Alcove: The future is adaptive, continuous, and AI-powered. Static snapshots aren’t enough.
CISOs need platforms that offer real-time intelligence and can respond at machine speed. That means usage-based visibility, continuous enforcement, and smart automation.
We’re building Oleria to be that platform — so teams can move faster than the threats.
Acohido
Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.
(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)
The post SHARED INTEL Q&A: When every IoT Device and AI assistant has an identity — who’s in control? first appeared on The Last Watchdog.
Original Post URL: https://www.lastwatchdog.com/shared-intel-qa-when-every-iot-device-and-ai-assistant-has-an-identity-whos-in-control/
Category & Tags: Q & A,Top Stories – Q & A,Top Stories
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