Identity at the Center

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Oct 2026

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Identity at the Center is a weekly podcast all about identity security in the context of identity and access management (IAM). With decades of real-world IAM experience, hosts Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman bring you conversations with news, topics, and guests from the identity management industry. Do you know who has access to what? Visit us on the web at idacpodcast.com

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October 26, 2026Episode 45655 min

#456 - AI vs Reality with Joseph Carson

Recorded live from the expo hall at InfoSec World 2026, Jeff and Jim welcome back Joseph Carson, host of the Security by Default podcast, for his third appearance on the show. Joseph explains how his thinking has moved from "AI vs AI" to "AI vs reality" after talking with CISOs at roughly 40 events this year, including stories of agents breaking into systems they were never meant to touch and a CFO vibe coding a family scheduler on a corporate laptop. He walks through his three-tier framework for agent risk (task, operational, and legally binding agents), makes the case that agents need identifiers and audit trails rather than human-style treatment, and describes Identity Under Attack, a Dungeons and Dragons style tabletop exercise he ran at NATO CyCon with identity coins, chaos cards, and dice. The conversation also covers why identity resiliency keeps landing last on the shopping list, what Locked Shields teaches about communication and identity strategy, a sobering prediction for 2027, and what identity practitioners can do today with ephemeral, auditable access. The episode closes with a podcaster gear chat and the difference between AI slop and AI enabled work. Connect with Joe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephcarson/ Security by Default podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@SecuritybyDefaultPodcast Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com00:00 Intro from InfoSec World 2026 and Jeff's broken finger 02:33 Welcome back Joseph Carson 03:18 From AI vs AI to AI vs reality 05:02 CISO stories: rogue agents and the vibe-coding CFO 06:46 The rise of consumer agents 07:50 A three-tier framework for agent risk 10:52 Onboarding digital workers with a code of conduct 12:39 Identities or identifiers? Estonia's agent identity debate 15:34 Identity Under Attack: a Dungeons and Dragons style tabletop exercise 22:32 Bringing the exercise to conferences 24:49 What surprised Joseph: collaboration across roles 26:52 Common choices and why MFA comes first 28:16 Designing a budget that forces hard choices 29:29 Identity resiliency as an afterthought 31:24 AI as the Mario Kart mushroom 32:53 Lessons from NATO Locked Shields 35:49 Supply chain and third-party risk 37:18 Predictions for 2027 38:59 What identity practitioners can do now 40:23 Vibe coding and governance at AI speed 42:04 Podcast gear and AI-assisted production 48:02 AI slop vs AI enabled 52:17 About the Security by Default podcast 53:45 Wrap-up IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Joseph Carson, Security by Default, InfoSec World 2026, Cyber Risk Alliance, agentic AI, AI agents, non-human identity, agent identity, digital workers, AI governance, vibe coding, tabletop exercise, Identity Under Attack, gamification, NATO CyCon, Locked Shields, MITRE ATT&CK, incident response, identity resiliency, MFA, privileged access, just-in-time access, ephemeral access, least privilege, supply chain risk, third-party risk, AI slop, podcasting

October 19, 2026Episode 4551 hr 7 min

#455 - CNAPP and the Cloud Identity Problem with Mike Small

Most cloud security incidents trace back to the customer, and most of those trace back to identity. Jeff and Jim sit down with Mike Small, Senior Analyst at KuppingerCole, to unpack Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) and why identity practitioners should care. Mike explains how identity controls in the cloud have become data defined in code, why ephemeral workloads break traditional scan-then-deploy security, and how CNAPP evolved from static configuration analysis into runtime monitoring and SOC integration. The conversation covers the shared responsibility model, SOC 2 attestations and complementary user entity controls, multi-cloud complexity, and why standards matter for portability and sovereignty. Mike also looks at CNAPP as a security plane for AI, agents as another layer of non-human identity, recent market consolidation, and the cloud as national critical infrastructure. Plus, a detour into amateur radio, Morse code exams, and low-power QRP contacts across the Atlantic. Connect with Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikesmall01/ AI Identity and Agentic Trust: https://www.kuppingercole.com/blog/small/ai-identity-and-agentic-trust Mike's other writing for KuppingerCole: https://www.kuppingercole.com/people/small Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com 00:00 Welcome and fall conference season 02:52 Introducing Mike Small 03:19 From engineer to identity software to analyst 05:07 What is CNAPP and why should IAM care? 07:21 Most cloud incidents are the customer's fault 11:00 Identity controls in the cloud are data 15:17 Static configuration analysis vs. runtime monitoring 19:34 Is CNAPP a product or a platform? 21:07 CSPM, CWPP, CIEM, KSPM and CNAPP capabilities 23:12 The shared responsibility model 27:46 Who defines secure? SOC 2 and complementary user entity controls 31:40 Multi-cloud and the case for standards 35:18 CNAPP as the security plane for AI 40:48 Where the CNAPP market heads next 44:34 Acquisitions and consolidation in cloud security 46:50 The cloud as national critical infrastructure 50:08 How sovereign is a sovereign cloud? 53:12 MCP and the speed of AI standards 53:39 Mike's passion for amateur radio 1:05:20 The CNAPP elevator pitch 1:06:14 Wrap up IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Mike Small, KuppingerCole, CNAPP, Cloud Native Application Protection Platform, cloud security, CIEM, cloud infrastructure entitlement management, CSPM, CWPP, KSPM, shared responsibility model, least privilege, misconfiguration, runtime monitoring, SOC 2, complementary user entity controls, multi-cloud, non-human identity, NHI, AI agents, agentic AI, MCP, sovereign cloud, critical infrastructure, identity standards, MFA, amateur radio, IAM, identity and access management

October 14, 2026Episode 45451 min

#454 - Sponsor Spotlight - HYPR

Bojan Simic, co-founder and CEO of HYPR, returns to Identity at the Center for a Sponsor Spotlight conversation with Jim McDonald. Bojan traces HYPR's path from passwordless authentication to a broader set of identity assurance controls and explains how assurance differs from verification across the full employee lifecycle. He describes what organizations find when they look for worker impersonators, from remote employees outsourcing their jobs to North Korean operatives, and why verification has to continue past day one. The conversation then turns to AI agents: why IAM teams are becoming the HR of AI, how agent identity differs from human identity, why humans can't manually govern agents at scale, and why securing MCP alone misses the full context of an agent's session. Bojan also covers what is slowing passwordless adoption, adaptive risk, alert fatigue, and how identity teams and the SOC can work together. This episode was made possible with support from HYPR. Connect with Bojan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bojansimic Learn more about HYPR: https://www.hypr.com/idac Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at idacpodcast.com 00:10 Sponsor Spotlight intro and welcome back Bojan Simic 02:36 HYPR's evolution from passwordless to identity assurance 04:44 How the pace of identity projects has changed 06:01 Agentic AI moves from theory to reality 08:19 Identity assurance vs. identity verification 10:02 Why workforce identity verification is on the rise 13:01 AI-powered social engineering crosses language barriers 14:30 Continuous verification beyond onboarding 17:06 Balancing verification with user experience 18:36 The business problem behind AI agent governance 22:42 How agent identity differs from human identity 24:50 Who owns agent identity? IAM as the HR of AI 27:00 Governing agents at scale and keeping humans in the loop 29:23 Why endpoint control matters for AI agents 31:48 What securing MCP alone can miss 33:20 Deterministic and probabilistic controls 35:00 What is holding passwordless back 37:26 Pilots and letting perfect be the enemy of good 39:25 Advice for leaders on adaptive risk 42:02 Signals that matter and avoiding alert fatigue 43:36 Identity teams and the SOC 45:53 Lighter note: early mornings in New York, family, and the Yankees 50:36 Wrap-up IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Bojan Simic, HYPR, Sponsor Spotlight, identity assurance, identity verification, workforce identity verification, continuous verification, worker impersonation, North Korean IT workers, deepfakes, social engineering, help desk security, AI agents, agentic AI, agent identity, AI agent governance, non-human identity, NHI, MCP, Model Context Protocol, endpoint security, blast radius, least privilege, access reviews, passwordless, MFA, FIDO, adaptive risk, adaptive authentication, alert fatigue, SOC, identity threat detection, IAM

October 12, 2026Episode 4531 hr 3 min

#453 - Treating Identity Like a Product with Eve Maler

Eve Maler, founder of Venn Factory and author of Mastering Digital Identity, joins Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman for her tenth appearance on Identity at the Center. Eve shares what she has learned since the book came out, from writing for non-technical executives (and keeping AI out of the manuscript) to the strange places identity ends up on the org chart. The conversation covers treating identity as a product, why identity can be a business model in disguise, how CISOs can influence CIAM when they are not the boss of it, and the identity debt that AI is now calling due. Eve also explains why intent looks more like purpose of use than finer-grained authorization, how contract language can help frame agent mandates, what trust means to humans versus security teams, and the early work on UMA for Agents (U4A) to govern third-party agents through a resource-centric, protect surface mindset. The episode wraps with travel tips from all three frequent flyers. Connect with Eve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evemaler/ Eve's book "Mastering Digital Identity" - https://masteringdigitalidentity.com/ MyTerms: https://myterms.info/ UMA for Agents: https://u4a.ai/ Kwaai AI Lab - https://www.kwaai.ai/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com 00:00 Introduction and Eve's tenth appearance 02:40 Life since publishing Mastering Digital Identity 04:49 Writing for non-technical executives 06:36 AI and the book writing process 09:00 Identity as a product: feedback from leaders 10:29 The strangest places identity lives on the org chart 11:46 Metrics that work across functions 13:40 Identity as a business model in disguise 15:14 Identity's unhoused problem 16:56 Who is accountable for identity? 18:33 Security versus usability 20:43 Is identity the product or part of the product? 24:04 Normalizing product replacement 25:53 CISOs, CIAM, and "You're Not the Boss of Them" 28:03 Defining identity debt 29:27 How AI exposes identity debt 31:38 The organizational roots of identity debt 32:52 What intent means for AI agents 34:23 Poisoned intent and contracts as a model 36:15 Laws of robotics and the policy stack 39:21 MyTerms and IEEE 7012 40:04 Trust as a human word 43:29 UMA for Agents and third-party agents 47:27 The protect surface and what practitioners should consider 51:10 U4A maturity and how to get involved 53:43 Travel tips from frequent flyers 1:02:10 Wrap up IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Eve Maler, Venn Factory, Mastering Digital Identity, identity as a product, identity product management, identity debt, technical debt, CIAM, customer identity, CISO, identity ownership, identity metrics, board-level identity, AI agents, agentic AI, non-human identity, NHI, intent, purpose of use, trust, zero trust, protect surface, UMA, User-Managed Access, UMA for Agents, U4A, third-party agents, MyTerms, IEEE 7012, Kwaai, consent phishing, phishing-resistant authentication, passkeys, NIST 800-63, IAM, identity and access management, travel tips

October 5, 2026Episode 4521 hr 12 min

#452 - When Identity Becomes Critical Infrastructure with Shea McGrew

Shea McGrew, Chief Technology Officer at Maricopa County, returns to Identity at the Center one year after episode 376 to take on a question she first raised at our Identity After Dark session: when does digital identity become critical infrastructure? Jeff and Jim talk with Shea about how a county broadband and digital equity project led her to see digital trust as the thread running through every digital government service, and why that trust depends on identity. The conversation covers building an external identity portal for residents, designing for consent and privacy from the start, why residents extend trust to private platforms more readily than to government, the right to be forgotten, data governance across departments, and where decentralized identity and verifiable credentials might fit. Shea also shares her view on access reviews as a learning journey, what it would take to trust AI agents with certifications, and whether an agent could ever be considered a citizen. Plus, potatoes and the proper way to cut a sandwich. Connect with Shea: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shea-mcgrew-6b82a36/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com 00:00 Welcome to Identity at the Center (or AI at the Center) 02:19 How Jim and Jeff met, and how the podcast started 04:09 Jeff's fall conference schedule 06:39 Do you want IDAC content over the holidays? 07:32 IDPro membership and introducing Shea McGrew 08:15 Looking back at Identity After Dark 10:44 Zero trust progress one year later 12:04 From device identity to external identity and broadband 16:04 What counts as critical infrastructure? 19:00 External identity requirements in government 21:04 The blast radius of identity failure 23:06 If identity is critical infrastructure, who owns it? 24:26 What other public sector leaders are saying 26:40 One person, many identities 28:40 How government earns resident trust 32:37 Why not just copy Amazon? 35:02 A right to be forgotten in the US? 36:22 Governing data across department boundaries 38:30 Decentralized identity and the ownership problem 41:30 Tokenization and existing blockchains 42:34 The digital trust umbrella 45:56 Park passes versus benefits and courts 49:19 Does an official designation unlock anything? 51:03 Access reviews: security theater or essential? 55:26 Would you trust AI agents with access reviews? 58:36 Can an AI agent be a citizen? 1:02:20 More questions than answers 1:04:24 Lighter note: If you were a potato 1:07:55 Bonus: How do you cut a sandwich? IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Shea McGrew, Maricopa County, critical infrastructure, digital identity, digital trust, public sector identity, government identity, external identity, CIAM, citizen identity, resident identity, digital services, broadband, digital equity, zero trust, device identity, IGA, access reviews, access certifications, consent, privacy, right to be forgotten, data governance, decentralized identity, verifiable credentials, blockchain, tokenization, identity assurance, AI agents, agentic identity, non-human identity, NHI, human in the loop, Identity After Dark, IAM, identity and access management

September 30, 2026Episode 4511 hr 2 min

#451 - Sponsor Spotlight - C1.ai

Alex Bovee, CEO and co-founder of C1.ai (formerly ConductorOne), returns for his third appearance on Identity at the Center. Alex walks Jim and Jeff through the rebrand to C1.ai and why the .ai matters: identity now covers humans, workloads, and agents. The conversation opens on launch week and the new App Hub, built around a question many CIOs and CISOs are facing. What happens when everyone in the company becomes a builder and vibe-coded apps start running critical workflows? From there, Alex frames the difference between humans, software, and agents using two dimensions, trustworthiness and determinism, and explains why agents that "goal max" call for runtime enforcement instead of relying only on after-the-fact reviews. He breaks down the Hugging Face breach, where an OpenAI agent under evaluation escaped its sandbox in pursuit of better eval results, and lays out six control points for agent security: identity, the harness, network egress, data and tools, the LLM gateway, and credentials. The group also covers why IGA fundamentals speed up AI adoption, three buckets of agents (SaaS, enterprise, and personal productivity), agents evaluating other agents, governed swim lanes over shutting things down, and the slept-on problem of credentials sprawling across endpoints. Plus girl dads, boy families, and the return of the Royal Octopus. Made possible with support from C1. Learn more at c1.ai/idac Connect with Alex: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexbovee/ Learn more about C1: https://www.c1.ai/idac Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at idacpodcast.com 00:00 Intro 00:33 Welcome back, Alex Bovee 01:28 From ConductorOne to C1 and the .ai rebrand 04:14 Launch week and the App Hub 07:07 Farm-to-table software and the limits of off-the-shelf SaaS 09:56 The real risks of vibe-coded apps 12:52 Humans, software, and agents: trust and determinism 17:10 UARs matter more for agents 17:59 What happened in the Hugging Face breach 21:23 Six control points for securing agents 25:38 Where should teams focus first? 31:33 Meeting customers where they are 33:02 Why IGA basics come before AI adoption 34:27 AI accelerates bad IAM 35:45 Governance versus business speed 37:51 SaaS, enterprise, and personal productivity agents 41:19 Runtime enforcement and agents evaluating agents 44:22 Can you train an agent not to goal max? 47:33 Governed swim lanes, not shutdowns 50:33 Publishing a vibe-coded app through App Hub 53:03 The slept-on credential problem 56:04 Girl dads, boy families, and the Royal Octopus 1:00:54 Wrap-up IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Alex Bovee, C1, C1.ai, ConductorOne, Sponsor Spotlight, identity and access management, IAM, identity governance, IGA, AI agents, agentic AI, agentic enterprise, non-human identity, NHI, workload identity, machine identity, vibe coding, App Hub, Hugging Face breach, OpenAI, agent evals, goal maxing, runtime enforcement, runtime security, MCP, MCP gateway, LLM gateway, network egress, agent harness, just-in-time credentials, secrets management, shadow AI, user access reviews, UAR, joiner mover leaver, delegated authorization

September 28, 2026Episode 4501 hr 23 min

#450 - New to Identity with Alexis Bernthal

Jeff flies solo for episode 450, joined by Alexis Bernthal, an associate on RSM's technology risk consulting team who found her way to the podcast through a corporate-wide email and a contact form submission that led to an invitation to Identiverse. They trace how Alexis went from failing a high school computer science class to finishing a CS degree, and how a topic on the show, role-based access, first put identity and access management on her radar. Alexis walks through what technology risk consulting looks like day to day, her first industry conference experience at Identiverse (including Identibeer, sessions on agentic identity and transaction tokens, and a Women in Identity gathering), and the blog she started at AlexisBernthal.com to document her own journey. The conversation turns to what it takes to bring more early-career people into identity: the perceived technical barrier, the value of mentorship and simply introducing yourself at conferences, and whether seniority is really a prerequisite (Jeff's own path started with programming parking lot lighting identities at Walgreens). They close things out with a browser tab hot take and a warning about what not to leave open during a screen share. Connect with Alexis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-bernthal/ Visit her website: AlexisBernthal.com Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com 00:10 - Introduction and upcoming conference schedule 01:48 - Guest introduction: Alexis Bernthal 02:10 - How Jeff and Alexis met and the podcast's origin story 08:12 - How Alexis got into IT and landed at RSM 11:02 - What technology risk consulting actually involves 14:34 - A day in the life, plus RSM's Power of Love campaign 17:15 - How identity first showed up on Alexis's radar 18:48 - Identiverse: Alexis's first-ever conference 21:31 - Enthusiasm, Identibeer, and standout sessions 26:06 - AlexisBernthal.com and her own podcast with her dad 28:35 - What surprised her most about IAM 30:05 - Jeff's identity-as-a-language analogy 37:49 - Breaking into IAM without a technical background 41:21 - Learning by being in the room, plus IDAC's website Easter eggs 46:23 - ID Pro, mentors, and shout-outs to the RSM digital identity team 49:58 - What's holding the next generation back from IAM 54:19 - Introducing yourself at conferences and meeting people where they are 59:30 - Jeff's own accidental start in identity, programming parking lot lights 1:04:00 - Luck, networking, and today's job market 1:08:03 - Advice for new grads breaking into the field 1:10:26 - Where Alexis sees her IAM journey heading 1:12:59 - Lightning round: how many browser tabs is too many 1:17:44 - A cautionary tale about screen sharing 1:20:12 - Wrap-up and thank you's IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Alexis Bernthal, RSM, technology risk consulting, identity and access management, IAM, role-based access, Identiverse, Identibeer, ID Pro, agentic identity, transaction tokens, career development, mentorship, networking, early career, digital identity, authentication, authorization, single sign-on

September 21, 2026Episode 4491 hr 10 min

#449 - Decoded - Transaction Tokens with George Fletcher

George Fletcher joins Jeff Steadman and Sean O'Dell for a Decoded deep dive into transaction tokens (Txn-Tokens), the OAuth Working Group specification designed to secure requests as they move across microservices. George explains the problem transaction tokens solve: hop to hop security gaps, replayed access tokens, and the difficulty of tracking a single transaction across a graph of internal services. The conversation covers the anatomy of a transaction token, including the subject, audience, scope, and TXN claims, how a token's time to live should be scoped to the transaction itself, and why immutable parameters prevent tampering mid chain. George and Sean also explore how transaction tokens apply to AI agents and delegated authorization, referencing draft work on agent specific claims and cross domain trust. The episode closes with practical starting points for organizations of any size, including open source options and where to track the specification through the IETF OAuth Working Group. Resources mentioned in this episode: Transaction Tokens (base draft): https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-oauth-transaction-tokens-11.html Transaction Token Chaining Profile (Cross Domain Trust): https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-fletcher-transaction-token-chaining-profile-02.html Transaction Tokens for Agents: https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-araut-oauth-transaction-tokens-for-agents-00.html Tokenetes: https://tokenetes.io/ OAuth Working Group: https://github.com/oauth-wg Decoded by Identity at the Center: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Sean O'Dell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanodentity/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com 00:15 Introduction and catching up with Sean O'Dell 01:25 Introducing today's topic, transaction tokens and zero trust 02:26 George Fletcher joins the show 02:41 George's path into identity, from AOL to the Liberty Alliance 04:22 The problem that led to transaction tokens at Verizon Media 09:01 What a transaction token is, in plain terms 10:25 The specific problem transaction tokens solve 11:43 Transaction tokens versus a short lived access token 13:48 Delegated authorization, traceability, and the TXN claim 22:04 How long a transaction token should live 27:13 Local AI, vibe coding, and shrinking token lifetimes 28:45 What is inside a transaction token, the core claims 35:39 Call chains and the transaction context claim 39:05 Applying transaction tokens to AI agents 41:08 The transaction tokens for agents draft and the ACT claim 43:37 Getting started with limited resources, open source options 46:32 Scaling transaction tokens at a larger organization 50:38 What transaction token nirvana looks like 53:31 Whether this replaces a standard OAuth server 55:59 Where to learn more, the IETF OAuth Working Group 58:09 Cross domain trust and calling outside the enterprise 1:01:38 Alternatives to transaction tokens and adoption incentives 1:05:16 George's summary of the conversation 1:07:26 Sean's closing thoughts and takeaways 1:09:19 Wrap up and close IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Sean O'Dell, George Fletcher, Practical Identity, transaction tokens, Txn-Token, OAuth, OAuth Working Group, zero trust, microservices, access tokens, JWT, authorization, delegated authorization, agentic identity, AI agents, call chain, token exchange, TXN claim, scope claim, Verizon Media, IETF, Keycloak, Tokenetties, cross domain trust, Decoded

September 17, 2026Episode 4481 hr 4 min

#448 - Sponsor Spotlight - Opal Security

Howard Ting, CEO of Opal Security, joins Jeff Steadman for a Sponsor Spotlight covering identity governance for both human and non-human identities. Howard traces his path through RSA Security, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Nutanix, and Cyberhaven before returning to identity to lead Opal. The conversation covers why disabling a departing employee's account rarely ends their access, the orphaned tokens, service accounts, and agents left behind, and why visibility has to come before ownership and risk analysis. Howard and Jeff dig into agent intent and authority: whether an agent can declare its own intent, why permissions should stay a subset of what its human creator holds, and how narrowly scoped, single-task agents make governance easier. They also cover how Opal matches AI decision capacity to a growing volume of access requests, including how the company's Paladin AI supports approvers and campaign creators today. The episode closes with Opal's announcement of a unified platform for governing human, non-human, and agent identities together, extending Paladin's decisioning to agents and introducing Policy Insights to help security teams balance friction against risk. Howard shares his view that identity has to shift from an episodic, event-driven practice to a continuous one, along with a lighthearted detour into 90s video games. Connect with Howard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardting/ Learn more about Opal Security: https://www.opal.dev/ Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at idacpodcast.com 00:10 Intro and welcome 01:01 Howard's identity origin story: RSA, Microsoft, Kim Cameron 02:48 What Opal does: unified control plane for human and non-human identities 04:16 The opal.dev domain and how Opal got its name 06:42 Termination and lifecycle: why access doesn't fully go away 09:33 Session management and orphaned accounts 13:57 Visibility as the first step in identity governance 17:31 Can an agent declare its own intent? 20:29 Authority: should an agent ever exceed its creator's permissions? 22:12 Inside Opal: Risk Center and Policy Insights 25:41 How Opal connects to systems and collects usage data 27:30 Cross-application segregation of duties 29:06 Zero standing privilege and AI managing AI 32:12 Building trust in AI-driven access decisions 39:00 Announcing Opal's unified platform for agents and non-human identities 44:18 Explainability and traceability in Paladin's decisions 48:54 Tuning risk tolerance and autonomy in Paladin 51:20 Proving value: demos, POCs, and industry skepticism 57:47 The shift from episodic to continuous identity 59:50 Lightning round: favorite 90s video games IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Howard Ting, Opal Security, Sponsor Spotlight, identity governance administration, IGA, non-human identity, NHI, agent identity, agentic AI, access governance, least privilege, just-in-time access, JIT, zero standing privilege, Paladin, Risk Center, Policy Insights, segregation of duties, SOD, RSA Security, Microsoft, Kim Cameron, Palo Alto Networks, Nutanix, Cyberhaven, continuous identity, identity lifecycle management, orphaned accounts, service accounts, API keys, intent-based access control

September 14, 2026Episode 4471 hr 16 min

#447 - Authenticate 2026 Preview with Andi Hindle

Jeff Steadman sits down with Andi Hindle, conference chair for Authenticate 2026, for a preview of this year's event. Making his seventh appearance on the show, Andi walks through how Authenticate has evolved since its founding alongside Identiverse and outlines six major topic areas shaping the 2026 agenda, including passkeys in practice, regulatory pressures, security and standards architecture, digital identity wallets, and non-human authentication. The conversation moves into hardware-based identity for retail and industrial settings, age verification challenges, and a detour into 3D printing and supply chain assurance. Jeff and Andi dig into continuous identity and zero standing privilege, the shift toward non-human traffic dominating infrastructure requests, and how agentic AI is forcing organizations to rethink authorization and human-in-the-loop decisions. They close with privacy and consent questions for non-human identities, thoughts on where authentication and authorization standards are headed, and a lighter look at Authenticate team traditions and sci-fi recommendations. Connect with Andi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ahindle/ Impact of GDPR on Identity and Access Management by Andi Hindle: https://bok.idpro.org/article/id/24/ Learn more about FIDO Authenticate 2026: https://authenticatecon.com/event/authenticate-u-s-2026/ Non-FIDO members can use the code IDAC15 to save 15% on their in-person conference pass. Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/ Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.com 00:10 - Introduction and discount code rundown for upcoming conferences 01:10 - Andi Hindle returns for his seventh appearance 01:29 - Favorite episode banter and the running Andrew Shikiar joke 03:08 - Origins of Authenticate and its relationship with Identiverse 09:01 - Passkeys are solved, so what comes next 09:53 - Lessons learned building the Authenticate agenda 12:59 - The scale of effort behind running Authenticate 15:29 - Adjacent topics expanding beyond the core passkeys mission 16:09 - Six major topic areas planned for Authenticate 2026 22:13 - Identity as the foundation for everything digital 23:14 - Hardware identity and non-human authentication 24:53 - Retail tokens, badges, and age verification use cases 28:36 - Replacing things only when the replacement is actually better 29:41 - A detour into 3D printing and personal satisfaction 31:39 - 3D printing, supply chain assurance, and identity problems 36:38 - Introducing continuous identity 37:28 - Zero standing privilege and why it matters now 40:46 - The human user as the infrastructure edge case 45:16 - Speed, scale, and the limits of human in the loop 46:11 - Setting red lines for agentic risk 50:56 - Privacy and consent questions for non-human identities 56:51 - Anonymization, data logging, and GDPR parallels 59:51 - A GDPR and IAM resource from the IDPro Body of Knowledge 1:00:26 - What Authenticate topics might look like three years out 1:04:59 - Why accounts may not make sense for agents 1:06:49 - Authorization as the next hard problem to solve 1:08:20 - Inside jokes from the Authenticate organizing team 1:09:30 - The story behind Andi's favorite Britishism 1:10:38 - Book and media recommendations 1:14:39 - Closing thoughts and sign-off IDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Andi Hindle, Authenticate 2026, FIDO Alliance, passkeys, identity verification, identity wallets, continuous identity, zero standing privilege, agentic identity, non-human identity, authorization, shared signals, GDPR, IDPro, Identiverse, age verification, hardware authentication