Howard Ting (CEO, Opal Security): Why AI Agents Break Identity | S6 E1
Ask any attacker the best way into a company: compromise an identity. 26 years into cybersecurity, Howard Ting says the problems he worked on at RSA in 2000 are still unsolved. This episode is about why, and what AI agents are about to do to the identity stack. Covered in this episode: Why standing permissions are still the easiest way into an organisation, and why nobody revokes access once the need expires Rubber stamping: what actually happens when a manager faces 100 access requests every morning Why agent access decisions will run a million to one against human capacity, and why AI narrowing the funnel is the only way through How Opal's Paladin agent reads tickets and Slack context to cut the review volume going to humans by 95 to 99 percent How Howard picks companies (80 percent of the decision is the market) and his three S's framework for career growth: scale, space, scope About Howard: • CEO of Opal Security, the Greylock-backed access governance company • Started in identity at RSA in 2000, launched Microsoft's identity federation product at Bill Gates' last RSA keynote • Joined Palo Alto Networks at roughly employee 60 and Nutanix at roughly employee 40. Both grew from a couple of million in revenue to a billion, with an IPO at each • Five years as CEO of Cyberhaven, worth $1B when he left • Now back in identity to work on what he calls unfinished business 🔗 Howard Ting: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardting/ 🏢 Opal Security: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opalsecurity/ 👤 Jack Brandwood: https://lnkd.in/dFMyDUEN 🎵 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/eij7j2m 📲 On Security LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/onsecuritypodcast/
