One of the more immediate consequences of businesses and government entities increasingly trusting artificial intelligence (AI) with their data is security risk. An area of cybersecurity that may see greater demand because of AI is a niche known as identity and access management, which is Israel-based CyberArk’s specialty.
Humans who access an organization’s computer systems are assigned digital identities, which include their login credentials and define what parts of the system they have permission to access. Computer hardware and software also have digital identities—called “machine identities”—which must be protected. Securing human and machine identities involves managing various digital mechanisms, such as application programming interfaces (APIs), which are sets of rules that allow one piece of software to talk to another; digital certificates, which act like virtual identification cards with embedded signatures; and electronic keys that grant access to specific data or functions. CyberArk’s software platform helps organizations manage digital identities and monitor them for suspicious or unauthorized activity.
This is important because AI is creating a new class of machine identities in the form of autonomous and semi-autonomous AI “agents” capable of performing tasks and making decisions previously handled by humans. Already, the number of machine identities is on the rise: According to CyberArk, organizations on its platform had about 40 machine identities for every human identity last year—a ratio that has since doubled.
CyberArk is also poised to benefit from the proliferation of so-called containers and microservices widely used by AI developers. Containers package everything an app needs to run (code, tools, libraries), while microservices focus on discrete functions such as authentication. The company also developed a suite of AI-powered tools called CORA AI that helps its identity-security platform analyze user behavior, detect risky activity, generate audit reports, and provide its clients actionable insights. Management has been a good steward of capital, using the company’s strong balance sheet and free cash flow to invest in products and strategic partnerships that position CyberArk to meet the security challenges created by AI.
While much of the investment community has been focused on what large US companies are doing in AI, this technology may become a powerful equalizer, offering businesses of all sizes across geographies a chance to leapfrog the competition (or risk falling behind). ∎