Rise in agentic identities leads to increased risk
The AI wave is translating into an increased number of AI agents in the workplace, which equates to a surge of both non-human identities (NHIs) and agentic identities. This is resulting in an urgent focus for CIOs and CISOs on identity threats and recovery.
New research from Rubrik Zero Labs, based on a survey by Wakefield Research of over 1,600 IT security decision makers, finds 89 percent of respondents have fully or partially incorporated AI agents into their identity infrastructure, and an additional 10 percent have plans to.
There’s a clear recognition of the threat, 58 percent estimate that in the next year, 50 percent or more of the cyberattacks they deal with will be driven by agentic AI.
"The rise of identity-driven attacks is changing the face of cyber defense," says Kavitha
Mariappan, chief transformation officer at Rubrik. "Managing identities in the era of AI has
become a complex endeavor, especially with the labyrinth of NHIs. We have an under-the-radar crisis on our hands where a single compromised credential can grant full access to an organization's most sensitive data. Attackers are no longer breaking in, but logging in, and comprehensive Identity Resilience is absolutely critical to cyber recovery in this new landscape."
To address the problem 87 percent of IT and security leaders actively plan to change Identity and Access Management (IAM) providers or have already begun the process. 58 percent cite security concerns as the primary driver to switch IAM providers.
In addition 89 percent of organizations plan to hire professionals within the next 12 months specifically to manage or improve identity management, infrastructure, and security.
Confidence in recovery isn’t strong, only 28 percent of respondents believe they could fully recover from a cyber incident in 12 hours or less, compared to 43 percent in 2024. 58 percent of respondents believe it would take at least two days to recover and achieve full-service operations post-compromise. Of those who experienced a ransomware attack in the past year, 89 percent paid a ransom to recover their data or stop the attack.
You can find the full report on the Rubrik site.
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