Tomer Bar
Associate VP of Security Research at Semperis
On International Identity Day, it is important to recognise the central role identity plays in protecting modern organisations and helping people go about their daily lives. When identity is compromised, the impact can spread quickly. Employees may lose access to the tools they need, and customers may be unable to use important services. To mitigate evolving risks, organisations must look beyond the pervasive nature of the threat and consider the architecture and resilience of their identity environment.
Modern enterprises rarely operate on a single ecosystem. A resilient defence requires a clear understanding of the entire identity environment and how its systems connect. Whether an organisation relies on legacy on-premises infrastructure, cloud-native environments, or a complex hybrid model, its security architecture must account for the full footprint.
Understanding how identities, systems, and access paths fit together helps security teams identify weaknesses and focus their efforts where they are most needed.
Vijay Balasubramaniyan
CEO & Co-founder at Pindrop Security
For years, identity verification focused on a relatively simple question and what I call the ‘right human problem’: Is the person on the other end of an interaction the right human? Generative AI has fundamentally changed that. Anywhere we once assumed there was a human, there can now be AI. A voice can be cloned, a face can be faked and an identity completely synthesised. That creates what I call the ‘real human problem’, and it strikes at the very foundation of trust in commerce, communication and media.
International Identity Day underscores the fundamental importance of having verifiable proof of identity. But in an increasingly AI-driven world, the sequence of identity an organisation needs to know is in the form: Is this a real human and only then is this the right human?
Additionally, with agentic AI, identity now has to extend beyond people. If I’m interacting with an AI agent, we then have a plethora of questions we need to answer: who does the agent represent, what authority has it been given, what is its intent, what actions is it permitted to take, and how should it be treated?
Identity can no longer be something we verify once at the beginning of an interaction and then take for granted. As humans and AI agents increasingly act alongside one another, we will need to move to an era where identity is continuously verified within a session, across sessions and ultimately across the lifetime of an entity.
Eran Vanounou
CTPO at Forter
International Identity Day is a reminder that the meaning of identity is rapidly shifting as AI becomes more ingrained in our everyday lives. As shoppers increasingly rely on AI agents to browse and buy on their behalf, those agents will become extensions of their identities – which means a new kind of customer for retailers. The challenge will shift from distinguishing humans from bots to recognising legitimate AI-powered shoppers amid automated fraud and abuse.
Retailers and merchants must identify the person behind the agent, understand their intent, and verify what the agent is authorised to do, so they can approve trusted activity with confidence. That foundation of identity will help merchants reduce friction for their best customers, protect revenue, and safely unlock the potential of agentic commerce.
Ali Adib
Principal Product Marketing Manager at Feedzai
International Identity Day should remind us that protecting someone’s identity continues long after they prove who they are. We need to know that the device and the signals coming from it can be trusted to better understand behavioural context and intent. When identity, cyber, and fraud teams share that intelligence, they can implement smart friction as risks change and help people move their money with confidence. Getting that foundation right for banking clients/human identities is how we build the confidence to let AI agents bank on their behalf.
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