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March 4, 2025

Video: What’s Ahead for Identity Security?

In the ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape, identity security remains a critical challenge for organizations. In a recent conversation, Ballistic Ventures’ Co-Founder and General Partner Jake Seid sat down with cybersecurity analyst Francis Odum to discuss the state of identity security, the need for next-generation solutions, and the role of AI in shaping identity’s future. Check out the video interview or read through the key takeaways from their discussion below.

The challenges with existing identity platforms

Identity security today falls into three main buckets: Identity Governance and Administration (IGA), Identity and Access Management (IAM), and Privileged Access Management (PAM). Despite these established frameworks, organizations continue to face major hurdles:

  • Authentication weaknesses: Many companies still lack multi-factor authentication (MFA) or have weak authentication processes, enabling attackers to easily log in with stolen credentials.
  • Legacy infrastructure: Traditional identity platforms were built for on-premises environments and struggle to adapt to modern cloud-based and AI-driven infrastructures.
  • Complexity & fragmentation: Identity security solutions are often disjointed, leading to inefficiencies in managing users, access, and governance.

A next-generation identity security solution

Francis highlighted several key attributes required for an effective next-gen identity security solution:

  • Unified: A holistic, centralized solution that integrates IAM, governance, and privilege management, reducing fragmentation.
  • Dynamic & Contextual: Solutions must move beyond static identity management to incorporate behavioral analytics, real-time risk assessment, and adaptive access controls.
  • Automated & Efficient: AI-driven automation should streamline identity provisioning, access reviews, and security responses, reducing manual workload and errors.
  • Incorporates Non-Human Identities (NHIs): As bots, AI agents, and service accounts proliferate, identity security must evolve to manage both human and machine identities effectively.

How will the identity security market evolve?

From a venture investment perspective, Jake discussed Ballistic’s approach to identity security innovation. Rather than attempting to build a single, unifying platform, startups typically succeed by focusing on specific aspects of identity security:

  • Reinventing IGA: Modernizing identity governance to meet cloud and AI-driven demands.
  • Evolving IAM: Enhancing authentication and access management with continuous, contextual security.
  • Reassessing PAM: Traditional privileged access may become obsolete as modern applications blur the lines between privileged and non-privileged users, requiring more granular, real-time access controls.
  • Emergence of Identity Protection: Similar to how endpoint security and network protection evolved, identity security could see a distinct category for identity threat protection, focused on detecting and mitigating identity-based attacks.

How will AI shape the identity landscape?

Jake and Francis laid out a few ways they believe AI is poised to transform identity security:

  • Automated threat detection: AI can analyze behavioral patterns to identify suspicious activity and prevent unauthorized access in real time.
  • Adaptive access controls: AI-driven identity security solutions can dynamically adjust permissions based on risk signals, user behavior, and context.
  • Improved user experience: AI can streamline identity verification, reducing friction while maintaining strong security.

Identity security remains one of the most pressing challenges in cybersecurity, and as threats evolve, so must our solutions. At Ballistic Ventures, we’re committed to backing innovative startups that tackle these challenges head-on. Be sure to watch the full video and reach out to us if you’re an entrepreneur with an innovative idea in this space.