IPSIE dramatically improves identity security: Todd McKinnon, Okta

Oktane 2024 keynote was delivered by Todd McKinnon, Okta CEO, in Las Vegas, USA, today.

Okta has gone through major transformation. It starts with identity. It's the entry point to the digital world. It can make organizations more productive, and faster, smarter, and more secure. Identity is also under attack. Over 80% of security breaches involves attacks on identity, Hence, identity has become key to security. Identity is security! 

We have a huge target on our backs. Every month, we stop over 3 billion attacks. Everything has to change. We are powering and securing the cloud. We have started taking every risk very seriously. We have to evolve how we build products, and manage risk. We have had an all-hands-on-deck approach. We have emerged as much strong company. We have Okta Secure Identity Commitment. We will not stop till there are no identity attacks! 

Okta Secure Identity Commitment has four steps. One, provide market-leading secure identity products and services. Two, harden our corporate infrastructure. Three, champion customer best practices to help ensure they are best protected. Four, elevate our industry to be more protected from identity attacks.

We have launched the Secure Identity Assessment, available now. As your security posture improves over time, it is a commitment. We have also donated $50 million. We have a shortfall of 4 million jobs for cyber security. CodePath has been programming for higher education. We are opening an open source cyber security lab with 3,000 students each year.

We also have over 1300+ apps in the Okta environment. If securing all these apps are hard, imagine, how hard it is for an organization where identity is not the main business. We now need standardization for solving the identity security challenge. We need to have complete visibility at every touch point. Lack of standardization is the single biggest variable to identity security. Every app, device, workload, etc., should speak a common language. 

We need a faster ecosystem to build seamless technology. We have cloud apps, on-prem apps, shadow apps, custom apps, AI agents, devices, machines, workloads, etc. We need to have SSO/MFA, lifecycle management, etc. 

Welcome IPSIE
McKinnon said that we now have a new, open standard called IPSIE or Interoperability Profile for Secure Identity in the Enterprise. This is open, and involves everyone -- identity providers, technology companies, etc. IPSIE can dramatically improve identity security. Any organization complying with IPSIE can get complete visibility. 

IPSIE will offer faster, complete, and end-to-end visibility. We built SAML, OpenID Connect, etc. We are no strangers to standards, and we can do it again. We start with secure identity integrations. There are 125 new SaaS integrations.

As the IPSIE standard evolves, thousands of apps can be easily brought in. We are working with everyone in the ecosystem. We will have zero-based identity attacks. We need to free everyone to be able to safely use any technology. 

Everyone should embrace this future, and share feedback. For builders, they should now adhere to IPSIE principals. For buyers, they should require IPSIE of their vendors.

Sunil from Google said they have done a lot with Okta. In Google Workspace, we are seeing great traction. We now have to keep the bar high. We need to get security right, we need to get the identity right. We look forward to working together. McKinnon said we need to address the how of IPSIE. 

Rani Johnson, CIO, Workday, said we are obsessed with creating delightful experience for customers. Security should go hand-in-hand, and be user friendly. We maintain over 10,000 customers daily, and security is non-negotiable. Customers also have simplified administration. They should have strong protection for their data. She also spoke about the actions they will be taking in future. We are continuing to define the future of work. We are aiming to move forward in future with Okta.

A customer has taken this chance, and created it into an opportunity. The CIGNA Group has been at this for some time now. We should be doing healthcare services better, and not focus on identity management. We have Okta as a partner. We have a focused platform to deliver with Okta. Okta has made it possible for strengthening relationships with our customers.

Harish Peri and Jen Vaccaro, Product Marketing, Okta, explained more. Peri said that security risk can be very high on Cigna. Okta Identity Security Posture Management can help the Cigna IT admin here. 

Vaccara said we need to be productive from day one. We can set up Okta Verify on behalf of myself, and others. This is the future of onboarding. Okta ensures that we can get right access at the right time.

For Cigna developers, we have to take care of bot detection. Finally, we need to have the actual Cigna customer experience. Vaccara said we have the Cigna AI chatbot, that protects the security identities. 

McKinnon said we build products based on your feedback. We developed Customer Identity Solution, Customer Identity Cloud, and Workforce Identity Cloud. We have also accelerated investments in customer identity solutions. We also have new product enhancement, etc. 

We have about 19,300+ customers, and we help them every day. We have over 7K integrations on Okta Integration Network. We also have over 1 billion unique monthly users. 

There are three key outcomes for our workforce customers. One, take back control of your identity security posture. Two, implement the principle of least privilege. Three, continuously monitor and respond to identity threats in real-time.

Identity is security perimeter
Arnab Bose, Chief Product Officer, Workforce Identity Cloud, said that identity is now the security perimeter. We can have authentication, and listen for risk signals across the enterprise. MFA standard powers the security standard. We can now take actions to right-size. We also have the Governance Analyzer with Okta AI. We also have Secure SaaS Service Accounts. Early access is expected in Q4-2024. We are now reducing friction for end users, and strengthening the security posture. 

We are also expanding our partners. We are working with number of apps for the enterprise. We have over 125 secure identity integrations are available for customers today. We have raised the security bar. Three key security outcomes.

Shiv Ramji, President, Customer Identity Cloud, said we are integrating Okta with every part of the business. Integrating IPSIE into the enterprise is very important. Earlier, there were integration complexities and scalability issues. With IPSIE, we have taken care of that. We have System for Cross-Domain Identity Management (SCIM).

80% of SaaS apps used by employees are not in their portals. We have self-serviced SSO. You are also expected to protect the entire digital journey. Every app detects risk changes. We will have Universal Logout, by IPSIE. We also support leading ID proofing integration. 

We believe in the power of AI. Businesses are sprinting to add GenAI. We must now empower builders to securely add GenAI. We have Auth for GenAI, available 2025. 

Todd McKinnon concluded, saying that we have to solve the problem of identity-based attacks. We will secure identity assessment. We now have IPSIE.

We also have the Governance Analyzer with Okta AI, secure SaaS service accounts, extended device single sign-on, advanced posture checks, and out-of-the-box integration for identity verification.

We have enhanced disaster recovery with self-service failover. Workflows is post-audit for FedRAMP high. We have support for Passkeys. We also have Identity Security Posture Management, and Transactions MFA. 

Okta also has SCIM, self-service SSO, Universal Logout, Auth for GenAI, and advanced customization for Universal Login. We have client-initiated backchannel authentication, developer portal, Forms, AuthO plans have been upgraded, and Okta Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA).