Exploring frontiers in AI and Identity at Oktane 2023 event
Okta Embraces the AI Era, Empowering Businesses and Developers
In the heart of the AI revolution, Okta, a leading independent identity provider, is playing a pivotal role. Co-founded by Todd McKinnon and Frederic Kerrest in 2009, Okta has transformed the digital landscape, putting identity at the forefront of security and business growth.
Okta's mission is to help companies thrive in the AI era by building Identity solutions. Under McKinnon's leadership, Okta has revolutionised the way millions of people access the digital world, positioning itself as a trusted partner in the AI revolution.
Fine-Grained Authorization: Secure and Scalable
Okta's approach to Fine-Grained Authorization focuses on secure, scalable, and developer-friendly identity and access management solutions. By leveraging role-based access control (RBAC) and scoped OAuth 2.1 tokens, Okta enables precise control over who can access what data and operations in AI workflows.
Dynamic filtering based on group memberships ensures users only access resources consistent with their roles, separating admin capabilities from viewer roles. Sessions and consents have explicit expiration policies to enhance security and user control. All requests are validated and fully audited to maintain compliance and traceability.
Okta has also introduced the Cross App Access protocol, improving secure integration between AI agents and applications by managing agent permissions without repetitive consent screens. This protocol helps enterprises control AI tool connectivity and data access securely and efficiently while simplifying user experience.
Passkeys in the AI Era
Okta's broader identity security portfolio includes passwordless authentication solutions, such as biometric logins and device-based authentication. Auth0, a developer-focused subsidiary of Okta, offers tools for passwordless and biometric authentication, helping developers build custom login flows that align with passkey concepts, which remove passwords in favour of cryptographic credentials.
AI Integration
Okta leverages AI via Okta AI, embedding AI-powered capabilities across identity products to improve security posture, threat detection, and user experience. This includes protecting non-human identities (e.g., service accounts, machines, tokens) that AI tools often use, through Identity Security Posture Management and privileged access controls.
A Focus on Developers
For developers, Okta (and Auth0 as a developer-focused subsidiary) provide extensive APIs and SDKs to build secure, customizable authentication and authorization flows, including those suited for AI-era applications, emphasising security without sacrificing developer flexibility.
Upcoming Events
A separate "Best of Oktane, for developers" webinar is scheduled for November 9, 2023 from 10am PT. This webinar will review product announcements made at the Oktane event. In addition, there are three "Best of Oktane" webinar sessions across November 7 and 8, 2023.
Summary
In summary, Okta combines OAuth 2.1 best practices with AI-focused innovations like Cross App Access and IdSec posture management, supporting fine-grained authorization and modern, passwordless approaches (passkeys) tailored for developers and businesses adapting to the AI era. Okta aims to be the trusted Identity solution for businesses to unlock the power of AI and protect against its risks.
References: 1. Okta's Fine-Grained Authorization: https://developer.okta.com/blog/2023/02/28/okta-fine-grained-authorization 2. Okta's Cross App Access: https://developer.okta.com/blog/2023/05/18/okta-cross-app-access 3. Okta's Passkeys: https://developer.okta.com/blog/2023/04/24/okta-passkeys 4. Auth0's Passwordless and Biometric Authentication: https://auth0.com/blog/passwordless-and-biometric-authentication-with-auth0
- Okta's mission in the AI era is to help companies build Identity solutions, focusing on secure, scalable, and developer-friendly identity and access management.
- Okta is enhancing security and user control by implementing expiration policies for sessions and consents in their Fine-Grained Authorization approach.
- Okta's Cross App Access protocol improves the secure integration between AI agents and applications by managing agent permissions, reducing repetitive consent screens.
- Okta's broader identity security portfolio includes passwordless authentication solutions, such as biometric logins and device-based authentication, which are offered through Auth0.
- Okta leverages AI via Okta AI, embedding AI-powered capabilities across identity products to improve security posture, threat detection, and user experience.
- Okta aims to be the trusted Identity solution for businesses, helping them unlock the power of AI while protecting against its risks.
