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Identity is where the fight is moving fastest, and RSAC 2026 proved it. Fresh off the show floor, we sit down with Jim Taylor, President, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at RSA Security, to break down what’s truly changing in identity security as AI reshapes both the threat landscape and the defenses enterprises rely on.

We dig into why “sovereign” and “deploy anywhere” identity deployments are suddenly mission critical. Cloud convenience can quietly trade away resiliency and control, and recent disruptions show how quickly authentication outages can become business outages. Jim explains what customers are asking for now: the same identity platform capabilities whether it runs as SaaS, in a private cloud, on-prem, or in highly constrained environments where failure is not an option.

Then we get practical about modern identity attacks beyond phishing. If passkeys and phishing resistant MFA harden the front door, attackers pivot to the session with token theft, adversary-in-the-middle scams, and help desk bypass that exploits people and process. We also explore agentic AI and the rise of non-human identities, including how to inventory agents, set entitlements, and apply identity governance so “mini workers” don’t inherit unlimited permissions.

We close with a grounded take on passwordless authentication as a step-by-step journey and what we hope the industry looks like by RSAC 2027 and 2028. If this helped you rethink IAM strategy, subscribe, share with your security team, and leave a review. What identity risk are you most worried about right now?

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