By Tim Eades, co-founder and CEO at Anetac

Throughout 2024, we've witnessed a dramatic shift in AI's role in cybersecurity. While AI has revolutionized defensive capabilities, it has also become a weapon for cyberattackers, enabling highly sophisticated attacks that exploit gaps in visibility and identity security. This transformation is particularly concerning given that non-human identities like service accounts and APIs now outnumber human accounts 40 to 1, creating an explosive growth in potential attack surfaces.

In response, governments and industries are racing to redefine identity protection standards, but the speed of AI advancement is outstripping traditional security frameworks. As we move into 2025, organizations face rapidly evolving AI-powered threats, an exponentially growing attack surface and a regulatory landscape struggling to keep pace.

The AI Threat: It's Real, and It's Here

We're at a defining moment in cybersecurity that will determine organizational survival. Transform or be transformed by a competitor-this isn't a slogan, it's a survival mandate. As organizations integrate AI into their business and security operations, they face increased identity vulnerabilities. This requires enhancing organizational visibility within networks. AI amplifies cyber threats exponentially: it makes good hackers great and great hackers scale. Organizations that fail to implement comprehensive monitoring mechanisms will face devastating attacks. It's not a question of if, but when.

We're seeing the first wave of attacks, and they're already mind-blowing. Take the Wiz CEO incident-where attackers used AI to perfectly replicate an executive's voice to authorize a fraudulent transfer, bypassing traditional security measures. This represents just the first inning of AI-enhanced cyber attacks and phishing attempts. Without robust visibility solutions that enable real-time detection of anomalies-such as unusual route updates, unexpected configuration changes, or suspicious account activities-organizations remain critically vulnerable.

Drawing from collaborative guidance by top security agencies like the CISA, NSA, and FBI, critical infrastructure and organizations across the globe must prioritize enhanced visibility and cybersecurity hardening. As AI enables cyber adversaries to scale their operations, expect nation-state actors to increasingly target critical infrastructure and organizations essential to modern life-disrupting healthcare, supply chains, and financial services.

Regulations Will Redefine "Identity"

The evolving identity security landscape will force regulators to abandon the traditional separation between human and machine identities. At Anetac, we're seeing a stark reality: for every human account, there are 40 connected non-human accounts. Soon, tokens, service accounts, and APIs will be treated as part of a single identity entity requiring unified protection. This shift mirrors the evolution of automotive safety-while seatbelts existed in the 1950s, mandating them came much later. We're at that inflection point for identity security, and venture capitalists are already positioning their investments accordingly.

The New Cybersecurity Investment Landscape

The identity security market has fundamentally shifted from generic security platforms to highly specialized solutions leveraging specific AI models. The most investable solutions will demonstrate dynamic visibility strategies-including comprehensive activity chain mapping, AI-enhanced security features, the ability to establish baselines of normal network behavior, and have a consistent view on all identity entities within the network.

If you're launching a cybersecurity company and are model-agnostic, you might as well be invisible to investors. The smart money is flowing to organizations that can demonstrate precise use cases built around specific leading AI models. Success requires more than innovative ideas-it demands practical applications of cutting-edge AI capabilities.

The most fundable companies will excel in three areas-articulating specific security challenges through advanced visibility techniques, demonstrating unique solution approaches, and leveraging AI models for return on investment. This means going beyond traditional monitoring to implementing proactive visibility measures-such as automated alerts for configuration changes, strategic management of external connections, and comprehensive packet capture capabilities. We're not just investing in security anymore-we're investing in intelligent, adaptive security ecosystems.

The Bottom Line

As 2025 approaches, identity security has evolved from a technical requirement to a business imperative. The convergence of AI, sophisticated cyberadversaries, and deeper regulations creates renewed risks for organizations lacking dynamic and comprehensive network visibility and monitoring capabilities. Visibility is no longer just a technical control-it's a strategic necessity that determines an organization's cyber resilience.

As we head into 2025, organizations must adapt their identity security strategies now or risk becoming tomorrow's cautionary tale. The convergence of advanced AI capabilities with sophisticated cyber threats demands more than incremental improvements to existing security frameworks. Organizations must immediately implement dynamic, AI-aware security strategies to anticipate and respond to threats across both human and non-human identities. Those who act decisively today to build comprehensive visibility and adaptive security measures will be best positioned to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven threat landscape.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tim Eades serves as CEO and Co-Founder of Anetac, combining his deep cybersecurity expertise with a proven track record of building and scaling successful security companies. With over two decades of executive leadership, Tim has consistently delivered exceptional growth and successful exits in the enterprise software and security sectors.

Before founding Anetac, Tim served as CEO of vArmour for nine years and as CEO, led Silver Tail Systems to its successful acquisition by RSA (EMC's security division) in 2012. As CEO of Everyone.net, he drove the company's growth and eventual acquisition by Proofpoint. His executive experience also includes leadership roles at BEA Systems, Sana Security, Phoenix Technologies, and IBM, where he achieved the distinction of being the No. 1 salesperson in Europe. Beyond his operational roles, Tim serves as General Partner and Fellow Founder at Cyber Mentor Fund, where he actively invests in and mentors the next generation of cybersecurity entrepreneurs. His investment portfolio spans over 50 companies, reflecting his commitment to advancing innovation in cybersecurity. He currently serves on the board of Boxx Insurance, Enveil and Device Authority and holds advanced degrees in business, international marketing, and financial analysis from Solent University in England. Tim's approach combines rigorous business acumen with hands-on technical expertise, enabling him to identify and solve critical security challenges while building capital-efficient, high-growth companies.