Identity resilience grows with Delinea acquisition of StrongDM, One Identity upgrade

Identity resilience is a burgeoning field as the latest industry moves illustrate. Supply meets demand as various sectors tackle threats and the growth in new areas of vulnerability.

The first half of 2025 saw a 32 percent increase in identity-based attacks, according to a Microsoft survey, with 50 percent of cyberattacks motivated by financial goals such as ransom or extortion.

A Raconteur piece makes the point that identity attacks increasingly focus on access pathways, with 40 percent of ransomware attacks targeting both on-premises and cloud systems. AI has resulted in the rise of non-human identities, which can have high-level access while evading accountability.

The Raconteur report cites that 50 percent of organizations say non-human identities are the hardest to secure. “In identity governance, that means AI can rapidly scale access and decisions beyond human oversight if controls over service accounts, bots and automated agents are not in place.”

All this means increased investment in identity security. More than 92 percent of identity and security professionals in North America are expecting identity security budgets to grow or remain stable, according to a new survey from ManageEngine. Over three-quarters of firms in this region are consolidating or evaluating how to unify their fragmented IAM solutions.

Delinea to acquire StrongDM, expanding real-time identity security

Identity security firm Delinea has signed a definitive agreement to acquire StrongDM, a company specializing in access management for engineering and AI-driven environments.

The deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026 pending regulatory review, will combine Delinea’s privileged access management (PAM) capabilities with StrongDM’s just-in-time (JIT) runtime authorization technology.

“As we move forward scaling agentic AI, choosing the right partner to secure AI agents from day one is critical,” says Stephen Davis, CISO at Hubbell Incorporated. “Bringing together Delinea and StrongDM will give us a unified way to monitor, authorize, and govern privileged access for IT teams, developers, and AI agents across on-prem and cloud environments — all in a single platform.”

The acquisition reflects rising demand for identity systems that can secure both human and non-human identities in real time across cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments. StrongDM’s technology enables authorization at the moment of action, supporting ephemeral access models and advancing the shift toward zero standing privilege (ZSP).

The combined platform aims to provide continuous monitoring and enforcement of least-privilege policies, reducing reliance on persistent credentials and addressing risks such as credential theft and supply chain attacks. It will also extend governance to autonomous AI agents, offering unified visibility and auditability for privileged actions taken by both humans and machines.

“Stolen or lost credentials remain the number one cause of breaches, which makes identity the core control layer for modern security,” says Art Gilliland, CEO of Delinea. “This acquisition will accelerate our evolution toward modern, ephemeral access models typical of cloud and AI-centric environments, empowering organizations to secure NHIs with the same rigor applied to human access.”

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

One Identity releases major upgrade to identity manager

One Identity has announced the release of Identity Manager 10.0, a significant update to its identity governance platform aimed at strengthening enterprise defenses against identity-driven threats.

The new version introduces risk-based governance features, identity threat detection and response (ITDR) playbooks, and AI-assisted reporting. These additions are designed to help organizations detect and respond to identity-related risks more quickly, while providing clearer visibility and stronger control across complex IT environments.

“Organizations today face relentless identity-driven threats,” says Praerit Garg, CEO of One Identity. “This release combines a proven governance foundation with intelligence, automation, and usability that help security teams detect risk earlier, take decisive action, and operate at scale with confidence.”

Key enhancements include integrations with third-party analytics tools to act on user risk scores, automated remediation actions such as disabling accounts and flagging incidents, and a modern browser-based interface that eliminates the need for desktop installation.

AI-assisted reporting allows administrators to query identity data in natural language, simplifying audits and compliance processes. Identity Manager 10.0 also improves compatibility with security monitoring platforms.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  cybersecurity  |  Delinea  |  digital identity  |  identity access management (IAM)  |  identity security  |  non-human identities  |  One Identity