CrowdStrike launches identity provider for AI agents

The Agentic Identity Provider builds on CrowdStrike's Continuous Identity system, announced in June and based on the $740 million acquisition of SGNL Inc. Continuous Identity decides whether an agent should be allowed to do something at a given moment; the new provider handles the earlier step of defining what the agent actually is. Most companies currently substitute service accounts and API keys for agent identity, which the announcement implies is inadequate.

The launch coincides with a broader push CrowdStrike calls the next evolution of its Agentic SOC. This approach coordinates investigations across endpoint, identity, SaaS, cloud and network simultaneously, reflecting how agents now move compared with the sequential attacks security teams previously chased. "Defending AI with AI at machine speed means you have to get visibility and look cross-domain and act on that simultaneously," Johnson said.

The human identity angle adds context. Johnson recounted a CISO saying the identity problem was never solved for humans, and she framed agent identity as a potential starting point that could later be reverse-engineered back to human identity.