Volume 343, Issue 2 · 7 articles from 2 issues
Okta Threat Intelligence describes how social engineers trick users into dropping phishing-resistant MFA for factors that can be phished.
Okta Threat Intelligence warns that enrolling users in strong authenticators is only part of achieving phishing resistance, because skilled phone-based social engineers target the weakest method on an account.
Okta regularly sees attackers persuade users to swap a phishing-resistant sign-in method for one that can be phished, a technique called MFA downgrade, since phishing-resistant methods cannot authenticate to lookalike domains.
The post shares examples, explains why these authenticators leave no shared secret to steal, and advises requiring phishing-resistant factors only while disabling the ability to switch to weaker ones.
Okta explains Agent Gateway, which checks every AI agent-to-tool call against identity policy and is now generally available.
Okta's Agent Gateway, the runtime enforcement layer in Okta for AI Agents, is now generally available.
Wherever an agent calls an external MCP server, it validates each request against identity policy using RFC 8693 token exchange, isolates credentials at the moment of action and requires credentials naming both the agent and the human user to prevent confused deputy attacks.
Okta for AI Agents surrounds the gateway with agent discovery, registration as first-class identities, access workflows, certification campaigns and cross-system audit correlation.
Okta Threat Intelligence argues AI accelerates familiar identity attacks like phishing, so security fundamentals matter more than ever.
Okta's VP of Threat Intelligence argues that frontline data does not support the narrative of AI agent swarms inventing new attacks, since attackers mainly use AI to speed up and scale known methods such as phishing.
Because the conditions for initial access have not fundamentally changed, controls that stop human-led attacks still work, and the post recommends reducing attack surface and governing internal AI use.
It cites Niels Provos's concept of security invariants, such as hardware second factors, egress restrictions and app allowlisting, which his analysis says could prevent up to 65% of recorded breaches.
The Yubico-Okta 2026 Global State of Authentication report finds login friction and legacy defaults, not lack of knowledge, hold back security.
The 2026 Global State of Authentication, a joint Yubico and Okta report surveying nearly 2,000 technology and security professionals in nine countries, found 88% of security leaders confident in their security posture.
Yet while 87% of security pros are familiar with passkeys, 43% still log in to work with passwords and 52% received a username and password when they started their role.
With 76% of organizations using fragmented authentication methods across internal apps, the report suggests organizations are trying to solve an architectural problem with training as authentication fatigue pushes people toward the easiest path.
Okta shares how customers like Vimeo and Foursquare use no-code Okta Workflows to automate identity tasks.
Okta Workflows is a no-code identity automation feature that replaces custom scripts with event-driven, drag-and-drop flows for onboarding, offboarding and license provisioning.
Vimeo says it saves more than 1,000 hours and $45,000 a year after automating a 20-plus-step manual offboarding checklist, and Foursquare migrated 250 devices in nine days.
The customer metrics come from Flowcase 2025 at Oktane.
Okta outlines an identity-first Zero Trust strategy for government agencies facing credential, token and AI agent attacks.
Okta says public sector threats have shifted from software exploits to identity-based compromises targeting credentials, stolen session tokens and ungoverned AI agents.
With digital citizen services and hybrid workforces, static network perimeters no longer suffice and identity has become the critical perimeter.
Okta recommends an identity-first Zero Trust strategy built on four pillars: phishing-resistant MFA, non-human identity governance, continuous adaptive risk evaluation and unified IAM, IGA and PAM.
Okta Integration Builder is now GA, letting IT teams build custom provisioning and logout integrations for non-SCIM apps.
Okta Integration Builder, a low-code tool, is now generally available to all Okta Workflows customers, letting IT and identity teams create custom provisioning, entitlement and Universal Logout integrations for applications that don't support SCIM.
The tool expands on the original Workflows Connector Builder by letting Okta services invoke custom API actions directly.
Okta says this removes the need for custom engineering or vendor support.