Identity Decoded | The Identity Security Podcast
Identity Decoded is a podcast that explores the intersection of identity and security, featuring honest conversations with industry leaders. Hosted by Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough, it covers topics like incident response, AD tech debt, and least privilege. Produced by Silverfort, new episodes are released every two weeks.
Episodes
Trend or Trendy? An Analyst on Untangling Identity Security Category Sprawl
In this episode of Identity Decoded, recorded at Identiverse, hosts Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough flip the usual format with Simon Moffat, founder of analyst firm The Cyber Hut and a 20-plus year veteran of identity vendors including ForgeRock and Oracle. Simon argues that identity's traditional pillars — IGA, PAM, access management — were built for a linear, on-premises world, and they're now col
Identity Security on the Frontlines: How McDonald’s Built a Scalable Strategy
In this episode of Identity Decoded, recorded live at Identiverse, hosts Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough sit down with George Roberts, Principal Architect for Identity and Access at McDonald's, to talk about Identity Security at a scale few practitioners ever encounter. George manages 2.2 million workforce identities across 95 markets worldwide. The conversation covers how McDonald's built a single
How Ransomware Groups Run the Cartel Playbook: Inside the DEA with Aaron Turner
In episode two of this two-part series of Identity Decoded, hosts Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough continue their conversation with Aaron Turner — this time tracing a surprising parallel between drug cartels and ransomware groups. Aaron was assigned to the US Department of Justice after 9/11 and spent 18 months working with DEA Special Operations Division under Steve Murphy and Javier Peña — the real
Inside Active Directory's Origin Story: Aaron Turner on Microsoft's "Kill Novell" Mission
In episode one of this two-part series of Identity Decoded, hosts Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough sit down with Aaron Turner, who spent eight years at Microsoft during the founding of Active Directory — starting as a support engineer and later working on Active Directory, SQL Server, Windows Mobile, and Xbox Live. Aaron takes listeners back to the mid-'90s mindset that shaped Active Directory's desi
Winning in securing agentic identity: Start with one team, one use case
In this episode of Identity Decoded, recorded live from Identiverse, hosts Roy and Rob sit down with Sean O'Dell to unpack one of the most talked-about — and least understood — challenges in Identity Security today: agentic identity. Sean shares how his background across healthcare, entertainment (including a stint reverse-engineering an authorization system at The Walt Disney Company), and engine
The Four Ps and a Balance Sheet: Why Eve Maler Says Identity Needs a Product Mindset
Eve Maler co-invented SAML, served as CTO of ForgeRock, and spent years as a Forrester security and risk analyst before founding Venn Factory, where she helps executive teams turn identity from hidden plumbing into a business advantage. Recorded live at Identiverse, this episode of Identity Decoded finds Eve joining Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough to unpack the ideas behind her new book, Mastering D
Beyond the vault: Why AI agents force us to rethink Privileged Access Management (PAM)
Rohit Agnihotri has spent nearly two decades helping organizations rethink identity, building and leading IAM programs and advising executives on strategy. He's also the founder and host of the widely listened to Identity Navigator podcast. In this episode of Identity Decoded, he joins Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough to make the case that traditional, vaulting-first privileged access management is d
Attackers are only as powerful as their permissions: Identity Security lessons from inside Mandiant
Episode Summary:
Chris Linklater from Mandiant has spent his career helping organizations respond to cyber incidents, recover from breaches, and strengthen their security foundations. In this episode of Identity Decoded, he joins Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough to unpack why identity has become one of the most common paths attackers use to gain access, move laterally, and exfiltrate data. Drawing f
From IT support to security's core: General Motors' identity story
Andrew Cameron has over two decades at General Motors watching identity evolve from an IT function to the core of enterprise security. In this episode, he shares about that journey and explains why GM now treats identity as the control plane across an incredibly complex environment that includes factories, legacy OT systems, and robots on the plant floor. Andrew gets into the real tension between
What happens when a well-intentioned AI agent goes rogue ft. Susanne Senoff
Is “identity is the new perimeter” more of a marketing slogan than a real security strategy? In this episode, Roy Akerman and Rob Ainscough sit down with Susanne Senoff from Conga to discuss how AI agents are starting to behave more like threat actors, and why traditional ideas like “perimeter” and “zero trust” are becoming harder to define. Susanne shares firsthand experience, including an AI age
Mythos, AI-powered attacks and the security reckoning ft. Sree Ashokkumar
Mythos changed the rules of security. Again.
In this episode, Roy and Rob sit down with Sree Ashokkumar, VP of Cybersecurity at Interactive Brokers, to talk about what happens when frontier AI models like Mythos start exposing foundational weaknesses in identity and collapsing the security controls we've relied on for years.
Mythos has quickly become one of the biggest conversations in cybersecu
