Okta Buys Permiso Security to Tackle AI Identity Threats

Permiso co-founders Jason Martin and Paul Nguyen both framed the deal as a way to scale their technology. Martin said joining Okta means Permiso's work "reaches far more organizations than we could have on our own." Nguyen added that combining the two companies' capabilities will help security teams "gain deeper visibility into identity risks, respond faster to threats, and strengthen their overall security posture."

For Okta, the deal fills a specific gap. The company already offers identity posture management – tools to assess and improve security configurations. Permiso adds real-time threat detection and automated response, particularly around AI agent behavior. Okta plans to unify both functions into a single security offering.

The broader market for identity security is shifting as AI agents proliferate. Enterprises are moving beyond human-centric identity management to cover machine identities, service accounts and AI-driven workflows. Okta's move mirrors a trend across the cybersecurity industry: vendors are racing to build products that can monitor and respond to threats from non-human actors. The company's strategy positions it to serve as what McKinnon called the "unified control plane" for the secure agentic enterprise.

Kahn said Permiso's team brings deep threat research expertise that will advance Okta's detection and prevention capabilities. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions.