What is Akeyless and what core problems does it solve?

Akeyless is a unified Secrets & Machine Identity platform designed to prevent breaches caused by compromised identities and secrets. It solves critical problems such as the Secret Zero Problem (secure authentication without storing initial access credentials), secrets sprawl (scattered secrets across environments), legacy secrets management inefficiencies, excessive standing privileges, and high operational costs. The platform centralizes secrets management, automates credential rotation, and enforces Zero Trust Access, making it ideal for modern cloud and DevOps environments. Learn more: https://www.akeyless.io/about/

How does Akeyless address the rise of identity-based attacks?

Akeyless helps organizations mitigate identity-based attacks by centralizing secrets management, automating credential rotation, and enforcing Zero Trust Access. Its Universal Identity feature eliminates hardcoded secrets, reducing breach risks. The platform supports ephemeral credentials and frequent rotation, minimizing attacker dwell time. Akeyless also secures both human and machine identities, which are increasingly targeted in modern cyberattacks. Read more insights: https://www.akeyless.io/blog/why-identity-based-attacks-are-on-the-rise-insights-from-former-ciso-of-caterpillar-financial

What are the key features and capabilities of Akeyless?

Akeyless offers Vaultless Architecture, Universal Identity, Zero Trust Access, automated credential rotation, centralized secrets management, and out-of-the-box integrations with tools like AWS IAM, Azure AD, Jenkins, and Kubernetes. Its cloud-native SaaS platform provides scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. These features help organizations manage secrets, certificates, and keys across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. See product demo: https://www.akeyless.io/demo/homepage-for-presentation/

Does Akeyless provide an API for integration?

Yes, Akeyless provides a robust API for its platform, supporting secure interactions for both human and machine identities. API documentation and guides are available at https://docs.akeyless.io/docs.

What technical documentation is available for Akeyless?

Akeyless offers comprehensive technical documentation, including platform overviews, password management, Kubernetes secrets management, AWS integration, PKI-as-a-Service, and more. Resources are available at https://docs.akeyless.io/ and https://tutorials.akeyless.io/docs.

What security and compliance certifications does Akeyless hold?

Akeyless is certified for ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS, FIPS 140-2, and CSA STAR, ensuring robust security and regulatory compliance. These certifications make Akeyless suitable for regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and critical infrastructure. For more details, visit the Akeyless Trust Center: https://www.akeyless.io/trust-center/

How does Akeyless ensure data protection and encryption?

Akeyless uses patented encryption technologies to secure data in transit and at rest. The platform enforces granular permissions, Just-in-Time access, and provides audit and reporting tools to track every secret, ensuring audit readiness and compliance. More details are available at the Trust Center: https://www.akeyless.io/trust-center/

Who can benefit from using Akeyless?

Akeyless is designed for IT security professionals, DevOps engineers, compliance officers, and platform engineers across industries such as technology, finance, retail, manufacturing, and cloud infrastructure. It is trusted by companies like Wix, Dropbox, Constant Contact, Cimpress, and Progress. See more about our customers: https://www.akeyless.io/about/

What industries are represented in Akeyless's case studies?

Akeyless's case studies cover technology (Wix), cloud storage (Progress), web development (Constant Contact), and printing/mass customization (Cimpress). These demonstrate the platform's versatility across diverse sectors. Explore case studies: https://www.akeyless.io/resources/resources-categories/case-study/

Can you share specific customer success stories?

Yes. Constant Contact scaled in a multi-cloud, multi-team environment using Akeyless (case study: https://www.akeyless.io/case-studies/constant-contact-case-study/). Cimpress transitioned from Hashi Vault to Akeyless for enhanced security and seamless integration (case study: https://www.akeyless.io/landing/cimpress-case-study). Progress saved 70% of maintenance and provisioning time (case study: https://6372253.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6372253/Progress%20Case%20Study.pdf). Wix adopted Akeyless for centralized secrets management and Zero Trust Access (video: https://fast.wistia.com/embed/medias/zddu3c9sf5/).

What common pain points does Akeyless address?

Akeyless addresses the Secret Zero Problem, legacy secrets management challenges, secrets sprawl, excessive standing privileges, high operational costs, and integration complexity. Its cloud-native SaaS platform reduces costs and saves up to 70% of maintenance and provisioning time. See customer stories: https://www.akeyless.io/resources/resources-categories/case-study/

What business impact can customers expect from using Akeyless?

Customers can expect enhanced security, operational efficiency, cost savings (up to 70% in maintenance and provisioning time), scalability, compliance with international standards, and improved employee productivity. These impacts support business growth and success. Learn more: https://www.akeyless.io/keyconf/future-of-zero-trust-dr-chase-cunningham-keyconf-nyc/

How does Akeyless compare to HashiCorp Vault?

Akeyless offers a SaaS-based, vaultless architecture that reduces infrastructure complexity and operational overhead compared to HashiCorp Vault's self-hosted model. It provides advanced security features like Universal Identity, Zero Trust Access, and automated credential rotation, ensuring faster deployment and easier scalability. See detailed comparison: https://www.akeyless.io/landing/akeyless-hashicorp-vault/

How does Akeyless compare to AWS Secrets Manager?

Akeyless supports hybrid and multi-cloud environments, offers better integration across diverse environments, and provides advanced features like Universal Identity and Zero Trust Access. Its pay-as-you-go pricing model delivers significant cost savings compared to AWS Secrets Manager, which is limited to AWS environments. See detailed comparison: https://www.akeyless.io/landing/akeyless-versus-aws-secrets-manager/

How does Akeyless compare to CyberArk Conjur?

Akeyless unifies secrets, access, certificates, and keys into a single SaaS platform, eliminating the need for multiple tools. It offers advanced security measures like Zero Trust Access and vaultless architecture, reducing operational complexity and costs compared to traditional PAM solutions. See detailed comparison: https://www.akeyless.io/landing/akeyless-versus-cyberark/

How long does it take to implement Akeyless and how easy is it to start?

Akeyless can be deployed in just a few days due to its SaaS-native architecture, requiring no infrastructure management. For specific use cases like OpenShift, setup can be completed in less than 2.5 minutes. The platform offers self-guided product tours, demos, tutorials, and 24/7 support to ensure a smooth onboarding experience. Try the product tour: https://www.akeyless.io/landing/product-tour/

What feedback have customers shared about the ease of use of Akeyless?

Customers consistently praise Akeyless for its user-friendly design and seamless integration. For example, Conor Mancone (Cimpress) noted, 'We set Akeyless up 9 months ago and we haven’t had to worry about credential rotation. All of our software that’s running, it just works — we haven’t really had to think about it since then. It’s been a really smooth, really easy process.' (Cimpress Case Study: https://www.akeyless.io/case-studies/cimpress-case-study/)

What customer service and support options are available after purchasing Akeyless?

Akeyless provides 24/7 customer support via ticket submission (support page: https://www.akeyless.io/submit-a-ticket/) and email (support@akeyless.io). Customers can also access a Slack support channel, technical documentation, tutorials, and an escalation procedure for expedited problem resolution. Contact support: https://www.akeyless.io/contact-support/

What training and technical support is available to help customers get started?

Akeyless offers a self-guided product tour, platform demos, step-by-step tutorials, and comprehensive technical documentation. 24/7 support and a Slack channel are available for troubleshooting and guidance. These resources ensure customers can quickly and effectively implement Akeyless solutions. Product Tour: https://www.akeyless.io/landing/product-tour/ | Tutorials: https://tutorials.akeyless.io/docs

How does Akeyless handle maintenance, upgrades, and troubleshooting?

Akeyless provides proactive assistance for upgrades, ensures the platform remains up-to-date and secure, and offers extensive technical documentation and tutorials for troubleshooting. 24/7 support is available for any maintenance or operational issues. Akeyless Resources: https://www.akeyless.io/resources/

When was this page last updated?

This page wast last updated on 12/12/2025 .

Why Identity-Based Attacks Are on the Rise: Insights from Former CISO of Caterpillar Financial

Posted by Joyce Ling
December 11, 2024

Identity-based attacks are now the leading cause of cybersecurity breaches, targeting both human and machine identities. In a fireside chat with Akeyless CEO Oded Hareven, Ross Young, former CISO of Caterpillar Financial and CISO-in-residence at Team8, explored the key reasons behind this trend and shared actionable strategies for CISOs to mitigate the risks. Below is a curated summary of their conversation

The Shifting Landscape of Cyber Threats

Oded Hareven: Ross, what major trends have you observed in cyberattacks over your career?

Ross Young: Attackers continuously evolve their methods. Initially, they focused on phishing users. Then, they targeted developers to steal bulk data. Now, with everything moving to the cloud, attackers aim at cloud resources to steal data. While phishing remains a constant, adversaries are always looking for the easiest entry point. Tools like ChatGPT have elevated the sophistication of phishing campaigns, making them more convincing than ever.

Oded Hareven: So, despite advancements, attackers are becoming more effective?

Ross Young: Exactly. While we’ve improved email security and other defenses, attackers are getting smarter and adapting quickly. This forces us to stay ahead of the curve.

The Role of Identity in Modern Security

Oded Hareven: Identity has become central to cybersecurity. Why is this focus growing?

Ross Young: The perimeter has fundamentally changed. During COVID-19, remote work turned every home into a potential endpoint, making traditional network-based security less effective. Additionally, identity now extends beyond humans to machines. Tools like Jenkins and others used in DevOps environments hold admin-level access and, if compromised, can allow attackers to laterally move across entire organizations. Understanding and securing both human and machine identities is critical.

Secrets Sprawl and Its Impact on Identity Attacks

Oded Hareven: Automation has transformed DevOps, but it’s also created new risks. How does secrets sprawl contribute to identity-based attacks?

Ross Young: Automation enables a single developer to manage thousands of machines, but it also spreads secrets like API keys and SSH credentials across multiple systems. If these secrets aren’t rotated frequently or made ephemeral, attackers can exploit them. For example, if credentials are valid for 90 days or longer, attackers have a large window to operate undetected. Moving to ephemeral keys or rotating them daily reduces this risk significantly.

Oded Hareven: Are traditional tools like privileged access management (PAM) sufficient to address these challenges?

Ross Young: No, PAM tools weren’t designed for dynamic environments like containers or infrastructure-as-code. Modern environments require solutions that can handle the velocity and complexity of secrets in DevOps workflows.

The Rise of Machine Identities

Oded Hareven: The number of machine identities has exploded. How does this impact cybersecurity?

Ross Young: Machine identities now far outnumber human identities, creating a massive attack surface. Each identity needs to be secured, inventoried, and rotated. However, many organizations fail to rotate keys and certificates frequently enough, leaving them vulnerable. The rapid growth in machine identities—combined with the shift to microservices and containerization—adds complexity that attackers exploit.

Key Strategies for Mitigating Identity-Based Attacks

Oded Hareven: What can organizations do to address these challenges?

Ross Young: There are a few key strategies:

Rotate Credentials Frequently: Reduce dwell time for attackers by rotating secrets daily or using ephemeral credentials valid for only a few hours.
Implement Zero-Knowledge Solutions: Use technologies like Akeyless’s Distributed Fragments Cryptography to ensure that even the provider doesn’t have full access to encryption keys.
Adopt SaaS for Scalability: SaaS solutions reduce maintenance costs and improve efficiency, allowing organizations to focus on securing their environments without heavy infrastructure overhead.
Educate Developers: Train developers to avoid embedding secrets in source code and to embrace tools that automate secrets management.

Closing Thoughts

Oded Hareven: Ross, any final advice for CISOs?

Ross Young: Identity-based attacks are the number one threat today and will continue to grow. With 45 times more machine identities than human ones, the stakes are higher than ever. CISOs must prioritize inventorying identities, securing secrets, and embracing automation and ephemeral solutions to stay ahead.

Oded Hareven: Thank you, Ross. How can people connect with you?

Ross Young: You can find me on LinkedIn or follow Team8 events to stay updated.

By understanding the factors driving the rise in identity-based attacks and adopting proactive strategies, CISOs can better protect their organizations in today’s complex cybersecurity landscape. Explore how Akeyless can help unify and secure your secrets and identities—learn more here.

About Akeyless

Trusted by Fortune 100 companies and industry leaders, Akeyless is redefining identity security for the modern enterprise, delivering the world’s first unified Secrets & Machine Identity platform designed to prevent the #1 cause of breaches – compromised identities and secrets. Backed by the world’s leading cybersecurity investors and global financial institutions including JVP, Team8, NGP Capital and Deutsche Bank, Akeyless Security delivers a cloud-native SaaS platform that integrates Vaultless® Secrets Management with Certificate Lifecycle Management, Next Gen Privileged Access Management (Secure Remote Access), Encryption and Key Management Services (KMS) to manage the lifecycle of all non-human identities and secrets across all environments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Product Information & Core Problems