The New Stack Podcast Cracking the Complexity: Teleport CEO Pushes Identity-First Security
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Jun 18, 2025 Ev Kontsevoy, CEO of Teleport, discusses the evolving landscape of infrastructure security from KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe. He highlights alarming cybersecurity statistics, like the $5 million average breach cost, emphasizing that complexity fuels vulnerabilities. Kontsevoy advocates for an identity-first approach, treating humans, devices, and AI as unified identities for better security. He also shares insights on Teleport’s zero trust platform and future plans for supporting AI protocols, illustrating the dual role of AI in both cybersecurity threats and solutions.
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Trustworthiness Requires Identity
- Infrastructure is not trustworthy due to anonymity and complexity despite being made of trustworthy devices.
- Adding an identity layer creates a secure, trustworthy environment with higher engineering productivity.
Complexity Breeds Security Risks
- Complexity in infrastructure leads to fragmented policies and identities, causing human errors.
- Attackers exploit these errors, making complexity the root challenge in access governance.
Mistakes from No Environment Identity
- Engineers often accidentally delete production data mistaking it for staging.
- This arises because environments lack distinct identities, relying only on conventions.