Palo Alto Networks has completed its acquisition of CyberArk, establishing Identity Security as a key component of its platform strategy. According to the firm, the addition of the CyberArk Identity Security Platform enables the company to secure human, machine, and agentic identities across the enterprise.

Identity security has become central to protecting modern enterprises. As organisations increase their use of cloud services, automation, and AI, identity has emerged as a primary attack path. Machine identities now outnumber human identities by more than 80 to 1, while 75% of organisations report that their human identities are governed by outdated or overly permissive privilege models, according to Palo Alto.

Credential abuse and excessive privilege have become leading threat vectors, according to the firm, with almost 90% of organisations experiencing identity-centric breaches.

“The emerging wave of AI agents will require us to secure every identity—human, machine, and agent,” said Nikesh Arora, Chairman and CEO of Palo Alto Networks.

“This is why we moved decisively by announcing our intent to acquire CyberArk last July and am excited to have product integration begin. For our customers, this means the end of ‘identity silos.’

They can now manage privileged access across their hybrid cloud environment from the same provider they use for network security and security operations—to ensure protection in the AI era.”

Expanding Privilege Security Controls

According to the firm, the acquisition allows Palo Alto Networks to extend privilege security controls beyond a limited set of administrators to all enterprise identities. By applying identity-driven security across human, machine, and AI accounts, organisations can reduce standing privileges, limit lateral movement, and respond to identity-based attacks more quickly.

According to Palo Alto Networks, companies implementing these controls can accelerate breach response by up to 80% by preventing attackers from exploiting credentials and excessive access.

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CyberArk’s Identity Security solutions will remain available as a standalone platform, while integration with Palo Alto Networks’ broader ecosystem is underway. Existing customers are expected to experience no disruption and – according to the company – will benefit from an accelerated roadmap focused on operational efficiency, resilience, and improved security outcomes.

“Joining forces with Palo Alto Networks creates a comprehensive security solution for modern enterprises,” said Matt Cohen, CEO of CyberArk.

“Our customers gain access to a broader portfolio of security technologies, and our employees join a larger innovation engine. Together, we are creating a stronger combination of capabilities to address identity-driven breaches.”