Passwordless Security in the Age of AI: A Conversation with Slavik Markovich, CEO of Descope

Passwordless Security in the Age of AI: A Conversation with Slavik Markovich, CEO of Descope

Cybersecurity is once again at a critical crossroads—this time, driven by the explosive growth of AI technologies. During a recent visit to Descope’s Palo Alto office, I sat down with CEO Slavik Markovich, a veteran in the cybersecurity space whose past ventures, Demisto (acquired by Palo Alto Networks) and Sentrigo (acquired by McAfee), shaped much of the modern security landscape. Our conversation centered around how AI is radically reshaping digital identity.


Slavik and his team—collaborators for nearly three decades—launched Descope with a bold mission: eliminate passwords altogether. “Passwords are the worst of both worlds,” he noted, “hard for humans to remember and easy for computers to crack.” As AI supercharges phishing and other attack vectors, traditional passwords only grow more inadequate.


Instead, Slavik advocates for passkeys—phishing-resistant, cryptographic keys stored locally and authenticated via biometrics, without ever exposing the biometric data. It's a fundamentally more secure and seamless approach to authentication.


Descope’s innovation doesn’t stop there. As AI evolves into “agentic” form—digital agents acting on behalf of users—the company is tackling a new security frontier. These agents don’t fit neatly into existing models of user authentication or machine-to-machine trust. “The industry is shifting toward agentic AI,” Slavik explained, “and that’s expanding the scale and complexity of identity management.”


One surprisingly common challenge they’re solving is the "confused agent problem," where digital agents unintentionally act with higher privileges than intended. Descope positions itself as the intermediary—managing progressive authorization, mediating between users, agents, and applications, and ensuring secure, compliant interactions.


For CISOs and enterprise leaders, this shift presents both urgency and opportunity. AI is no longer an emerging edge case—it’s embedded in tools and workflows across organizations. Security teams must act swiftly to secure agent-driven interactions and identity touchpoints or risk falling behind.


At Clarity, where I focus on AI-powered threats like deepfakes and next-gen phishing, I see firsthand how vital identity management has become. It’s no longer just a login issue—it’s the first and most critical line of defense. Security solutions must be both robust and frictionless, balancing user experience with airtight protection.


Slavik also shared a personal insight that stood out to me: “We prioritize having fun. We’ve built multiple companies together because we genuinely enjoy the journey.” That mindset resonates. The best cybersecurity innovations come from passionate teams that love solving hard problems, not just building defenses.


The identity revolution is already underway. Organizations that embrace passwordless, agent-aware authentication now will dramatically improve both their security and user experience. Those that delay will face rising vulnerabilities and growing user frustration.


Our industry isn’t just evolving—it’s undergoing a full-scale transformation. Proactively embracing agentic AI, passkeys, and adaptive identity strategies is not just smart—it’s essential. Those who lead will define the future of digital trust. Those who don’t may find themselves struggling to catch up in a threat landscape redefined by AI.

Avsnitt(1170)

Ep222: Lilia Shirman | CEO of The Shirman Group

Ep222: Lilia Shirman | CEO of The Shirman Group

Lilia is a CEO, Author, Investor, and Board Advisor who drives revenue and shareholder value growth for B2B tech companies. As CEO of The Shirman Group, she has shaped Go-to-Market strategies that generated tens of millions in revenue for VMware, EMC, Amazon, Oracle, and others. She was a turnaround CMO at MariaDB, and led solutions marketing and strategic alliances at BEA. Her current focus is on the enterprise AI and data activation markets. Lilia literally wrote the book on customer-relevant go-to-market, 42 Rules for Growing Enterprise Revenue, She holds a BS from UC Berkeley and an MSE from Stanford so gets to cheer when anyone scores at the Big Game.

3 Jan 202121min

Ep233: Minette Norman | Vice President, Engineering Practice, Autodesk

Ep233: Minette Norman | Vice President, Engineering Practice, Autodesk

Minette brings decades of leadership experience in the software industry to her consulting business, which is focused on developing transformational leaders who create inclusive working environments. She was recently Vice President of Engineering Practice at Autodesk, where she transformed how Autodesk developed software. Responsible for influencing more than 3,500 engineers around the globe, she focused on state-of-the-art engineering practices while nurturing a collaborative and inclusive culture.

3 Jan 202121min

Ep220: Yali Saar | Co-Founder and CEO of Tailor Brands

Ep220: Yali Saar | Co-Founder and CEO of Tailor Brands

Yali is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tailor Brands, an AI driven branding platform that helps 21M businesses launch and run their businesses with easy-to-use branding and design tools. Before starting Tailor Brands, Yali founded and was the chief creative officer for Raising the Bar, a worldwide educational initiative helping people to acquire education in New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and more. Yali is a Forbes 30Under30 alumni, a former agency creative, journalist and spokesperson whose work has been covered by Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, The Guardian and the Harvard Business Review.

3 Jan 202123min

Ep236: Yair Livne | Former VP Product of Quora

Ep236: Yair Livne | Former VP Product of Quora

Yair is the former VP Product at Quora where he led the product org for four years, overseeing internationalizing the product into ~30 languages, the launch of Quora Spaces, and the launch of Quora's ads platform. Before heading product management, Yair co-founded and led the company's data science team. Prior to his run at Quora, Yair attained a Ph.D. from Stanford GSB where he was doing research into network theory, matching markets, and protests in authoritarian regimes. Yair is now looking into starting his own venture.

3 Jan 202119min

Ep231: Jennifer Gross | CEO, American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Ep231: Jennifer Gross | CEO, American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Jennifer is the CEO of American Friends of Tel Aviv University. She was previously Vice President of UJA-Federation of New York, overseeing its Affinity Campaign, which raised over $78 million annually. .Before joining UJA professionally in 2014, she was a principal and managing director at Archview Investment Group, an event-driven credit opportunity hedge fund seeded by Blackstone. She is a chair of AIPAC’s Women’s Division, a member and past chair of Hadassah’s Investment Group, and a board member of the Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach, Meir Panim, and Northwestern University Hillel.

3 Jan 202119min

Ep213: Noa Ohayon Bab | Future of Work Expert and Community Builder

Ep213: Noa Ohayon Bab | Future of Work Expert and Community Builder

Noa is a Brand Marketing Specialist, an expert in the Future Of Work, and a Community Builder. Currently, she is the Head of the Israeli Delegation Washington DC, and until recently she was Head of Employer Brand & Internal Communication at eBay.  Previously she co-founded a leading Job Search platform in Israel (over 90K followers and 250K monthly reach). Noa is a popular speaker at conferences and events, as well as a sought after professional advisor and mentor for several startups and institutes in said fields. She graduated from executive programs from MIT and Princeton University.

3 Jan 202121min

Ep225: Gil Tayar | Senior Architect at Applitools

Ep225: Gil Tayar | Senior Architect at Applitools

From the olden days of DOS, Gil was, is, and always will be a software dev. He has co-founded WebCollage and designed cloudy projects at Wix. His current passion is figuring out how to test software as the Senior Architect at Applitools.

3 Jan 202123min

Ep235: Ilana Golan | Founder and CEO, CareerLeap

Ep235: Ilana Golan | Founder and CEO, CareerLeap

Ilana Golan is a well-known growth strategist in Silicon Valley helping individuals & businesses grow. Selected top 40 women to watch in 2016, Business Insider Silicon Valley Women of influence in 2017, and CEO World Award 2020. Entrepreneur turned tech investor, Forbes Contributor & Public Speaker. Ilana is the inventor of CareerLeap, the program, and network that has been transforming countless careers and lives. She is also Board Director and General Partner at Homrun, a network-based venture, accelerating the growth of Israeli companies in North America.

3 Jan 202119min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

badfluence
framgangspodden
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
uppgang-och-fall
rss-svart-marknad
bathina-en-podcast
rss-borsens-finest
24fragor
lastbilspodden
svd-tech-brief
avanzapodden
dynastin
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
fill-or-kill
affarsvarlden
rss-dagen-med-di
borsmorgon
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
tabberaset