Securing Identity in the Age of AI: A Buyer’s Guide to Teleport – Teleport
As enterprises embrace AI, identity has become the defining security challenge. Every new database, Kubernetes cluster, SaaS app, and now every AI agent introduces yet another identity that must be governed and protected. At the same time, attackers are weaponizing AI to accelerate identity-based threats, exploiting fragmentation and credential sprawl to devastating effect.
For buyers evaluating how to secure modern infrastructure in this new landscape, the question is not whether identity is central to security — that debate is over. The question is how to unify and govern identity across both humans and AI systems without slowing down the pace of innovation.
This guide is designed for security leaders, engineering teams, and decision-makers exploring how Teleport addresses this challenge. You’ll find:
- A breakdown of the problem and why AI compounds existing risks
- Teleport’s approach to modern identity security
- How Teleport secures new frontiers like MCP and AI agents
- The risks you must consider as a buyer
- Evaluation criteria and a phased adoption roadmap
💡 The Takeaway
By the end of this guide, you’ll understand why Teleport is not just another access tool, but a unified identity platform built for the realities of AI-powered infrastructure.
Executive Overview
The AI Identity Challenge
Modern infrastructure has outpaced traditional identity security models. Scale, complexity, and fragmentation of identity are now the root causes of today’s security challenges. Every new silo of identity — databases, Kubernetes, SaaS apps, or AI agents — expands the attack surface. IT teams can’t keep up, so responsibility falls to engineering and infrastructure groups already under pressure to move faster.
AI only accelerates these challenges. On one hand, it lowers the cost of executing identity-based attacks. On the other hand, the rise of LLMs and agentic AI — autonomous systems that plan, act, and interact across tools — introduces a flood of unpredictable events and new classes of identities that legacy security tools cannot govern.
Teleport’s Answer: Cryptographic Identity
Teleport redefines identity for modern infrastructure. The Teleport Infrastructure Identity Platform implements trusted computing at scale, delivering unified cryptographic identities for humans, machines, workloads, endpoints, infrastructure assets, and AI agents.
Unlike fragmented point solutions, Teleport vertically integrates:
…into a single platform.
With Teleport, anonymous actors disappear. Every access request is tied to a cryptographic identity bound to a fingerprint, device, and short-lived certificate. Access is scoped to a single unit of work and expires as soon as that task is complete. Teleport calls this steady-state computing: when nothing is happening, no one has access.
The Final Outcome
The result is a consistent security foundation that scales with modern infrastructure and AI. Humans and agents alike are provisioned, governed, and audited under one model. Standing privileges vanish, policies remain consistent, and every action is attributable and accountable.
With this foundation in place, organizations can turn to two of the fastest-growing frontiers in enterprise security — MCP and AI agents.
Understanding MCP and AI Agents
As organizations embrace AI, new protocols and workflows emerge that require first-class governance. Teleport extends its identity-first approach into this evolving landscape.
MCP
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that connects large language models to enterprise resources and applications. In Teleport, MCP is treated no differently than SSH, Kubernetes, or databases — a protocol governed by the same identity-based, policy-driven controls.
By applying Secure MCP, organizations gain consistent access control and identity governance across humans and workloads. Every MCP privilege is:
- Short-lived
- Scoped to the task
- Fully auditable
Agentic AI
Agentic AI describes autonomous systems capable of chaining actions across APIs, databases, and internal tools. Today, many of these agents operate outside proper governance, often using static credentials or ad hoc integrations.
Teleport changes that model by treating agents as first-class identities. Each receives:
- Cryptographic certificates
- Task-scoped privileges
- Automatic expiration
This ensures AI agents cannot accumulate excessive privileges or persist beyond their intended unit of work.
Humans in the loop
Teleport preserves human oversight. By linking prompts to agent actions, every step an AI system takes is tied back to a human origin, creating a transparent audit trail that maintains accountability and policy alignment.
With MCP and agentic AI secured under one model, the next challenge is addressing the risks they bring.
Risks & Challenges
Every organization faces a dual set of risks: long-standing security weaknesses in infrastructure, and new AI-specific threats that compound them. Teleport addresses both.
General risks
1. Over-privileged access
Agents or users requesting broad access can wreak havoc. Teleport enforces least privilege through just-in-time, task-scoped access.
2. Credential sprawl
Passwords, SSH keys, and tokens remain the #1 attack vector. Teleport replaces them with short-lived cryptographic certificates.
3. Audit blindness
Fragmented logs obscure accountability. Teleport provides end-to-end monitoring and real-time alerts across the identity chain.
4. Human error
Misconfigurations, phishing, and mistakes remain common. Teleport removes the conditions that make errors exploitable by design.
AI-specific risks
AI introduces novel risks, which organizations must now factor into their security posture. In 2025, OWASP elevated AI/LLM security to Flagship Project status, identifying three top threats:
| OWASP Threat | What It Means | How Teleport Solves |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt Injection / Tool Description Poisoning | Hidden malicious instructions embedded in tool descriptions. | End-to-end identity chain monitoring, session recording, and least privilege bound by task. |
| Insecure Plugin Design | Weak plugins or static credentials expose back-end resources. | Secure MCP eliminates static credentials, enforcing cryptographic, short-lived identities. |
| Excessive Agency | Over-privileged AI agents chaining across APIs. | Agentic AI Identity provisions ephemeral, task-scoped certificates and just-in-time requests contextualized to intent. |
Teleport extends these protections further with MCP Catalog, a curated list of approved AI tools wrapped in identity governance and policy enforcement.
💡 The Takeaway
Together, these guardrails prevent AI from becoming an unmanaged silo, giving buyers the confidence that AI adoption won’t expand risk exposure.
Securing the Full Surface Area
Modern infrastructure demands security that spans every layer of interaction. Teleport’s principle is simple but powerful:
Treat every prompt, API call, and agent action as an identity event.
Here’s what this principle looks like in practice.
1. LLMs & users
Guardrails, dual attribution (human + model), and boundary controls guarantee accountability.
2. Agents & backend
Ephemeral, cryptographic IDs scoped by RBAC/ABAC provide traceability. Session recording and interactive controls offer full auditability.
3. Unified identity everywhere
From SSH to databases to APIs, Teleport enforces zero-trust, policy-driven access while eliminating shared secrets.
This unified approach makes identity the connective tissue for security across both classic infrastructure and AI-driven systems.
Buying Criteria
Choosing a security platform today requires forward-looking criteria that address both legacy infrastructure and the realities of AI.
Teleport delivers on the following:
✔ Unified cryptographic identity for humans, workloads, and AI agents.
✔ Just-in-time, task-scoped ephemeral certificates.
✔ One governance language spanning Zero Trust Access and Identity Governance.
✔ End-to-end, audit-grade accountability.
✔ Identity-based zero trust enforcement across all protocols.
✔ Shadow access detection and remediation.
✔ Cloud-agnostic integration across AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-prem.
These are not “nice-to-haves.” They are the baseline requirements for securing the future of identity.
Implementation Path
Modernizing identity doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Teleport recommends a phased approach:
1. Start in steady state
No one has access unless a change is occurring. All access is issued as short-lived certificates tied to specific work.
2. Deploy in phases
Replace VPNs and secrets with Zero Trust Access, then layer on Identity Governance, and finally expand into Identity Security.
3. Add AI incrementally
Treat MCP as just another protocol. Secure MCP, Agentic AI Identity, and MCP Catalog are natural first steps for AI infrastructure.
This path allows organizations to quickly eliminate risk while building toward long-term resilience.
Why Teleport for AI Security
Teleport is not just another access tool. It’s a new approach to identity security, adapted for modern infrastructure and AI.
- Eliminate secrets and standing privilege.
- Unify access and governance across humans, workloads, and AI.
- Expose and remediate hidden identity risks.
- Adopt steady-state computing: no access unless work is happening.
- Treat agents as first-class identities, not unmanaged silos.
By securing every identity — human or machine, static or dynamic, classic or AI — Teleport delivers the foundation organizations need to innovate confidently in the era of AI.
Learn more about Teleport for securing AI infrastructure and identity, or reach out to see how it works in person.
