Webinar Description
Key Takeaways
- Examines seven critical vulnerabilities in Privileged Access Management through a Zero Trust lens
- Addresses AI-accelerated attack vectors targeting privileged credentials and access pathways
- Covers identity assurance for human users, machines, APIs, cloud workloads and autonomous agents
- Relevant to security professionals in IT, cloud, operational technology, finance, healthcare and critical infrastructure
- Led by Dr. Chase Cunningham, widely known as DrZeroTrust
Introduction
Privileged Access Management has become increasingly complex as organisations expand their digital footprints across cloud infrastructure, operational technology environments and AI-driven systems. The webinar “Odyssey: The Seven Monsters of PAM” addresses these evolving challenges by mapping common PAM vulnerabilities to a Zero Trust security framework. Designed for IT security professionals, CISOs, security architects and identity management teams, the session explores why traditional approaches to privileged access are proving inadequate against modern threat actors—particularly those leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate attacks.
About This Event
This virtual webinar draws on the narrative structure of Homer’s Odyssey to frame seven distinct gaps in contemporary PAM implementations. Each metaphorical “monster” represents a specific vulnerability that security teams must navigate: centralisation risk, false identity assurance, standing privilege, AI-driven attacks, expanding privileged identities, lateral movement and unbounded autonomy of agents. The session is led by Dr. Chase Cunningham, a recognised authority on Zero Trust architecture, and is sponsored by Xage Security with moderation from Future B2B.
The Seven PAM Vulnerabilities Under Examination
The webinar’s framework identifies centralisation risk as a foundational concern. Many PAM deployments create single points of failure where a breach of the central vault or management console can expose credentials across the entire environment. This architectural weakness runs counter to Zero Trust principles, which advocate for distributed trust verification and segmented access controls.
False identity assurance presents another significant challenge. Organisations often assume that authenticated users are who they claim to be, yet credential theft, session hijacking and compromised endpoints can undermine this assumption. The session explores how continuous verification—rather than one-time authentication—can strengthen identity assurance for users, devices and workloads alike.
Standing privilege remains one of the most persistent issues in access management. When administrators retain elevated permissions indefinitely, the attack surface expands unnecessarily. The webinar examines just-in-time access provisioning as an alternative, granting privileges only when needed and revoking them immediately afterward.
AI-Accelerated Threats and Non-Human Identities
Artificial intelligence has fundamentally altered the threat landscape for privileged access. Attackers now use AI to automate credential harvesting, identify vulnerable access pathways and execute attacks at speeds that outpace traditional detection mechanisms. The session addresses how security teams can adapt their PAM strategies to counter these accelerated threats.
Equally important is the proliferation of non-human privileged identities. Modern enterprises rely heavily on machine identities, service accounts, APIs and cloud workloads—all of which require privileged access to function. Autonomous AI agents add another layer of complexity, as these systems may operate with significant permissions but limited human oversight. The webinar explores how Zero Trust principles apply to these non-human actors, emphasising the need for bounded autonomy and granular access controls.
Preventing Lateral Movement Across Environments
Once an attacker gains initial access, lateral movement allows them to traverse the network, escalate privileges and reach high-value targets. Traditional perimeter-based security models struggle to contain this movement because they implicitly trust traffic within the network boundary. Zero Trust PAM addresses this by treating every access request as potentially hostile, regardless of its origin, and enforcing strict segmentation between IT, cloud and operational technology environments.
Who Should Attend
The webinar is designed for mid-level to executive security professionals responsible for identity and access management strategy. This includes CISOs, CIOs, security architects, cloud and infrastructure engineers, and product managers working in cybersecurity. Organisations operating in sectors with heightened security requirements—such as finance, healthcare, government and critical infrastructure—will find the content particularly relevant given the regulatory and operational pressures they face.
Industry Context
The convergence of IT and operational technology, accelerated cloud adoption and the rise of AI-powered systems have collectively expanded the scope of privileged access management. Security teams must now protect credentials and access pathways across environments that were historically siloed. Regulatory frameworks increasingly mandate robust access controls, while insurance providers scrutinise PAM implementations as part of cyber risk assessments. This webinar arrives at a moment when many organisations are re-evaluating their privileged access strategies to address these intersecting pressures.