Hush Security says the AI security problem has shifted from protecting models to governing identities as autonomous agents spread

Israeli cybersecurity startup Hush Security has announced a $30 million Series A funding round led by Battery Ventures and YL Ventures, with Akamai Technologies joining as a strategic investor. The company pivots from focusing on non-human identity security to tackling enterprise AI security challenges as autonomous agents spread.

CEO and co-founder Micha Rave emphasizes that the discussion around AI security has rapidly shifted toward identity management, noting that autonomous software agents require a different security model than traditional automation. Hush's platform, the "Identity Gateway," aims to govern AI agents by assigning each one a unique identity, controlling permissions at runtime, and maintaining centralized audit logs.

The company acknowledges that organizations may be running over 150,000 AI agents by 2028, up from fewer than 15 a year earlier, and that 96% of organizations rely on outdated governance models not designed for autonomous AI agents. Hush's identity-based system brokers short-lived, policy-driven access for machines, addressing the challenge of granting broad permissions to AI agents, which often leads to security vulnerabilities.