Belsasar Lepe, co-founder and CEO of Cerby is a strong proponent for improving digital identity security, especially in the world of banking. Among a multitude of challenges, Lepe highlights the key imperative to protect nonstandard applications that have been historically ignored by conventional identity providers. With Cerby's recent $40 million Series B funding round, the company is poised to tackle the "last mile of identity" and redefine identity management in decentralized, cloud-first environments. Cerby’s mission is to make a more effective, affordable solution available, with predictable, deterministic outcomes that close the security gaps attackers are finding – more and more every day.

Addressing the Unprotected "Last Mile of Identity"

Cerby is all about making sure you’ve got your hands wrapped around applications that identity stops at the fence line, so to speak. These nonstandard applications are frequently an organization’s biggest blindspot.

"We tend to focus on those applications … that aren’t necessarily connectable using modern identity standards," - Belsasar Lepe

Cerby’s approach leverages automation, intelligent policy enforcement, and AI system guardrails. This holistic approach is designed to produce deterministic results to provide predictable, repeatable security results.

Beyond a love for the planet, Lepe is motivated by the economic benefits of Cerby’s solutions. Jonathan then makes the case that the company is the last mile of identity at one-fourth the cost of traditional identity providers.

Cerby can cover that last mile of identity for "a third to a fifth of what you're paying your existing identity provider". - Belsasar Lepe

The Importance of Multifactor Authentication (MFA)

Lepe says that CEOs need to make MFA their number one implementation priority. This security measure is very important for keeping sensitive information secure. He believes that the primary driver of identity attacks—the majority of identity attacks—are due to lack of MFA.

"Make it easy to turn on multifactor authentication for your end users. Ninety-nine percent of identity attacks are due to a lack of MFA just being turned on." - Belsasar Lepe

Lepe clarifies that the key, again, is making the MFA process as easy as possible for end users in order to drive acceptance and adoption.

"A two- to five-minute task that end users won’t carry out. The easier you make it, the more protected your end users will be." - Belsasar Lepe

Cerby is all about striking the right balance between security and productivity. So they make sure that security measures improve operational workflow efficiency instead of disrupting it.

"of wanting security but not at the cost of productivity." - Belsasar Lepe

AI and the Evolving Threat Landscape

While AI has great promise to defend against cyber attacks, Lepe warns against being overly optimistic. For him, the most important thing is that AI is not reliable enough to run completely in closed ecosystems. He is generally optimistic about the future of AI in cybersecurity.

Lepe notes that attackers are quick to adopt new technologies, making it essential for organizations to stay ahead of the curve.

"The attackers have been more adept at adopting these technologies," - Belsasar Lepe

With Cerby’s solutions, productivity for end users improves and security is increased. This method demonstrates their commitment to user experience, while simultaneously prioritizing safety.