Our key takeaways from Impact 24

On the 6th of June 2024, Stefan Jacobs, Jelle Verreth, Jorge Feitosa and Jeffrey Van Vyve, attended the CyberArk Impact World Tour in Hilversum. As ActWise we did not only participate, we were also a proud sponsor of this unique event. An event featuring a lot of interesting talks, keynotes, and even an opening show with two dancing robots. 🤖🤖 During the event we noticed a few key topics that we would like to share with you.

Let’s dive into the four major highlights from the event to ensure you didn’t miss a thing:

1. CyberArk's Acquisition of Venafi

One of the most interesting announcements was CyberArk’s acquisition of Venafi. This acquisition, still awaiting approval, promises to enhance CyberArk’s offerings in Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and certification management.

Venafi, headquartered in Salt Lake City, fills a gap in CyberArk’s portfolio. At ActWise, we’re already in contact with the experts of Venafi for in-depth knowledge sessions, and we’re super eager to see how this integration will evolve into the CyberArk stack. Keep an eye on our website and LinkedIn Profile for more updates as this story develops.

Vanafi explained:

The solution of Venafi is specialized in protecting and managing digital keys and certificates, which are crucial for secure communications on the internet between different websites, applications, endpoints, …

Imagine these keys and certificates as a sort of passport. As a person you need a passport to travel internationally to prove that you are who you say you are. Just like websites and other digital applications use these ‘digital keys and certificates’ to prove their identity. Venafi helps companies ensure these digital keys are managed the way they should. This prevents unauthorized access and keeps communications safe from cyber threats.

2. Secret Management

Another hot topic at CyberArk Impact was secret management, showing us the importance of managing machine identities, which outnumber human identities by 40 times! During the last few years we noticed a shift from on-prem to cloud (SaaS), this shift makes “secrets” and “the management of these secrets” in the cloud very crucial. 

During the event they highlighted application-to-application communication and the vital role of security in DevOps. The opening dance with robots underlined the significance of robots and processing in modern security.

Secrets management explained: CyberArk Secrets Management enables organizations to centrally secure and manage secrets and machine identities used by the broadest range of applications, cloud workloads, DevOps tools and even third party software.

3. CyberArk EPM - Endpoint Protection

CyberArk’s Endpoint Privilege Manager (EPM) continues to grow and evolve, and draws a lot of attention to the protection of laptops (Windows, Mac, Linux) while enforcing least privilege access with strong authentication methods. 

The importance of endpoint security was a major talking point, considering endpoints are often the starting point of security risks trough phishing and social engineering. With traditional antivirus and EDR/XDR solutions as a baseline, CyberArk’s ability to move towards a zero-trust model is a necessary next step in endpoint protection.

More insights about the power of EPM can be found in this interesting insight written by CyberArk expert Martijn Coudyzer – Click here

4. AI Integration

AI was a short topic in the session of Udi Mokady, the Founder and Executive Chairman of CyberArk. He highlighted the role of AI in aiding experts with integrations and various other creative processes within the CyberArk stack.

While AI wasn’t the buzzword during CyberArk Impact, its emerging presence in CyberArk’s solutions shows us the growing importance of the technology. This was somewhat refreshing and gave us the chance to look into other developments, which then could be thoroughly discussed, providing a balanced perspective on future innovations. But more about AI is definitely to come!

Our Personal experience?

CyberArk Impact 24 Hilverum was not only a very informative event, it was a fun experience overall. The CyberArk team outdid themselves with cool stuff, amazing decorations and the food and drinks were delicious as always.

Besides the entertainment and the insightful keynotes it was full of networking opportunities. We had the chance to meet with different clients, partners and industry experts. Jelle also had the opportunity to have an insightful talk with Udi Mokady (CyberArk’s founder).

Also our ActWise coffee booth was a hit, showcasing our CyberArk partnership prominently. The day before the event we also had the privilege of attending an exclusive appreciation dinner with CyberArk management and a few focused partners.

Stay tuned for more insights and updates from the world of cybersecurity!