I’m Rosario Mastrogiacomo, Chief Strategy Officer at SPHERE, author and podcast host. With extensive experience in identity security, privileged access management, and identity governance, my role involves strategizing and guiding enterprises toward robust cybersecurity postures. I specialize in identity hygiene, leveraging AI-driven technologies to automate and secure identities at scale.
My professional journey has included leadership roles at prominent financial institutions, such as Barclays, Lehman Brothers, and Neuberger Berman, where I honed my skills in complex, highly regulated environments. I regularly publish insights on cybersecurity trends through my blog and host the podcast “Smells Like Identity Hygiene,” dedicated to exploring advanced topics in identity security and AI-driven governance.
In my upcoming book, AI Identities: Governing the Next Generation of Autonomous Actors, I explore the strategic, operational, and ethical challenges of securing AI-driven identities and offer a framework for CISOs and architects to govern them effectively.
New Book Coming Soon!
AI Identities introduces a groundbreaking concept: AI Agents should be recognized and governed as a new class of identity within enterprise environments. As artificial intelligence evolves from predictive models to autonomous agents with memory, goals, and tool access, enterprises face a new spectrum of identity risk that transcends traditional IAM frameworks. This book lays out the philosophical, architectural, and operational foundations necessary to govern these intelligent machine identities across their lifecycles. Structured across six parts, the book begins by grounding readers in identity security and ownership.
It then introduces the concept of AI agents as complex, evolving identities that demand governance, not just access control. It offers practical guidance on lifecycle management, trust, discovery, and incident response for AI agents, and concludes with future-facing perspectives on human-AI collaboration, critical infrastructure, and compliance.