CyberArk

A digital vault for identity security

CyberArk was founded in 1999 by Udi Mokady and Alon Cohen. According to the company's annual report, the original vision was to protect sensitive business information using "Digital Vault" technology. Later the company focused on securing accounts with high privileges: administrator accounts and software that can reach systems and information not open to an ordinary user. Its products deal with storing access secrets, limiting permissions and monitoring how they are used. The technology evolved for a world in which cloud services, development processes and automated software also hold identities of their own and need access to the organization's resources.

Israel, the United States and stock trading

CyberArk was incorporated in Israel. A report it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission recorded its headquarters offices in Petah Tikva and its US offices in Newton, Massachusetts. In September 2014 it held an initial public offering and was listed on Nasdaq under the ticker CYBR. After the acquisition was completed, CyberArk became part of Palo Alto Networks. In its closing announcement, the acquirer stressed its continued investment in Israel and said that the deal expanded its research and development center in Israel, its largest outside Silicon Valley.

An acquisition completed, not just agreed

On 11 February 2026 Palo Alto Networks announced that it had completed the acquisition of CyberArk. The announcement said that CyberArk's existing products would continue to be available on their own while they are being integrated into the broader security platform. Identity security became another line of business for the acquirer, alongside network security, cloud security and security operations centers. A customer can therefore keep using a dedicated product even though the business ownership has changed.

What the company does with AI

On 12 May 2026 Palo Alto Networks introduced Idira, an identity security platform based on CyberArk's technology. According to the announcement, its capabilities include finding and fixing identity risks with AI, and AI-based policies that automate the identity lifecycle. The platform was announced as generally available on launch day, with more capabilities expected later in 2026; existing CyberArk SaaS customers receive some of the capabilities according to their license. In addition, the platform deals with the identities of AI agents themselves: software that carries out tasks and needs permissions and access secrets.

Permissions and records for agents

The description of Idira Secure AI Agents includes discovering agents in cloud environments, software services and development environments, assigning them to owners and identifying their permissions. Access can be limited in time and scope according to the task. The agent's actions are recorded for oversight and review, instead of relying on the fact that it holds a valid password. The platform also includes secrets management for workloads and development processes. The focus is on controlling a user's or a program's access to a system; this applies even when the action is chosen by an AI model.