Zscaler is set to acquire Symmetry Systems, a company specializing in mapping identities and data access. The deal is expected to close in the coming days.
AI agents are proliferating within enterprises. Governance cannot rely on the same mechanisms designed for human users. These agents operate autonomously, employ ephemeral identities, and inherit permissions. They thereby create blind spots that security teams find difficult to manage.
Zscaler bets that controlling the flows between identities and data will become the new security perimeter. Traditional approaches centered on endpoints or the network are showing their limits.
Symmetry Systems has developed a technology called “access graph.” It ingests access logs from SaaS applications, cloud services, databases, and AI systems. It then produces a map of the relationships between identities (human or non-human) and the resources they access.
Zscaler will integrate this mapping into its Zero Trust Exchange platform. Security teams will be able to identify which agent accessed what, why, and on whose behalf. In the event of suspicious behavior, the platform enforces policies to limit exposure.
Among the concrete use cases cited: define minimal permissions per agent, trace a piece of data through a chain of sub-agents, assess the extent of a breach in seconds, or trigger an automatic response to an anomaly.
