Agentic AI
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Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
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Black Hat
Human Security’s Searby on Identity, Accountability and Trust in the Agentic AI Era
Anna Delaney (annamadeline) •
August 9, 2026
John Searby, chief strategy officer, Human Security
AI agents are rapidly evolving from information assistants into autonomous actors capable of browsing websites, logging into accounts and completing transactions. That transition is forcing organizations to rethink how they establish trust, verify identity and assign accountability when software acts on behalf of people, said John Searby, chief strategy officer at Human Security.
See Also: How Data-Centric Security Enables the Agentic Enterprise
Searby said businesses built their digital commerce and fraud prevention systems around direct human interaction. As consumers increasingly authorize AI agents to perform tasks, organizations must distinguish between trusted agents acting on a user’s behalf and malicious automation while preserving visibility across the entire transaction life cycle.
“We ultimately need to get to a place where we are bringing together the human identity with the machine identity and building that trust model and that accountability model all the way back,” he said.
In this video interview with ISMG at Black Hat USA 2026, Searby also discussed:
Why AI agent adoption is reshaping online commerce and customer interactions;
How accountability for autonomous transactions could move toward the user authorizing the agent;
Why organizations need shared trust signals across security, fraud, commerce and identity teams.
Searby is a cybersecurity executive with nearly two decades of experience leading corporate strategy, partnerships, channel growth and go-to-market initiatives. Previously, he held leadership roles at Recorded Future, Flashpoint and Booz Allen Hamilton, driving growth through alliances, product expansion and strategic innovation.