RSA and Microsoft Forge Alliance to Secure the AI-Driven Enterprise

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 24, 2026 – As the cybersecurity world converges for the annual RSAC Conference, the dominant themes are unmistakably the dual-edged sword of artificial intelligence and the critical need for resilient identity security. Amid this backdrop, RSA today announced a significant expansion of its partnership with Microsoft, unveiling enhanced support for the new Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite and a host of new passwordless capabilities designed to secure the next generation of work, one increasingly populated by both human and AI agents.

The announcement positions RSA at the heart of one of the industry's most pressing challenges: how to manage and secure a workforce where autonomous AI agents operate alongside human employees, accessing sensitive data and performing critical operations. By integrating its RSA ID Plus platform more deeply into the Microsoft ecosystem, the security veteran is making a bold play to define the authentication standards for this new, hybrid workforce.

The AI Identity Frontier: Securing Human and Machine Workers

The centerpiece of the collaboration is RSA's support for Microsoft's new top-tier enterprise license, Microsoft 365 E7: The Frontier Suite. Positioned for organizations moving beyond AI pilot projects to enterprise-wide deployment, the E7 suite bundles core productivity and security tools with advanced AI capabilities like Microsoft 365 Copilot and a new governance layer called Agent 365. This new reality of a “human-led, agent-operated system of work” introduces a radical new attack surface: non-human identities operating at machine speed.

RSA's integration aims to address this head-on. By embedding its authentication technology within the E7 framework, the company provides a unified system for verifying the identity of every actor in the system, whether it's a human logging in from a laptop or an AI agent requesting access to a corporate database. This is a crucial step in applying Zero Trust principles to an AI-driven environment, where assuming trust is no longer an option.

“The rise of AI agents in the enterprise means organizations need to rethink how they secure every identity—human and machine alike,” said RSA CEO Greg Nelson in the announcement. “Expanded RSA passwordless capabilities and advanced MFA resilience features, now available in Microsoft E7, allow organizations to eliminate passwords, stop advanced identity threats, and streamline secure access at scale.”

This move reflects a broader industry consensus that identity has become the new security perimeter. With traditional network boundaries dissolving in the cloud era, controlling and verifying who—or what—is accessing resources is the central pillar of modern defense strategies.

A Strategic Alliance to Dominate the Identity Market

This announcement is more than a simple product integration; it represents a deepening strategic alliance between two industry giants. RSA's participation in the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association (MISA), a nomination-only ecosystem of top security partners, laid the groundwork for this level of collaboration. MISA provides members with deeper technical access and co-marketing opportunities, enabling tighter product integrations and a stronger value proposition for customers invested in the Microsoft stack.

“The partnership between RSA and Microsoft is pivotal for customers facing increasingly complex security demands,” noted RSA Chief Marketing and Growth Officer Laura Marx. “By working together through the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association and advancing integrated solutions for Microsoft Entra ID, we empower high-security, highly complex, and highly regulated organizations with the most resilient and innovative security measures available.”

This collaboration strengthens both companies' positions in the fiercely competitive Identity and Access Management (IAM) market, where they face off against other major players like Okta and Ping Identity. For the thousands of enterprises already using Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), the enhanced RSA integration offers a pathway to more robust, phishing-resistant authentication without having to rip and replace their existing identity fabric. Maria Thomson, Director of the Microsoft Intelligent Security Association, praised the partnership, stating that partners like RSA “are united by a shared commitment to advancing cybersecurity collaboration, empowering customers to anticipate, identify, and address emerging threats.”

Beyond Passwords: The Drive for Enterprise Resilience

While securing AI is the future-facing part of the story, RSA also used the RSAC stage to reinforce its leadership in a more immediate enterprise battle: the war on passwords. The company announced a suite of new passwordless enhancements designed to be deployed independently or alongside Microsoft's tools, emphasizing not just convenience but extreme resilience.

These new features include the next version of its desktop passwordless solution for both macOS and Windows, enhanced mobile passkeys with proximity verification to prevent remote attacks, and, significantly, passwordless capabilities for data centers, including support for Linux and OS servers. This focus on infrastructure underscores a philosophy that passwordless security must be ubiquitous, protecting everything from the end-user to the core server.

RSA is positioning its passwordless approach as a discipline built for failure. “At RSA, passwordless isn’t just a feature—it’s a discipline that has to hold when everything else breaks,” explained Jim Taylor, President and Chief Product & Strategy Officer at RSA. “While the industry talks about passwordless for the demo, RSA delivers passwordless for the outage, the edge case, and the scenarios that no one else wants to think about.”

To prove its point, RSA has put its own technology to the test. A case study published by the FIDO Alliance details how RSA successfully transitioned its own global workforce to a nearly universal passwordless environment using its own ID Plus platform. This real-world deployment serves as a powerful testament to the maturity of its solutions and provides a blueprint for other large enterprises looking to make the same transition.

Identity as the New Perimeter at RSAC 2026

The RSA and Microsoft announcement lands squarely within the dominant conversation at RSAC 2026. Session after session has highlighted how attackers are exploiting AI to craft more sophisticated phishing and social engineering attacks, making password-based security increasingly untenable. In this environment, the shift to phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) and true passwordless solutions like FIDO2 passkeys is no longer a recommendation but a critical necessity.

By combining RSA's specialized, high-resilience authentication methods with Microsoft's vast enterprise footprint, the partnership offers a clear path forward for organizations struggling with this transition. The ability for customers to deploy RSA authentication directly within Microsoft Entra configurations via the new External MFA integration provides a flexible, powerful option for bolstering security.

The collaboration between RSA and Microsoft is a clear signal of where the industry is headed. As AI continues to be woven into the fabric of business, the definition of 'identity' will expand, and the tools used to secure it must evolve. For the thousands of CISOs and IT leaders walking the floors of the Moscone Center this week, securing this complex future is the primary mandate, and they will be looking closely at alliances like this one to find the way forward.