CISO Tribune

Vendor comparison · 2 companies

Obsidian Security vs Permiso

Obsidian Security sells real-time visibility, continuous governance and runtime enforcement over agents, identities and integrations across third-party apps. Permiso's Universal Identity Graph connects every identity to the credentials it owns, the machines it creates, the agents it runs and every action it takes in real time. CISO Tribune files both under Identity threat detection and response. This page sets the two records side by side: what each sells, where it is based, who owns and funds it, the customers it names and its recent news, each fact numbered to its source.

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  • Obsidian Security
  • Permiso
Obsidian Security vs Permiso: Products, Customers and Funding Compared
Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security sells real-time visibility, continuous governance and runtime enforcement over agents, identities and integrations across third-party apps.obsidiansecurity.comPermisoPermiso's Universal Identity Graph connects every identity to the credentials it owns, the machines it creates, the agents it runs and every action it takes in real time.permiso.io
What it sells
  • Continuous GovernanceChecks each requirement, written once, in each connected app that exposes the data it needs.
  • Permiso Discover[3]Provides an inventory of human, non-human and AI identities wherever they live.
  • Permiso Protect[3]Evaluates the risk posture of identities based on usage patterns, exposure and entitlements.
  • Universal Identity Graph[3][11]Connects every identity to the credentials it owns, the machines it creates and the agents it runs.
  • Identity Threat Detection and Response[7]Detects threats to human and non-human identities across environments.
  • Identity Runtime Attribution[3]Ties agent runs, events and tool calls to the identity behind them.
  • SandyClaw[11]Runs agent skills in a controlled sandbox.
Categories
Headquarters
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Founded
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Ownership and funding
Privately held[1]Owned by Okta since 2026[2][5]
Named customers
Not stated on its pagesNot stated on its pages
Recent news
  • August 4, 2026Obsidian Security said it raised $85 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $1.1 billion.[15]
  • July 30, 2026Okta said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Permiso Security, a startup whose software detects attackers abusing identities across cloud, SaaS and AI agent environments.[14]
G2 and Gartner Peer Insights
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
  • G2: Not stated on its pages
  • Gartner Peer Insights: Not stated on its pages
Who it fits
From its own pages, Obsidian Security sells to security teams that must defend actions by identities they can barely enumerate, across apps they did not build, on infrastructure they do not control. Obsidian Security describes security teams at large financial services and technology companies adopting its product to detect account takeovers, SaaS threats and privilege misuse. Obsidian Security addresses enterprises whose data lives in third-party enterprise apps they do not own. Obsidian Security addresses organisations whose employees connect AI agents to business apps through MCP. Obsidian Security addresses organisations where each team picks its own AI agent tool.Its platform is described for identities across cloud, SaaS and on-prem environments. Permiso presents its tools to security teams. Its watchlist capability is aimed at threats from employees, contractors and other trusted individuals.
Last verified
November 4, 2026November 2, 2026

Where they overlap

  • Obsidian Security and Permiso are both filed under Identity threat detection and response.

Where they differ, field by field

  • Obsidian Security's primary category is SaaS security posture; Permiso's is Identity threat detection and response.
  • Obsidian Security is also filed under AI model and agent security and Workforce AI usage security. Permiso is also filed under Non-human identity security and Cloud detection and response.
  • Obsidian Security lists Continuous Governance. Permiso lists Permiso Discover, Permiso Protect, Universal Identity Graph, Identity Threat Detection and Response, Identity Runtime Attribution and 1 more.
  • Obsidian Security is privately held. Permiso is owned by Okta, since 2026.

What it sells: Obsidian Security

What Continuous Governance does
The control model includes mappings to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001, and GDPR. Supported controls are checked continuously, and changes are shown. Fixes are routed through Jira, ServiceNow, and other supported tools.

What it sells: Permiso

What Permiso Discover does[3]
Permiso Discover gives enterprises an inventory of human, non-human and AI identities wherever they live. Permiso inventories identities and assesses exposure risk in identity providers, cloud service providers and SaaS applications.
What Permiso Protect does[3]
Permiso Protect continuously evaluates the risk posture of identities based on usage patterns, exposure and entitlements. Permiso Protect surfaces and quantifies high-risk identities, stale access and toxic combinations across human, vendor, AI and non-human accounts.
What Universal Identity Graph does[3][11]
The Universal Identity Graph connects every identity to the credentials it owns, the machines it creates, the agents it runs and every action it takes in real time. Permiso states that the chain stays unbroken from a human SSO login to a Lambda function to an MCP tool call. Permiso's Universal Identity Graph inventories identities in all cloud environments and assesses exposure risk.
What Identity Threat Detection and Response does[7]
Permiso provides identity threat detection and response for human and non-human identities across environments. The detection engine has 1500+ detection rules engineered by the P0 Labs team. Permiso detects access and behavioral anomalies in environments such as AWS, Azure, GCP, GitHub, Slack and Salesforce.
What Identity Runtime Attribution does[3]
Permiso launched AI agent runtime security, bringing Identity Runtime Attribution to every agent in production. Permiso ties every run, event and tool call to the identity behind it in real time. Every agent action is tied to a specific human, non-human or AI identity in real time and is preserved as a complete audit trail.
What SandyClaw does[11]
SandyClaw runs every skill in a controlled sandbox before it touches the environment. SandyClaw records every action, every tool call and every downstream request.

Questions about Obsidian Security and Permiso

What do Obsidian Security and Permiso sell?
Obsidian Security sells Continuous Governance. Permiso sells Permiso Discover, Permiso Protect, Universal Identity Graph, Identity Threat Detection and Response, Identity Runtime Attribution and 1 more.
Are Obsidian Security and Permiso in the same category?
They share Identity threat detection and response. Obsidian Security's primary category is SaaS security posture and Permiso's is Identity threat detection and response.
Who owns Obsidian Security and Permiso?
Obsidian Security is privately held. Permiso is owned by Okta, since 2026.
Who are Obsidian Security and Permiso sold to?
From its own pages, Obsidian Security sells to security teams that must defend actions by identities they can barely enumerate, across apps they did not build, on infrastructure they do not control. Its platform is described for identities across cloud, SaaS and on-prem environments.
What have Obsidian Security and Permiso announced recently?
August 4, 2026: Obsidian Security said it raised $85 million in a Series D funding round that valued the company at $1.1 billion. July 30, 2026: Okta said it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Permiso Security, a startup whose software detects attackers abusing identities across cloud, SaaS and AI agent environments.

About Obsidian Security

Obsidian Security sells real-time visibility, continuous governance and runtime enforcement over agents, identities and integrations across third-party apps. Obsidian Security provides guardrails and real-time controls for AI agents that need access to third-party apps. The Obsidian platform turns billions of signals across business critical applications into security intelligence to protect users, agents, and data. Obsidian Security collects and connects third-party app and AI configurations, user activity, real-world threat signals, and browser telemetry.[3][4][13]

Obsidian Security says enterprise data lives in Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow and 35K+ third-party enterprise apps that customers do not own. Obsidian Security says non-human identities now outnumber people inside the enterprise application estate. Obsidian Security says every AI application and agent connected to an enterprise inherits the permissions and trust misconfigurations that already existed in enterprise applications. Obsidian Security says vibe-coded workflows connect straight into Salesforce, Snowflake, Workday, and Slack, often before anyone has reviewed them. Obsidian Security spent years mapping every identity, permission, and data flow across third-party enterprise applications. Obsidian Security gives customers visibility into what is connected, controls to enforce what is allowed, and clarity on what needs to change.[3][5]

Obsidian Security has over 200 integrations into SaaS and AI applications that pull posture and activity data. The Obsidian browser extension captures real-time user and AI agent activity. Obsidian Security normalizes every human and non-human identity, entitlement, access, and action and connects them in a knowledge graph. The Obsidian Knowledge Graph maps the relationships between identities, permissions, and actions. Obsidian Security layers configuration, policy, and ownership data together to surface misconfigurations and privilege overlaps. Obsidian Security builds machine learning baselines from real enterprise behavior, refined by what it learns from actual incidents. Obsidian Security normalizes and correlates 29+ billion events from third-party applications every month and feeds them back into the platform. Obsidian Security builds detections from how attackers acted across 500+ real breach responses with DFIR firms. When one customer identifies and removes a risky integration or access pattern, Obsidian Security shares that signal automatically across every environment it protects. Obsidian Security provides out-of-the-box detection rules mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework and machine learning models based on real incident data. Obsidian Security integrates with SIEM and SOAR platforms for automated workflows. Obsidian Security provides an AI extension of the security team that explains rules, triages threats, and manages exceptions.[4][6][7][8][13]

Obsidian Security centralizes AI agent policy and enforces it at runtime across coding agents, agent platforms, MCP connections, and existing gateways. Obsidian Security agent policies use who the agent acts for, that person's employment status, and the team's data labels to tell a routine action from a risky one. Obsidian Security agent policies hold or block only the agent actions that match their conditions, and tool calls that match no policy proceed. Obsidian Security lets teams test each policy against real agent traffic before it stops anything. Obsidian Security says employees can connect AI agents to apps such as Salesforce, Snowflake, Slack, and Google Drive through MCP. The Obsidian proxy evaluates MCP traffic at each step of a session, including the app the agent can reach, the records it can list, and each tool call. The Obsidian proxy maps each MCP session to the person who started it, their account in the app, and the workspace, org, or instance the session reaches. With the Obsidian proxy, agents receive a proxy-issued token, and each user authorizes the app through the vendor's own consent flow.[5][9][10]

Obsidian Security monitors every new and existing MCP server in an environment with one dashboard. Obsidian Security shows MCP servers across AI agent platforms such as n8n and Microsoft Copilot. Obsidian Security raises risk alerts when agents connect to MCP servers without authentication. Obsidian Security helps teams spot unvetted or suspicious MCP servers and remove them.[11]

Obsidian Security maps supported identity, permission, configuration, and activity data to one control model. Obsidian Security provides mappings to NIST, CIS, ISO 27001, and GDPR. Obsidian Security continuously checks supported controls and shows what changed. Obsidian Security attaches the available identity, permission, and ownership context to each finding so teams can find the cause and route the fix. Obsidian Security routes fixes through Jira, ServiceNow, and other supported tools. Obsidian Security fixes misconfigurations, removes high-risk integrations, and stops malicious activity in third-party apps. Obsidian Security detects and removes risky or unauthorized AI agent actions in third-party apps. Obsidian Security pairs inline defenses against credential and session theft with alerts for investigation and response. Obsidian Security monitors configuration drift and spots violations to automate compliance reporting. Obsidian Security discovers app sprawl, including unsanctioned AI and shadow SaaS. Obsidian Security offers coverage for organisations of up to 1K users.[12][13][14]

Obsidian Security committed to securing identity and SaaS apps, which it describes as a new attack surface that nobody was watching. Security teams at large financial services and technology companies adopted Obsidian Security to detect account takeovers, SaaS threats and privilege misuse. Obsidian Security is backed by IVP, Norwest, and GV. Obsidian Security announced an $85M Series D led by Crescent Cove Advisors.[2][5][7][11][12][13]

Obsidian Security on the record

Sources

Obsidian Security full record

  1. [1]obsidiansecurity.comObsidian Security · obsidiansecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Unlocking ai potential securelyObsidian Security · obsidiansecurity.com · undated page, accessed November 4, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Secure AI. Fearless Innovation. | ObsidianObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]The Obsidian Security PlatformObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Obsidian Security – Who We AreObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]The Data Behind Better SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Network EffectsObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]Automate Third-Party Application ComplianceObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]Runtime Policy Decision Engine for AI Agents | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]MCP Security Proxy for AI Agents | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]MCP Security: Audit and Control Every MCP ServerObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Continuous Third-Party App Governance | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Third-Party Application Security | Obsidian SecurityObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Flexible SaaS Security Pricing | ObsidianObsidian Security · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  15. [15]Obsidian Security raises funding at $1.1 billion valuation on AI security demand | ReutersReuters · published August 4, 2026 · Tier B

Permiso full record

  1. [1]permiso.ioPermiso · permiso.io · undated page, accessed September 27, 2026 · Tier A
  2. [2]Okta signs definitive agreement to acquire permiso securityOkta · okta.com · published August 26, 2026 · Tier A
  3. [3]Detect and protect against human and non-human identity threats in real-timePermiso · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  4. [4]Identity Security Posture Management + Identity Threat Detection & ResponsePermiso · undated page, accessed October 27, 2026 · Tier A
  5. [5]Coverage across cloud environments to better secure the attack surfacePermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  6. [6]Human and Non-Human Identity Inventory, Risk Posture and GovernancePermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  7. [7]Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) for Human and Non-Human IdentitiesPermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  8. [8]How Permiso Detects Compromised Credentials In Your EnvironmentPermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  9. [9]What Are Non-Human Identities? Complete Guide to NHI Security for 2025Permiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  10. [10]Non-Human Identity (NHI) Threat Detection and ResponsePermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  11. [11]Secure Every AI Agent, Skill, and Action | PermisoPermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  12. [12]Security - At Permiso, we don't take security lightlyPermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  13. [13]Learn about how we make cloud zeros into cloud heroes | PermisoPermiso · undated page, accessed November 10, 2026 · Tier A
  14. [14]Okta to acquire Permiso Security in reported $200M identity security deal - SiliconANGLESiliconANGLE · published July 30, 2026 · Tier B

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