Identity Week America 2026 is officially open!
The nation’s premier event for identity, security, and digital credentialing has kicked off this morning in Washington DC.
In the opening keynote, Warren Harris, Chief of the Identity Intelligence Division (I2D) at the Department of War, emphasized that the immediate priority for national defence must be establishing clear policies that actively integrate federal partner capabilities. He asserted that intelligence tools, particularly watchlisting frameworks, must directly serve operational security missions. This requires establishing explicit authority and accountability so organizations know who is in charge and how these systems support overall safety.
Harris addressed was the need for rapid threat identification. Systems must be engineered to pinpoint threat actors almost instantaneously, and where technology currently falls short, law enforcement and federal security practices must evolve to bridge the gap. Achieving this level of agility requires actively dismantling long-standing institutional biases that disrupt operational clarity and create blind spots.
Because security personnel carry immense operational responsibilities, agencies must rethink how they train the workforce to perform intelligence activities, creating formal institutional programs to systematically build these capabilities.
Looking backward is no longer an option; the future of national defense relies on gathering multi-institutional support to fully professionalize the identity workforce, building a specialized corps capable of securing the nation against modern, sophisticated threat actors.
