---
title: US Intelligence Tech Chief Wants 'Birth Certificates' to Identify AI Agents
description: Doug Cossa, the intelligence community's CIO, wants AI agents to carry verifiable digital identities as autonomous agents break the Zero Trust security model.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-08-13T13:42:17.191Z
updated: 2026-08-13T13:42:17.198Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/ai-agent-birth-certificates-doug-cossa-identity
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/ai-agent-identity-birth-certificate-149166.webp
categories: Artificial Intelligence
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
access: members
schema_type: Article
---

A senior US intelligence official wants every AI agent to carry the digital equivalent of a birth certificate. Doug Cossa, the Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, called for a common identity system for AI agents, not just for people and devices. Cossa likened that system to a "digital birth certificate," a verifiable record of what an agent is and what it is allowed to do.

Cossa made the case at the Defense Intelligence Agency's DoDIIS conference in August 2026, in remarks reported by Breaking Defense and PYMNTS. His argument starts with a problem that is already live inside agencies handing autonomous software real operational power: nobody has a unified way to tell one AI agent from another, or to track what any of them is doing across systems.

## Autonomous agents cut against the Zero Trust model

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