The AI Illusion Of Control

Read full report from CyberArk & Twine Security here: https://www.twinesecurity.com/resource/illusion-of-control-ai-agents-security/?source=nhimg

As AI agents rapidly become embedded in enterprise operations—querying databases, generating reports, and making business decisions—traditional cybersecurity measures are proving insufficient. Current security approaches often fixate on prompt injection attacks, but these highly visible exploits distract from the deeper risk: AI agents are frequently granted standing access far beyond what any specific task requires.

The report by CyberArk and Twine highlights the need to shift from reactive monitoring to proactive, context-aware permission management. Manual approval processes, while seemingly safe, collapse under scale, stripping AI agents of their business value and slowing innovation. Instead, the authors advocate for Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) and Just-in-Time (JIT) access, where AI agents must request, justify, and receive temporary credentials for narrowly scoped tasks—revoked immediately upon completion.

Key security priorities include:

• ZSP & Real-Time Agent Interrogation – AI agents explain access requests; the system validates them against role, task, and context in milliseconds.

• Shadow AI Discovery – Identify and manage unmanaged or hidden agents operating without oversight, proper identities, or credential hygiene.

• Dynamic AI Security – Continuously adjust agent permissions based on current task, threat environment, and data sensitivity.

• Digital Employees – Deploy automated systems to monitor, document, and enforce AI agent security at machine speed.

• Behavioral Analysis – Detect subtle compromise by flagging deviations from baseline agent activity patterns.

The authors stress that securing AI agents is less about defending against individual prompt exploits and more about implementing identity-first, dynamic access control frameworks that scale with automation. Organizations that solve this challenge early will gain a competitive edge, deploying AI confidently while competitors are constrained by manual processes and risk concerns.

Bottom line

AI agents are already part of the corporate workforce. The organizations that succeed will be those that discover every agent, assign verifiable identities, eliminate standing privileges, and continuously monitor behavior—treating AI agents as distinct, high-speed digital employees requiring purpose-built security models.