Why Business Leaders Must Take Agentic AI Security Seriously

Read full article from CyberArk here:  https://www.cyberark.com/resources/all-blog-posts/agentic-ai-security-what-business-leaders-cant-afford-to-ignore/?utm_source=nhimg

“Agentic AI is here to stay. Whether you’re experimenting with chatbots or running autonomous AI agents with privileged access in production, the time to secure them is now.”
— Matt Cohen, CyberArk CEO

In a recent virtual event, thousands of industry professionals gathered to explore one of the most significant shifts in enterprise technology: autonomous AI agents. These systems are already reshaping workflows, accelerating decisions, and amplifying productivity—but they’re also creating an unprecedented attack surface within enterprises.

Across the event, one message was clear: AI agents are a new class of identity, and securing them requires a fundamentally new approach.

Agentic AI Moves from Concept to Practice

The agentic AI revolution is no longer theoretical. Organizations across industries are embedding AI agents into daily operations, accelerating transformation and decision-making at scale. Recent survey data from over 100 security leaders in financial and software sectors shows:

• ~40% of enterprises have already deployed AI agents.
• That number is expected to nearly double within three years.

The impact is tangible:

• A global bank halved its legacy modernization time.
• A grocery retailer achieved a 10% revenue lift via smarter recommendations.
• A retail bank boosted analyst productivity by 60% with automated credit-risk memos.

Yet, as Cohen noted, CISOs face harder questions: What agents exist? How are they accessing sensitive data? And how can we shut them down if something goes wrong?

New Risks Unlike Anything We’ve Seen Before

Agentic AI introduces a new identity class: autonomous, non-deterministic systems that operate with reasoning and initiative. Traditional safeguards—static permissions, manual reviews, and compliance checklists—simply cannot keep pace.

Key insights:

• Two-thirds of CISOs rank agentic AI among their top three cyber risks, ahead of ransomware and insider threats.
• Fewer than 10% of enterprises have implemented dynamic authorization or risk registries at scale.
• Compromise of an AI agent can spread faster and have broader impact than traditional threats.

“Agentic AI affects identity, sensitive data, and automated actions simultaneously. Any compromise can escalate faster than other threats.”
— CISO, financial services firm

A Rapidly Expanding Threat Landscape

Autonomy introduces scaling exposure. CyberArk Labs demonstrated that a prompt injection hidden in a database record could trick a financial agent into exposing sensitive data and issuing unauthorized invoices via MCP (Model Context Protocol) connections.

While MCP simplifies agent integration, it also expands the blast radius for potential attacks, highlighting the urgent need for identity-centric controls for AI agents.

Identity Security: The Foundation for Agentic AI

AI agents must be treated as privileged identities. By applying the same guardrails used for humans and machines, organizations can secure AI agents without constraining innovation.

• Agents have privileged access: sensitive resources, automated workflows, and excessive permissions.
• Controls must be applied upfront, before agents interact with critical systems.

“AI agents are privileged identities by definition…controls need to be applied before they interact.”
— Shay Saffer, CyberArk VP, Machine Identity Solutions

Current State of Readiness

Despite widespread adoption, dynamic, context-aware controls remain rare. Organizations struggle with:

• Treating AI agents as unique identities rather than extensions of human users.
• Implementing adaptive authorization models that interpret intent in real time.
• Avoiding standing privileges, which amplify risk and expand the attack surface.

As AI autonomy grows, these capabilities are non-negotiable for security-conscious enterprises.

Practical Steps to Secure AI Agents

CyberArk’s Secure AI Agents solution demonstrates how organizations can prioritize control without slowing innovation. Core steps include:

1. Start with Discovery and Visibility

• Map every AI agent in your environment.
• Identify what it does, what it accesses, who owns it, and associated risks.
• Integrate this inventory into existing identity platforms to eliminate shadow AI.

2. Treat Agents as Privileged Machine Identities

• Apply onboarding, monitoring, and decommissioning processes similar to humans and machines.
• Ensure full lifecycle management and accountability.

3. Expand Existing Identity Programs

• Extend Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP), Just-in-Time (JIT) access, and continuous governance to autonomous agents.
• Maintain a risk-aware, adaptive approach without blocking agent productivity.

Conclusion

The rise of agentic AI marks a new frontier in enterprise identity security. Organizations that:

• Treat AI agents as privileged identities
• Implement adaptive, dynamic controls
• Extend identity programs to encompass autonomous systems

…will secure innovation while reducing risk.

For CISOs and CIOs, ignoring agentic AI security is no longer an option. The time to act is now—before innovation outpaces governance, and the next attack exploits an unprotected AI agent.