Twenty-five years ago, we set out to tackle one of the most challenging problems in identity security: Securing privileged access. Today, CyberArk takes another giant step forward, extending our leading identity security to the rapidly evolving challenge of securing AI agents. And this is no small undertaking. Due to their autonomous mandate, AI agents are growing to be among the most privileged machine identities that enterprises have ever seen. And securing them with the right level of privileged controls is foundational.
With the new CyberArk Secure AI Agents Solution, organizations will be able to address the unique challenges and evolving attack surface posed by millions of autonomous, adaptable and interactive AI agents that organizations are embedding into critical systems and business processes. These rapidly proliferating AI agents are designed to perform tasks independently and autonomously, make decisions, continuously learn and adapt. But whose task is it to secure them?
Why Is Identity Critical to AI Security?
AI agents can achieve bolder goals than we may ever have imagined. They are not just changing the game. They are revolutionizing how systems operate today—not tomorrow. AI agents are already replacing many processes people perform and making decisions on our behalf. These actions require the same levels of privileged access control as other types of identities, such as authentication, authorization, governance and behavior monitoring.
To do their jobs, AI agents must have access to systems and data, engaging with other agents and employees as needed. This required level of access to sensitive data, combined with their unparalleled autonomy, adaptability and scale, challenges traditional security frameworks, making identity security the critical foundation for safeguarding this new era of AI-driven operations.
The Expanding Attack Surface of Agentic AI
The risks associated with agentic AI are multifaceted. Organizations must treat these AI agents as privileged identities, applying even higher levels of oversight, adaptability and security rigor than those we have traditionally relied upon for humans. But the real challenge is that the scale of AI agents is exponentially larger than that of humans. It’s more than likely that many organizations will have millions of AI agents. These organizations will need to ensure those agents are running with the right controls and proper IT approval and governance.
To minimize the AI threat surface, organizations must be aware of the various risks posed by agentic AI, including:
- Unauthorized access. Agentic AI requires direct access to invaluable resources like sensitive data, critical applications and operational infrastructures. These access points create entryways that bad actors could exploit for breaches and data theft.
- Excessive permissions. AI agents are designed to perform many tasks and serve multiple goals and human users, so they are often granted (super) admin privileges. These excessive permissions are not required for every single operation. However, such permissions pose significant risks if an agent is compromised.
- Escalation of privileges. Agentic AI’s ability to autonomously escalate privileges poses unique risks. While designed to improve efficiency, the potential for unchecked privilege escalation clashes with security principles like least privilege and role separation, increasing the chance of misuse or abuse.
- Lateral movement. Agents rarely work alone. They are often part of complex, collaborative networks that include other agents, APIs and third-party systems. This interconnectedness increases the risk of lateral movement attacks or widespread credential exposure when one or more components are compromised.
- Outpacing security. The ability of agentic AI to evolve over time complicates security further. An agent that behaves predictably today may exhibit entirely different behaviors in a month or a year, rendering static security policies ineffective. Behavioral unpredictability leaves organizations vulnerable to insider threats, malware propagation and operational disruptions.
Building Agentic AI Security from The Ground Up
Recognizing the urgent need to secure agentic AI environments, CyberArk is committed to implementing identity-first security for agentic AI using the CyberArk Identity Security Platform. CyberArk’s Identity Security Platform is built to cover the entire spectrum of identity types, including humans, machines and AI agents. By applying the same standards of privilege management, oversight and continuous monitoring to all identity types, organizations can tighten their security posture while enabling AI-driven innovation.
While AI agents represent a relatively new aspect of identity security, many of the tried-and-true identity security principles still apply. For example, you’ll still need the visibility to know which risks you are up against, and you’ll still need to apply the right guardrails—such as least privilege and access controls—to mitigate them. And you’ll still need to monitor and analyze AI agents for anomalous behavior that needs to be addressed.
Here’s how the Secure AI Agents Solution will help your organization manage the risks associated with agentic AI:
1. Discovery and Contextual Understanding
Extending CyberArk’s platform discovery capabilities to the rapidly increasing number of AI agents will mitigate imminent risks, such as shadow agents. This extension ensures no agent goes unnoticed, whether created intentionally or through autonomous processes.
2. Dynamic Privilege Control and Secure Access Management
The solution will enforce real time privilege management tailored to each agent’s actions, role and operational environment while securing and monitoring peer-to-peer interactions between agents and their communication with external APIs and resources. By adhering to principles like least privilege access, just-in-time (JIT) access, zero standing privileges (ZSP) and supporting industry standard protocols like MCP, we are uniquely qualified to ensure that agents are granted only the permissions they need when they need them, eliminating the risk of standing privileges and lateral movement.
3. Continuous Monitoring and Behavioral Analytics
Agent behavior will be tracked continuously using advanced machine learning and behavioral analysis. This capability helps detect anomalous activities, such as privilege abuse or unauthorized access attempts, ensuring threats are identified and mitigated early. This capability is critical for securing autonomous AI agents where preventive policies may be difficult to apply and enforce.
At the heart of CyberArk’s platform lies CORA AI, a suite of AI and ML capabilities. CORA is designed to help our customers boost their security and productivity while simultaneously improving overall security operations. Complementing its primary features, CORA will also address user and agent behavior in real time, highlighting threats and recommending automated responses. It facilitates natural language interactions, simplifying security workflows for administrators and accelerating incident mitigation.
4. Lifecycle Management and Governance
From creation to decommissioning, CyberArk will automate the governance of agentic AI identities. Every lifecycle stage can be precisely managed to eliminate stale identities, minimize vulnerabilities from abandoned agents with outdated access rights, ensure they have just enough access and stand up to compliance reviews.
The Path Forward
Agentic AI is a technological breakthrough, but security must scale alongside its capabilities to truly unlock its potential. Organizations cannot afford to overlook the risks posed by these advanced agents. Relying on outdated identity governance models is a recipe for disaster, opening doors to breaches, operational disruptions and reputational damage.
CyberArk’s mission to secure every identity with the right level of privileged control isn’t something we take lightly—it’s the company’s essence. Today, we are taking another step on that journey, placing our customers first to help secure AI agents, the most prevalent machine identity that imposes the greatest risk.
CyberArk Secure AI Agents Solution will provide a forward-looking framework to address these challenges, helping to ensure that businesses can innovate with confidence. By treating each agent as a privileged digital identity and integrating continuous discovery, dynamic controls and real time monitoring, CyberArk is enabling enterprises to balance innovation with trust.
The future lies in agentic AI, and CyberArk’s leadership in identity-first security ensures organizations have the tools to stay secure while navigating this exciting frontier.
Shay Saffer is vice president of Machine Identity Solutions at CyberArk.
